AMC stock down 5% in price action split with GME

Update: AMC stock has parted ways with its big brother on Friday. One hour into the Friday session, AMC stock has lost 5.3% to trade at $23.34. At the same time, GameStop (GME) has advanced 4.5% to $174. Often enough AMC trades fairly in line and in the same direction as GME, the original meme stock. GME, for its part, is gaining ground due its planned share split. When companies split their shares, typically more retail energy is unleashed due to the lower share prices, which are more affordable. Trading in the $170s makes this possible for GME. AMC investors on the other hand probably realize with a share price in the $20s, any share split would not be prudent. The S&P 500 and Dow indices are trading flat to down on Friday, while the Nasdaq remains up 0.3%. US employment rose by 431,000 on Friday morning, fairly robust, although the figure was below estimates.

AMC stock continued its fall on Thursday as the momentum in the name continued to ebb away. AMC Entertainment shares closed at $24.64 on Thursday for a loss of 4%. This marked the third red candle in a row as the momentum from the huge spike earlier in the week begins to fade away. AMC stock though has still gained 22% in the past week and 35% in the past month, so it is certainly a strong performer. In that light, the stall is to be expected.

AMC Stock News

Things are looking bleak for AMC Apes. Wait a minute, over the hills comes the cavalry in the form of GameStop (GME). GameStop stock is rallying sharply in the after-hours market on Thursday and Friday morning as the company announced it was planning to seek shareholder approval to increase its share count from 300 million to 1 billion for a stock split. The vote will be due at the next annual shareholder meeting. GameStop last did a share split in 2007.

Read more about GameStop's stock split.

GME stock is moving up strongly as retail traders only view stock spits positively. After all, recent splits from Tesla (TSLA), Amazon (AMXN), and Google (GOOGL) have all resulted in stock price appreciations after the event. While this news does not directly impact AMC, the two companies have many common shareholders and contagion is a common feature of both stock prices. The date for the shareholder meeting has yet to be set. 

AMC Stock Forecast

We had already mentioned in our piece on Thursday that AMC usually has one last throw of the dice before spikes usually fall away, so this could be it. AMC stock retraced back to the 9-day moving average on Thursday, so this is working well as support. Trend line resistance and the 200-day moving average are both set at $32.81, so this is a huge level. We doubt it will break, but you never can tell with the AMC Apes on full power. Failure means the rally has stalled in our opinion, putting in a lower high.

AMC stock chart, daily

Prior Update: So we're off. AMC stock has opened the Friday regular session in mixed form as it seeks to try and hold recent gains. Momentum had been stalling before GameStop (GME) rode to the rescue in announcing a potential stock split. AMC followed its meme cousin higher in after-hours trading but has so far been unable to hold those gains. AMC was up 5% in Friday's premarket but is now trading at $24.57 for a small loss of 0.3%. GameStop (GME) has also retraced but is up 10% in Friday's early regular session.