Shares of GameStop are up more than 3% in premarket trading on Friday.

Thanksgiving is a time for catching up with family and reminiscing about the good times. To that end, early Thursday morning (just after midnight), Hedge-fund-manager-turned-Substacker Michael Burry published tweets that purportedly offer a look into the lore of his time spent betting on the success of the video game and collectibles retailer ahead of its ascendance to meme-stock status.

In one, he shares screenshots of Scion Asset Management’s letter to GameStop’s board of directors, as well as emails appearing to be from Keith Gill, a.k.a. Roaring Kitty, the retail trader whose GameStop thesis inspired legions to jump on board, and Ryan Cohen, who would go on to become GameStop Chairman, President, and CEO.

Shares have bounced back in earnest since the stock regained support of $20 level at the start of this week.

Burry’s Scion announced a bullish GameStop position in GameStop in 2019, and held this through at least the third quarter of 2020.

At the peak of its meme-stock frenzy in January 2021, however, he called the price action “unnatural, insane, and dangerous” in a since-deleted tweet, and said that he was no longer long or short the company.

Do I think this is the reason why shares of GameStop are flying on Friday morning?

Eh, in most circumstances I’d say this is pretty thin gruel. But this is a stock that has, in the past, traded off of nostalgia, its exposure to things that are cool or entertaining, and leaders with Big Main Character Energy.

Your mileage may vary, but to me Burry’s trip down memory lane hits a few of these notes. The company is inside the top 20 most mentioned tickers on SwaggyStocks over the past 12 hours as of 8:20 a.m. ET, has seen the greatest pick-up in mentions on Stocktwits compared to the prior session (per a Bloomberg Automation report), and Burry’s post is being very positively received on the r/Superstonk subreddit dedicated to discussions of GameStop.

That being said, all this is not something that can reasonably been said to have changed the outlook of GameStop’s estimated future discounted cash flows.

Of course, it’s also Black Friday, and we’ve seen promotional events be a boon for the video game and collectibles retailer this year:

After yesterday’s holiday, Black Friday was off to an unusual start after an outage at CME, the world’s biggest exchange operator, hit a number of major markets, halting trading in FX markets, as well as affecting futures contracts on stocks, Treasuries, and commodities.

CME Group cited a “cooling issue at CyrusOne data centers” in a short statement on its website, which Reuters reported was posted at 02:40 am GMT, and that it was working to “resolve issues in the near term.”

In an update to the banner on its site, CME says that its BrokerTec US Actives and BrokerTec EU are now open, but that its other markets are currently halted.

Whilst CyrusOne is yet to make a statement about the glitch, CME’s electronic trading platform has been run through CyrusOne’s data center in Aurora, Illinois, after the derivatives exchange sold the campus to the operator in 2016. CyrusOne and the city of Aurora recently reached an agreement to address noise complaints over its chillers, per the Chicago Tribune.

A record daily average of 26.3 million contracts traded through CME in October, with CME one of the biggest sources of liquidity for contracts on a number of core markets including 10Y Treasuries, as well as futures on major US indices such as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100.

Shares of Beyond Meat are soaring on Wednesday amid heavy call activity and little news.

Over 200,000 call options have changed hands as of 11 a.m. ET, already above the 20-day average of 194,098 for a full session. Its put/call ratio of close to 0.1 is the lowest in months.

The three most traded options contracts are calls that expire this Friday with strike prices of $1 and $1.50, as well as calls that expire next Friday with a strike price of $1.

Those remain out-of-the-money call options: after its meme moment drove shares to $7.69 on October 22, the stock has given all that back and then some as the air came out of many speculative pockets of the market.

Because of how much call demand spiked during the boom times, today’s pickup registers as more of a blip on the chart:

Beyond Meat’s recent refinancing efforts, which were cited as a supposed fundamental catalyst for the explosion of retail interest, started when the stock was trading at $2.85.

Based on today’s activity, the dust hasn’t fully settled on this story, but so far: management has eliminated about $800 million in debt and all it got in exchange so far is a near 70% decline in its stock price and a longer runway to make processed peas into faux meat.

The AI pendulum appears to be swinging back in the other direction, at least for one day.

The TL;DR trade within AI has recently been “long Google and its supply chain partners, short anything closely affiliated with OpenAI.”

As we discussed yesterday, the Google ecosystem has been booming, while key OpenAI suppliers and investors have been languishing.

Today, we’re seeing a bit of a reversal in that seeming pair trade — and, in what’s very positive for markets on the whole, this is being driven by the outperformance of the OpenAI-linked cohort rather than intense pain for the Google group.

Nvidia, CoreWeave, Oracle, and Advanced Micro Devices are all trading well to the upside in early trading. Meanwhile, Google is modestly lower, and Broadcom and Lumentum are in the green, though not by as much as most of the OpenAI-linked suite of stocks.

“With the trillions set to be spent over the coming years many Big Tech players will benefit besides Nvidia on the chip front... that should not be mistaken for Nvidia being the indisputable Rocky Balboa champion of the AI Revolution and that is not changing any time soon on the chip front,” wrote Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives.

