AMC Entertainment Stock News: AMC advances more than 3% in premarket day after being halted

• AMC Entertainment stock closed up 13% on Thursday.
• AMC stock trading was halted on Thursday due to unusual volatility. 
• 46 million AMC shares had traded by shortly after noon.
• AMC stock is again advancing in Friday's premarket.

AMC Entertainment (AMC) stock is up 3.4% in Friday's premarket just a day after authorities halted trading due to unusual volatility. Thursday saw options volume three times higher than the 20-day average, and AMC stock leapt as much as 27% before trading was halted shortly before 12:30pm. Trading then recommenced with AMC's share price closing up 13% at $8.17, its highest closing price since September 21. 

AMC Entertainment stock news: Call options bring all the boys to the yard

AMC Entertainment stock got going early on Thursday and reached as high as a 27% gain before being halted. Authorities said about 46 million shares changed hands by that time compared to an average of 25 million. The AMC price action was led by option market activity. Retail traders and especially the much-maligned AMC Apes were furious with the trading halt.

Bloomberg reported that by 3pm, 550,000 call contracts representing 55 million shares had traded, while the 20-day average was 163,000. Activity was especially noted in the $8, $8.50 and $9 strike prices that are expiring this Friday. On Thursday these strikes saw more than 80,000, 63,000 and 71,000 call contracts trade by the close. The $10 strike also saw nearly 36,000 contracts trade as well. The $8 strike closed the session at $0.36 a share, and the $8.50 closed at $0.17 a share.

BNK Invest noted heightened activity last Tuesday as well, writing, "Looking at options trading activity among components of the Russell 3000 index, there is noteworthy activity today in AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. (Symbol: AMC), where a total volume of 136,950 contracts has been traded thus far today, a contract volume which is representative of approximately 13.7 million underlying shares (given that every 1 contract represents 100 underlying shares). That number works out to 51.6% of AMC's average daily trading volume over the past month, of 26.5 million shares."

AMC Apes on Twitter have been badgering CEO Adam Aron about the APE equity unit price as it recently fell below $1. It closed Thursday up 1.1% at $0.9822, and is now trading up to $1.02 in Friday's premarket.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever dominated the US box office once again last weekend, but observers believe its numbers are falling too rapidly. Still the superhero film has grossed about $683 million worldwide and is already the seventh highest grossing movie of the year with more room to run.

AMC stock forecast

The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicator in regard to AMC stock's daily chart shows a moderate bullish pattern. Thursday's burst blew well above the November 14 and 15 pinnacle, and a cursory look at this chart makes one think there is more energy left for upside. Of course, traders will be closing out their call options in the afternoon, but other might be already buying up those for next week. 

$10.39 looms large for bulls since this is where they got stopped out in mid-September. Before AMC can reach that point, however, the R1 pivot sits at $8.70 and the R2 is at $10.18. The 21-day moving average at $6.87 is the current pivot, and $5.17 is the long-term support level from November 7 and 9.

AMC 1-day chart