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Class of July 2025

Meet the DORK stocks — the latest obsessions of Reddit’s retail trader army

The acronym will probably be out of date by lunchtime, as feverish trading spreads and the lifespan of a meme stock appears to be shortening.

David Crowther

7/23/25 6:28AM

What do doughnut peddler Krispy Kreme, home buyer Opendoor Technologies, mortgage platform Rocket Cos, and department store Kohl’s have in common?

Not much, except each is a new target of a reinvigorated set of retail traders.

In the last 72 hours, the following stocks have seen their trading volumes, mentions on Reddit’s infamous r/WallStreetBets, and stock prices soar: DNUT, OPEN, RKT, KSS. Together, they make up what we could call the DORK stocks — the latest class of meme stocks.

In the last two days, an average of 1.76 million call options have changed hands in OPEN. That’s up 12x on the average of the previous 20 sessions. In RKT, call volumes are up 6x, and they’re up 10x in KSS. In DNUT, call volumes went from close to zero to over 100,000, rising a whopping 33x.

Same same, but different

Since the GameStop era of 2021 — when an army of traders took on hedge fund titans, choosing a heavily shorted, ailing video game retailer as their battleground — market participants have tried hard to predict the next meme stock.

Most candidates for retail love do share a few common characteristics: often the company has been struggling, heavily shorted by Wall Street, and sometimes comes with a hint of nostalgia about the company’s product or service.

But while those characteristics remain, what seems to be changing about the meme stock landscape is the speed at which these moments appear to coalesce.

Opendoor, which traded a bonkers 298% of its market cap on Monday (some $7 billion, more than Meta), is a good example. One bullish note from hedge fund manager Eric Jackson was enough to spark an options buying frenzy in the beleaguered tech company. As call volumes cracked 2 million on Monday, the resulting gamma squeeze sent the stock soaring. So, OPEN is the next GME and will suck up all of the oxygen on the hypothetical retail trading floor, right?

Well, no, apparently. Rather than intensifying on one name, retail trading attention has since spread to department store Kohl’s, which ripped 38% higher yesterday. Quietly gaining throughout the day was also Krispy Kreme, which rose 27% in Tuesday’s session and is up another 25% in early trading this morning. After the bell it was RKT’s turn, with shares currently up 14% in the premarket, seemingly catalyzed by a late-night Reddit post saying that it “tastes like 2021 again. $130k YOLO on $RKT,” with a screenshot of a position in RKT with 9,020 shares.

As my colleague Luke Kawa reported yesterday, the latest bout of feverish retail trading is raising eyebrows at Citadel Securities (emphasis mine):

“Echoing our colleagues in institutional derivatives this morning, the current level of retail bullishness is something to keep a close eye on,” Citadel Securities’ Thomas Sozzi wrote. “In cash equity space, retail clients on our platform have been net buyers for the past 18 trading sessions in a row! This bullish streak hasn’t been seen on our platform in over 3 years.”

With Big Tech earnings on deck today, how long will this latest class of meme stocks be able to hold the spotlight? The major test will be when Tesla, a favorite of retail traders, reports after the bell today.

(Robinhood Markets Inc. is the parent company of Sherwood Media, an independently operated media company subject to certain legal and regulatory restrictions. Citadel Securities has a business relationship with Robinhood.)

Max Knoblauch36m

Rivian climbs as it rolls out a “universal hands-free” update and scores an upgrade from Baird

Shares of EV maker Rivian are on pace for their 10th best day of 2025 on Thursday, following an upgrade from Baird to “buy” from “hold” and the rollout of its new hands-free driving update.

Baird raised its price target on Rivian nearly 79% to $25, writing that “2026 is the year of R2.”

Meanwhile, Rivian says its new hands-free feature will allow drivers to take their hands off the wheel across 3.5 million miles of US and Canadian roads.

Despite referring to it as “universal hands-free” driving, the EV maker says the feature will not stop or slow for traffic lights or stop signs, follow navigation systems, or make turns, and will function only on roads with visible lane lines.

Rivian revealed the update at its AI Day last week, when it also hinted at a robotaxi plan.

Rivian rolls out new 'Universal Hands-Free' driving feature | TechCrunch

Meanwhile, Rivian says its new hands-free feature will allow drivers to take their hands off the wheel across 3.5 million miles of US and Canadian roads.

Rivian revealed the update at its AI Day last week, when it also hinted at a robotaxi plan.

Matt Phillips2h

The stock market loves your rising electricity bill

Utilities with a footprint in the massive PJM Interconnection, the country’s largest power grid, were up Thursday after prices set in a key auction hit a record high of $333.44 per megawatt-day.

Such power providers, including Talen Energy, Constellation Energy, and Vistra, saw tidy gains shortly before midday.

“This auction leaves no doubt that data centers’ demand for electricity continues to far outstrip new supply, and the solution will require concerted action involving PJM, its stakeholders, state and federal partners, and the data center industry itself,” Stu Bresler, set to become PJM’s chief operating officer next month, told Reuters.

As I’ve previously mused, political pushback from high power prices, partially created by the AI boom, could become a constraint on development of such sites. Democrats in the US Senate are now calling for hearings on the issue.

It’s fertile political soil. This morning’s US CPI report for November showed electricity prices up nearly 7% year over year, the highest since the tail end of the postpandemic inflation in April 2023.

Costs on Key US Grid Hit New Record, Testing Affordability

Luke Kawa3h

Micron’s earnings, soft inflation, and OpenAI valuation chatter revive speculative AI trade

The three biggest news events since markets closed yesterday are all helping spur a big bounce-back for the more speculative companies tied to AI:

Micron’s eye-popping Q2 guidance reaffirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt how hot AI demand continues to run in the near term.
While the data is undoubtedly messy, core CPI inflation decelerated by much more than anticipated in November. Lower rates are a clear positive for more marginal companies levered to the AI theme, whose stocks trade with a higher embedded risk of default and whose bonds have also been suggesting more credit risk as of late.
OpenAI reportedly getting its hands on more money (and commanding a higher valuation in the process) provides some semblance of valuation support for these firms and also a better fundamental foundation as well: more cash in CEO Sam Altman’s pockets means more cash he has to make good on commitments to OpenAI’s many suppliers.

Put together, the key news items since Wednesday’s close are producing massive gains for the likes of Bloom Energy, Cipher Mining, POET Technologies, CoreWeave, IREN, and Nebius.

Matt Phillips3h

GE Vernova upped to “buy” at Jefferies

GE Vernova is up early, enjoying the benefits of both a rebound in the AI data center trade and an upgrade to “buy” from analysts at Jefferies. In a note published on Thursday, they wrote:

“We upgrade to Buy. More positive on the outlook for Power (gas pricing & services visibility) and electrification yet shares are down since the December 9th Analyst Day. $815 PT up from $736. Gas turbine pricing continues to positively surprise and services provides visibility deeper into the 2030s, eventually offsetting gas equipment weakness.”

The target is slightly above the FactSet consensus price target of $753 on the stock, and implies a 23% premium to GE Vernova’s closing price on Wednesday. The stock is up almost 100% in 2025.

Luke Kawa

US stocks get hot as inflation cools by more than expected

Annual core CPI inflation falls to lowest level since March 2021.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell Testifies Before The House Financial Services Committee