A new post from meme stock influencer Keith Gill's Roaring Kitty account on social media platform X sent shares in GameStop nearly 6% higher in Thursday's session.
Gill posted an image resembling Time magazine's 2006 person of the year cover, showing a computer screen. That year Time's choice for person of the year was "you", which referred to the growth of user-generated content in the age of emerging social media.
Gill's online persona "Roaring Kitty" became known for its for its role in 2021's meme stock craze, as its posts prompted investors to buy into certain stocks, including video game retailer GameStop. The stocks were typically heavily shorted by hedge funds, with retail investors on social media platforms such as Reddit (RDDT) piling in to squeeze out these positions.
Meme stock mania saw a resurgence in the summer, with GameStop shares spiking but the revival of this trend was fairly short-lived.
Other stocks involved in the trend included US cinema chain AMC Entertainment (AMC), which also closed Thursday's session up 6%.
Shares in ride-hailing company Uber slid 10% on Thursday, after Alphabet's (GOOG, GOOGL) Waymo announced that it will be expanding its robotaxi services to Miami in 2026.
Fellow ridesharing business Lyft (LYFT) also dropped 10%, following the announcement.
Waymo, which specialises in autonomous driving, said in an announcement on Thursday that it would be reacquainting its all-electric Jaguar I-PACEs to Miami's streets in early 2025.
The company said that through its new partnership with ride-hail finance enabler Moove, it would look to start offering its robotaxi services in Miami in 2026.
Waymo said that it currently provides more than 150,000 trips per week across the US cities of Phoenix, LA, San Francisco and Austin.
Shares in Lululemon were up 9% in pre-market trading on Friday, after the athleisure brand reported quarterly results that beat Wall Street estimates.
Revenue for the third quarter came in at $2.4bn (£1.8bn), which was up from $2.2bn for the same period last year and was ahead of an expected $2.36bn, according Bloomberg's polling of analysts.
Earning per share of $2.87, beat estimates of $2.75 and was also ahead of the $2.53 reported in the third quarter last year.
The company guided to fourth quarter revenue of $3.48bn to $3.51bn, compared to consensus estimates of $3.5bn. The company also sees Q4 earnings per share between $5.56 and $5.64, below estimates of $5.70.
"Our performance in the third quarter shows the enduring strength of Lululemon globally, as we saw continued momentum across our international markets and in Canada," Lululemon CEO Calvin McDonald said in the earnings release.
"Looking to the future, we are pleased with the start to our holiday season, and we remain focused on accelerating our US business and growing our brand awareness around the world."
Motor insurance firm Direct Line (DLG.L) has accepted a £3.6bn ($4.6bn) takeover bid from its bigger rival Aviva, according to statement on Friday which said the two companies had reached a preliminary deal.
This announcement comes after Direct Line said last week that it had rejected a previous offer of £3.28bn from Aviva.
Direct Line said that while its board remained "confident" in its prospects as a standalone company, it believed that the combination of the two companies "would provide the opportunity to deliver significant synergies, creating substantial additional value for both sets of shareholders."
Shares in Direct Line jumped nearly 7%, while Aviva shares were 0.5% in the red on Friday morning.
Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell (AJB.L), said: "The next test is to see if shareholders push for more. Judging by recent City chatter, 275p should be enough to keep everyone happy and Aviva might be able to wrap this up fairly quickly."
“Aviva has performed every step of the takeover dance flawlessly," he said.
"It’s spotted a rival going through a weak phase and thrown its hat into the ring as an interested buyer with a low-ball price to test the water. It will have almost certainly known the first bid would have been rejected and it’s now come back with a higher and fairer offer, and Direct Line’s board has indicated it’s good enough."
Housebuilder Berkeley posted pre-tax profits of £275.1m in its interim results on Friday, which was down 7.7% on the same period last year but ahead of the £269m expected. Revenue was up 7.3% to £1.73bn, which was in line with estimates.
Rob Perrins, CEO of Berkeley, said: "Despite ongoing geopolitical and macroeconomic volatility, we remain on track to achieve our pre-tax profit guidance of £525m for the full year and at least £450m for FY26."
The higher-end housebuilder also announced its new 10-year growth strategy "Berkeley 2035", which included plans to establish a build-to-rent platform.
Shares in Berkeley were down nearly 2% on Friday morning.
Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said: "Consumer confidence remains extremely guarded, the possibility of higher for longer interest rates is keeping some potential new buyers on the sidelines, while the group also notes the overhang of additional building regulations as part of the new industry regulator’s formation."
"Well-regarded though the company may be, the market consensus of the shares as a hold implies that investors are not yet quite convinced that the new strategy and the existing sector obstacles are at the required inflection point," he added.
