Key Takeaways
- Kohl’s stock surged 38% in a single day, peaking at 105% intraday, triggering a NYSE trading halt.
- Opendoor skyrocketed 300% over six sessions before a 10% correction .
- Both stocks share critical weaknesses: Kohl’s faces declining sales and CEO turmoil, while Opendoor has never turned an annual profit .
- 49% of Kohl’s available shares are shorted, fueling a potential short squeeze as retail traders swarm.
- Analysts label this a “mini-bubble,” warning it signals excessive market froth .
The Halts and the Howling
The New York Stock Exchange froze Kohl’s stock at 9:42 AM. Shares had just doubled, $21.39 from $10.70, on zero news. Zero earnings. Zero hope. Trading desks blinked. Floor veterans coughed into stale coffee. Kohl’s hadn’t touched $20 since August 2024 . By close, it settled at $14.34. A 37% gain. Enough to incinerate $260 million from short sellers in hours . Volume hit 184 million shares. Twenty-five times the norm .
Kohl’s Rotting Core
Kohl’s bleeds. First-quarter sales dropped 4.1%. It posted a $15 million loss . Shoppers flee. Inflation hammers its middle-income base. Walmart and Amazon gut its apparel sales . Leadership? A joke. CEO Ashley Buchanan got fired in May, 106 days in, over a vendor conflict. The third CEO in three years . The turnaround plan? More Sephora shops. Fewer overall products .
Table: Kohl’s Financial Freefall
The Reddit Rabble Rises Again
r/WallStreetBets threads multiplied Tuesday. “$KSS to $30.” “Squeeze the shorts.” Chatter peaked. Stocktwits crowned Kohl’s its top trending ticker . Options volume exploded, 360,000 contracts. Twelve times average. Most were $17.50 calls betting on Friday gains . This wasn’t investment. It was a digital mob. A casino with tickers. Victor Ricciardi, behavioral finance prof, calls it “herd DNA.” People chase momentum. They crave the pack .
The Short Squeeze Anatomy
Kohl’s short interest hit 49.3%. Nearly half its available shares, bet against . When retail piled in, shorts panicked. Forced buying erupted. Covering positions meant bidding higher. Fuel on fire. S3 Partners tracked 7.3 million shares covered since mid-May as Kohl’s crept up 11% . Tuesday was a massacre. Ihor Dusaniwsky of S3 Partners named it: “Battleground Stocks.” A war zone. Sentiment against strategy .
Opendoor’s Paper Castle
Hedge fund manager Eric Jackson lit the fuse. July 14: “If $OPEN hits $12B revenue… stock price $82. 100x from here.” His firm, EMJ Capital, bought in . Madness followed. Opendoor rocketed 120% Monday. Volume hit 1.9 billion shares. Then crashed 10% Tuesday . Reality? Opendoor never turned a yearly profit. Analysts see losses through 2026 . Housing market? Frozen. High rates. Low supply .
Table: Meme Stock Mechanics
Ghosts of Meme Stocks Past
GameStop. AMC. Bed Bath & Beyond, dead now. The 2021 playbook repeats. Lockdown savings. Stimulus cash. Zero rates . Today? Stocks at all-time highs. Bargains scarce. So the desperate hunt buried tickers. Kohl’s traded 69% below its 2020 peak. Opendoor, 92% down from its 2021 high . Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge sees “giant red flags.” Froth this thick? Never good .
The Pros Spit Truth
“Froth this extreme is never a good sign,” Crisafulli wrote Tuesday. Corporate profits? Solid. But Kohl’s and Opendoor spikes? Canaries . Ricciardi parallels the 1990s internet bubble. Same herd mentality. Same gambling itch. Message boards replaced AOL chat rooms. Nothing else changed . Kim Forrest of Bokeh Capital put it bluntly: “Kohl’s has a lot of issues. This crazy group move up? Hope to make money” .
The Human Wreckage
Meme stocks break fast. GameStop hit $120 in 2021. Now? $24. BlackBerry spiked to $30. Crashed to $4 . Kohl’s bagholders bought at $21.39 Tuesday morning. By close? 33% loss. Opendoor’s Monday buyers? 10% gone overnight . Behind the tickers? Kohl’s 1,100 stores. 100,000 employees. Sales sinking. Tariffs biting . This isn’t a game. It’s entropy.
Frequently Asked Questions
What defines a meme stock?
A stock hyped on social media, Reddit, Stocktwits, driving retail buying. Fundamentals ignored. Short interest high. Price volatility extreme. See GameStop (2021), Kohl’s, Opendoor (2025) .
Why did Kohl’s stock surge?
Retail traders targeted its 49% short interest. Volume hit 184 million shares, 25x normal, forcing shorts to cover. A self-fulfilling surge .
Is Opendoor profitable?
No. It has never posted an annual profit. Analysts project losses through 2026. Its surge relied on revenue multiples from its 2021 peak .
What risks do meme stocks carry?
Violent reversals. Kohl’s fell 33% from its intraday high Tuesday. Opendoor dropped 10% in one session. Long-term? GameStop fell 80% from its 2021 peak .
Could this signal a market top?
Adam Crisafulli thinks so. “Giant red flags,” he wrote. Extreme froth often precedes broader pullbacks .
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