A sales and profit beat weren’t enough to stem Deere investors’ tariff unease on Wednesday, when the company dropped its fourth-quarter earnings report. Deere shares slipped about 4% in premarket trading.

Deere posted adjusted earnings of $3.93 per share, beating the $3.84 estimate from Wall Street analysts polled by FactSet. The company also said it expects full-year 2026 profit to land between $4 billion and $4.75 billion. Wall Street expected more than $5 billion.

According to CEO John May, “ongoing margin pressures from tariffs and persistent challenges in the large ag sector remain” and 2026 will “mark the bottom of the large ag cycle.” May said he believes the company’s cost-control efforts will allow it to seize opportunities as the market recovers.

In its fourth quarter, Deere also:

• Booked $12.4 billion in total revenue, beating expectations by more than 5%.

• Logged a 27% net sales jump in its construction and forestry division. However, the company said tariffs were a headwind for the division's operating profits.

Shares of Robinhood Markets are on the rise in premarket trading after the brokerage announced after the close on Tuesday a joint venture with Susquehanna to enhance its prediction market business.

The pair is launching an independent futures and derivatives exchange and clearinghouse, with Robinhood as the controlling partner and Susquehanna serving as the liquidity provider, and is expected to begin operations next year. In a related move, the joint venture is acquiring 90% of MIAXdx, a derivatives exchange that was once a part of FTX.

(Robinhood Markets Inc. is the parent company of Sherwood Media, an independently operated media company subject to certain legal and regulatory restrictions.)

Currently, Robinhood offers access to contracts with probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC. The joint venture would have the tools needed to operate an event contracts business independently and the potential to gain a bigger share of the revenues associated with this fast-growing product line thanks to the brokerage’s ample distribution network.

Per the press release:

“Prediction Markets have quickly become Robinhood’s fastest-growing product line by revenue. Just one year since launch, 9 billion contracts have been traded by more than 1 million Robinhood customers. By introducing a robust, institutional-grade exchange to the market, we’ll add more choices for consumers. We’ll also gain the flexibility to build faster and deliver more contracts and services to traders.”

Bank of America analysts recently warned that the boom in prediction markets and online gambling was creating “emerging credit risks” for some lenders.

HP slumped more than 5% in premarket trading after the computer and printer giant announced weaker-than-expected guidance for fiscal 2026 alongside plans for a roughly 10% cut to its workforce. The company reported having 58,000 employees as of October 2024, per its latest annual filing.

For the fiscal fourth quarter ended October 31, sales rose 4% year over year to $14.64 billion, topping the $14.48 billion expected. Adjusted earnings per share came in at $0.93, just about 1% ahead of the LSEG consensus.

There’s a common thread between what’s ailing some different parts of the AI trade right now:

A high-profile relationship with OpenAI is a millstone around your neck. The ChatGPT maker is seemingly getting bested by Google’s Gemini 3 (and knows it) while burning a lot of cash, with no end to the red ink in sight.

Such millstone-afflicted parties include:

• Investing conglomerate SoftBank has tumbled 9.9% and 10.8% in its two most recent trading days in Japan. SoftBank is a useful way to express a view on how OpenAI is doing because the Masayoshi Son-led firm is poised to own about 11% of the company, and increases in its valuation have been a big driver of SoftBank’s growth in net income. SoftBank sold its entire $5.8 billion stake in Nvidia in October, likely to finance what it owes OpenAI to build its position in that privately held company.

• Oracle has the dubious distinction of getting battered across two different asset classes thanks to OpenAI. Remember: traders loved Oracle’s massive cloud-revenue backlog in the abstract. When the specifics were revealed and much of that sales pipeline was down to a $300 billion deal with OpenAI, that was when the stock peaked. More recently, credit default swaps tied to Oracle’s debt have also widened significantly, as the company’s infrastructure build-out is launching to fulfill demand from OpenAI, a customer that’s considered to be significantly less creditworthy.

• The AI chip business of Advanced Micro Devices had a major breakthrough in October, securing a deal to sell multiple generations of its flagship GPUs for “tens of billions” in revenue. But... OpenAI was once again the customer. This was quickly followed by a separate announcement that 50,000 of its AI chips would be deployed in data centers run by Oracle starting in the second half of next year, likely de facto representing a further enmeshing of its relationship with OpenAI.

• Microsoft has a tighter partnership with and bigger equity position in OpenAI than SoftBank. On the other hand, it also has its own successful core business, which significantly dilutes any OpenAI “signal,” so to speak. It’s the second-worst publicly traded hyperscaler in November, down almost double digits and trailing only Oracle.

Mall retailers have been making moves this week as Q3 earnings pour in ahead of Black Friday, with several chains lifting their full-year guidance on stronger consumer demand into the holiday season. Black Friday traffic is projected to hit record levels this week as deal-hungry shoppers hunt for bargains.

