Shares of U.S. hamburger chain Wendy's rose 26% on the New York stock market on the 24th local time. At one point intraday, the gain jumped to 42%. It was Wendy's biggest single-day rise in about five years, since June 2021 during the pandemic.
That day, Wendy's ranked No. 1 for buzz on Stocktwits, a site where U.S. retail investors discuss stocks. Bloomberg said buying surged right after a post titled "Let's save Wendy's before it's too late" appeared on WallStreetBets, the retail-investor board on Reddit. The post was deleted after the sharp rally that day. A day earlier on the 23rd, Wendy's disclosed it would appoint Steve Cirulis as the new chief financial officer (CFO) and chief strategy officer. Still, it is hard to explain a 42% spike on an executive filing alone. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) briefly halted the stock when Wendy's volatility spiked early on the 24th. Major outlets said Wendy's checked all the boxes of a meme stock that moves on social media buzz rather than company value.
Wendy's shares have fallen more than 70% since mid-2023. When a stock keeps trending lower, short sellers usually crowd in. They sell borrowed shares to bet on a decline. According to market-research firm S3 Partners, about 23% of Wendy's free float is currently sold short. Borrowed shares must ultimately be bought back and returned. If, as on this day, retail investors buy Wendy's shares en masse and the supply in the market dries up, short sellers are forced to buy back at higher prices to close out. This kind of surge, in which buying begets more buying and the price pops in a short period, is called a "short squeeze" on Wall Street.
Wendy's is a burger brand that won favor with Generation X in the 1980s through its "Where's the Beef?" ad. Meme traders flock to such names because they are familiar brands, even if results are weak. Jim Salerna of investment firm Stephens told Bloomberg, "This Wendy's spike is another replay of the meme stock frenzy," adding, "Wendy's is a leading American brand that many retail investors have fond memories of, and that sense of nostalgia for the brand is similar to what drove GameStop higher."
Meme stocks often start with posts on sites popular with younger investors, such as Discord, Reddit, or the trader chat room Stocktwits. The starting point was the 2021 surge in GameStop. At the time, Keith Gill, a retail investor known by the online moniker "Roaring Kitty," posted an outlook that video-game retailer GameStop would be strong, and retail investors responded by buying shares. Hedge funds that had bet on shorts took losses. The episode, which drew attention as a case of individuals beating institutions, was made into the 2023 film "Dumb Money." The buying community and nostalgia code formed then became the foundation for meme stocks to repeat with different tickers afterward.
In Oct. 2025, plant-based burger maker Beyond Meat soared more than 1,300% over four days. The stock, which closed at 52 cents on Oct. 16, climbed to $7.69 intraday on Oct. 22. At the time, Beyond Meat's share price was about 98% below its record high, and there was no evidence the company's results had improved. Around the same time, shares of Krispy Kreme, another meme target in the donut chain space, also jumped more than 30% in a few days. GameStop, Beyond Meat, Krispy Kreme, and Wendy's were aging consumer brands with heavy short interest and stocks that had sunk near the bottom.
Meme stock trading carries risks. The basis for buying has little to do with a company's results. Because buzz, not earnings, drives the rise, when the buzz fades, the support for the share price disappears too. Volatility is high, so mistiming buys and sells can magnify losses. On the day Beyond Meat hit its meme stock record high of $7.69, it sank into the $3 range intraday. In particular, retail investors who jump in late near the top shoulder the subsequent plunge after the spike. When a short squeeze ends, short-covering demand wanes, and board buzz shifts to the next ticker, shares without earnings support often fall below the starting line. CNBC said, "The meme stock pattern that flares briefly and cools quickly has repeated with different tickers since GameStop."
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is cracking down hard on illegal price rigging. But to police it, authorities must prove the intent that "after pushing a stock higher, the perpetrators promoted a specific name to profit from the subsequent uptrend." This process requires determining whether a social media influencer encouraged buying with that intent and swayed the price. Right after the GameStop episode, the U.S. Congress held hearings to examine retail-investing apps and the brokerage structure, but it did not lead to regulations that ban meme stock trading itself.