Inside the sharp rise and fall of Avis, the market's latest meme stock
Bloomberg/Getty Images The world of meme stocks is volatile, and Avis is the latest to see a huge rally and a sudden collapse. A short-squeeze set off a parabolic rally in the stock this month. The tight supply of publicly traded shares and speculative interest fueled the gains. Avis Budget Group , the car rental company that lost nearly $1 billion last year and is carrying more than $6 billion in debt, was the latest target of retail traders looking for the next market-breaking short-squeeze this week. The company's stock saw a wild spike, soaring more than 700% in a matter of weeks to a peak of around $714. Unfortunately, the euphoria has already fizzled, and shares are down 70% from Tuesday's high, trading as low as $214 in Thursday's session. It isn't the first time Avis stock has gone parabolic. In 2021, in the early days of the meme stock phenomenon, shares soared more than 200% from September to their peak in early November, before then tumbling ...