• Urban Outfitters rocketed over 18% in early trading on Wednesday after posting strong Q3 earnings, with revenue 3% ahead of expectations and adjusted EPS beating by 7%. Shares had already rallied 9% the day before the print. The company’s CEO said that customers were “lively” during the quarter, but did note that they were “waiting a bit longer this year to make their purchases until seasonal promotions began.”

• Kohl’s soared after hiking its full-year outlook again, and now expects a sales decline of 3.5% to 4%, versus previous estimates of a 5% to 6% decline, as the retailer rolls out more coupons.

• Abercrombie & Fitch jumped after raising its full-year revenue outlook, helped by stronger sales at Hollister that are expected to last through the holiday season.

• Best Buy also topped Q3 expectations and raised its 2026 earnings-per-share and revenue outlook, as management expects holiday discounts to drive big tech upgrades.

• Burlington Stores was a weak spot among the group despite also posting an EPS beat, as revenue narrowly missed expectations and management pointed to early-quarter softness due to “unseasonably warm temperatures.”

• Macy’s also popped on the back of the strong results from peers.

The Google halo effect is the new Nvidia halo effect.

Shares of optical and photonics company Lumentum have been on a tear in November, up nearly 50%. Its components help information move around quickly in data centers using lasers and mirrors.

Unlike a lot of the more speculative, volatile AI-adjacent stocks that have come under pressure as of late, Lumentum has strong operating performance to help justify these gains.

The company reported Q1 2026 results near the start of the month that exceeded analysts’ expectations, with management also offering Q2 guidance well ahead of forecasts.

The company’s fiscal 2025 results (the year ended June 28, 2025) showed that Google was its second-biggest customer, accounting for 15.4% of net revenues. Networking equipment company Ciena Corp. came in slightly higher, at 16%.

Bloomberg currently estimates that as of its most recent quarter, 22% and 21% of Lumentum’s sales come from Ciena and Google, respectively.

Retail traders have stampeded into the stock this month, per JPMorgan analyst Arun Jain.

Wall Street has been singing the company’s praises as of late, too. Needham analyst Ryan Koontz boosted his price target to $290 from $235 on Monday, while Rosenblatt’s Mike Genovese recently called it “a must own AI stock.”

Nio was up as much as 3.1% in early trading on Tuesday after the Chinese EV maker dropped its third-quarter earnings. The company posted an adjusted loss of $0.15 per share, better than the $0.23 loss expected by analysts polled by FactSet.

The automaker also:

• Booked $2.7 billion in vehicle sales, up 15% from the same period last year and slightly below Wall Street estimates. According to Nio, an increase in sales volume was partially offset by a lower average selling price, as the company introduced more affordable EVs.

• Delivered 87,071 vehicles in Q3, up more than 41% from last year. The figure landed at the bottom of the company’s delivery projection range of between 87,000 and 91,000 vehicles.

• Posted a vehicle margin of 14.7%, improving on the 13.1% in Q3 last year.

Looking ahead, the company said it expects to sell between 120,000 and 125,000 vehicles in Q4. Meeting even the low end of that target would bring the company’s 2025 total deliveries to more than 321,000 units, beating Wall Street’s expectation of about 316,000 vehicles.

Alongside Chinese rivals BYD and XPeng, Nio has helped fuel a fiercely competitive EV market in China, squeezing outside entrants like Tesla with low-priced vehicles similar to Tesla’s Model Y.

China’s leading cloud giant is cashing in on the huge appetite for AI compute.

Alibaba ADRs are up big in premarket trading after the e-commerce and cloud giant reported second-quarter sales above analysts’ estimates.

Revenues in its Cloud Intelligence Group rose to 39.8 billion yuan (~$5.6 billion) for the three months ended September 30, ahead of estimates for roughly 38 billion yuan (~$5.35 billion).

“We have entered into an investment phase to build long-term strategic value in AI technologies and infrastructure and a consumption platform integrating daily life services and e-commerce,” said CEO Eddie Wu. “Robust AI demand further accelerated our Cloud Intelligence Group business, with revenue up 34% and AI-related product revenue achieving triple-digit year-over-year growth for the ninth consecutive quarter.”

For traders, the potential benefits from establishing a dominant cloud position in the region are outweighing Alibaba’s bottom-line figures. The positive reaction to these quarterly results comes despite adjusted net income falling 72% compared to the same quarter last year.

Management made it clear that profits are not the top near-term priority.

“We are re-investing our profits and free cash flow for the future while near-term profitability is expected to fluctuate,” Chief Financial Officer Toby Xu added in the press release. “Over the past four quarters, we have deployed approximately RMB120 billion in capital expenditure toward AI and cloud infrastructure.”

This continues the trend of Alibaba’s commitment to AI capex being received enthusiastically by the market. Ahead of earnings, the company announced that its Qwen AI app was downloaded more than 10 million times in the week following its relaunch.

Elsewhere, its domestic e-commerce business — still far and away the firm’s biggest revenue driver — beat sales estimates, while international digital commerce came up short.