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Back in focus: The meme stock trade.

By the numbers: GameStop finished up 19%, after a wild day that saw shares spike as much as 80%.

Why it matters: The moves are muted compared to the eye-popping gains that shocked the world last month.

  • But the surge means online traders banding together on social media boards could be a lasting feature of the U.S. stock market.

What's going on, technical answer: The steep gains that started Wednesday night were "mostly long buying with short covering sprinkled in to help grease the skids up," says short-selling expert Ihor Dusaniwsky.

What's going on, more fun theory: A CFO resignation and a tweet featuring an ice cream cone are riling people up.

  • GameStop says its chief financial officer is resigning — an executive who was once respected (at least by traditional investors) for helping shape up the company's finances.
  • The C-Suite swap is now seen as an opportunity for change, a theory fueled by a picture of a McDonald's ice cream cone tweeted out by board member Ryan Cohen — a major shareholder who gained a board seat (and thus more influence) earlier this year.
  • Much like McDonald's is known for fixing its broken ice cream machines, the thinking is Cohen was signaling that he would "fix" GameStop.

What they're saying: "This doesn't make any sense," Anthony Chukumba, a longtime Wall Street analyst, told CNBC Thursday of GameStop's wild rally.

  • "And you know what, call me a boomer. I'm totally fine with that."
  • He said the stock is worth $10, at the most.

What to watch: All eyes will be on GameStop if and when the company takes advantage of the hype to grow its struggling business.

  • It wouldn't be the only Reddit stock to do so: AMC took advantage of its stock surge by swapping roughly $700 million worth of debt into equity.
  • It's "curious" that GameStop hasn't issued shares at this soaring price — a move companies do to raise money, Telsey Advisory Group's Joe Feldman tells Axios.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.