Kohl’s Joins Meme Stock Mania With Massive Short Squeeze

We began the week with the “glorious return” of meme stock mania—first with the roller coaster ride of Opendoor Technologies, and then, on Tuesday morning, with heavily shorted Kohl’s Corp. shares doubling in the early cash session. 

Kohl’s shares jumped as much as 105% out of the gate—the largest intraday gain on record for the stock. The surge evoked memories of the meme stock mania during the Covid era. Trading was briefly paused for volatility after the stock pared gains to around 20% by 10:00 a.m. EST. 

What goes up must come down… 

No surprise here. 

What’s behind the Kohl’s eruption? 50% of the stock float is short pic.twitter.com/RbA190Ccpo

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) July 22, 2025

Meme stocks are melting up…

Most evident of the meme stock craze was the mindblowing gamma squeeze in Opendoor Technologies (more details here)… 

Meme Stock Mania Makes Glorious Return Thanks To Mindblowing OPEN Gamma Squeeze https://t.co/6f5JPZH8Fv

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) July 22, 2025

Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers told Bloomberg, “It’s all social media chatter. Remember that a highlight of the meme stock era was a dose of nostalgia for companies like GameStop and AMC.” 

Mentions of “meme stocks” on X.

Sosnick noted, “Social media chatter can become self-fulfilling.”