The stock market is starting to lose steam. After a record run, equities have turned sharply lower over the past few weeks.
The reasons are various including geopolitical worries, a financial shock in Japan, changes in the U.S. presidential election race and uncertainty around interest rate policy. Regardless of the precise cause, market volatility has soared and traders are dialing back risk.
This makes it a great time to take a fresh look at one’s more speculative holdings, such as in meme stocks. These three meme stocks to sell in particular may have seemed like good ideas in a bull market, but are likely to face a much tougher road going forward.
Carvana (CVNA)
Carvana (NYSE:CVNA) is an auto retailer that has shaken up the industry with its innovative vending-machine styled used vehicle retailing locations.
However, while Carvana has a differentiated business plan, its financial results have underwhelmed. In fact, despite wonderful market conditions in the used car market coming out of the pandemic, Carvana struggled to make money.
And now, amid high interest rates, the used car market has turned sharply lower.
If Carvana couldn’t make money when consumer spending was elevated and the car market was hot, it’s hard to see how Carvana will fare much better in a recession. CVNA stock has skyrocketed off the lows thanks to managing to fend off bankruptcy worries a couple of years ago, but that hardly means that the company is a particularly promising one today.
AMC Entertainment (AMC)
The show is over for AMC Entertainment (NYSE:AMC), and it’s time to turn off the lights.
Back in 2021, traders were excited that AMC could skyrocket during the initial meme stock mania. And indeed, AMC shares were up more than 10-fold from the lows at one point. Those heady days are long since gone, however.
AMC was unable to convert that meme magic into tangible results. The company continues to lose money, has a shaky balance sheet, and the economic reopening story is long since over.
In fact, in its most recent quarter, AMC announced a shocking 24% decline year-over-year in box office admissions and a 25% plunge in food and beverage revenues. For a company overwhelmed with debt and operating losses, this downward trajectory is most worrisome.
Joby Aviation (JOBY)
Traders have been excited about the possibilities for electric vertical take-off and landing (EVTOL) vehicles, or what are often popularly called flying cars.
Joby Aviation (NYSE:JOBY) has been one of the leading names within the EVTOL trade. The company’s market capitalization topped $5 billion at one point last year as folks imagined the potential upside.
However, Joby still has a long way to go before it can demonstrate that the business model works. Founded back in 2009, Joby still hasn’t obtained final Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval for its EVTOL model, as the five-phase certification process continues to play out.
Joby still has no meaningful commercial revenues and is losing around $500 million per year in operations. A short selling hedge fund also criticized Joby’s business model, suggesting that Joby’s future profitability estimates are “delusional“.
In a raging bull market, this sort of highly speculative stock could work out. But with the stock market entering a rougher period, JOBY is the sort of meme stock that is likely to quickly lose altitude.
On the date of publication, Ian Bezek did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
On the date of publication, the responsible editor did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.