Retail investors buzzed about five stocks this week, from Oct. 20 to Oct. 24, on platforms like X and Reddit’s r/WallStreetBets, earnings reports, amid ongoing government shutdown, and AI enthusiasm.
The stocks, Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA), Beyond Meat Inc. (NASDAQ:BYND), Rigetti Computing Inc. (NASDAQ:RGTI), International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM), Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), spanning automotive, packaged foods, quantum computing, and tech sectors, reflected diverse retail interests.
Tesla
- TSLA was in focus because of its third-quarter earnings this week, while Elon Musk threatened to quit as CEO without his proposed $1 trillion pay package. Earnings call updates featured Optimus V3 demo for the first-quarter 2026, Cybercab volume production for the second-quarter 2026, robotaxi expansion to 8-10 U.S. metros by year-end sans safety drivers in Austin, FSD v14 public rollout, and $9 billion 2025 capex rising for AI/Semi lines.
- Skeptical retail investors questioned TSLA's stock price despite weak earnings.
- The stock had a 52-week range of $214.25 to $488.54, trading around $447 to $449 per share, as of the publication of this article. It was up 18.38% year-to-date and 72.37% over the year.
- Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings showed that the stock had a stronger price trend in the short, medium, and long terms, with a poor value ranking. Additional performance details are available here.
Beyond Meat
- BYND erupted into meme-stock frenzy this week, surging over 1,300% from record lows amid retail hype and short-squeeze speculation. It jumped on Tuesday after announcing expanded Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) distribution to 2,000+ stores for select products like the new Beyond Burger and Beyond Beef IV, boosting availability and sparking contrarian “moon” calls from traders. Volatility peaked on Wednesday, and it erased gains to close lower.
- Retail investors acknowledged losses following a drawdown after the rally in BYND stock.
- The stock had a 52-week range of $0.50 to $7.69, trading around $2 to $3 per share, as of the publication of this article. It was down 26.23% year-to-date and 55.97% over the year.
- The stock had a stronger price trend in the short and medium terms but a weak trend in the long term, with a poor growth ranking, as per Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings. Other performance details are available here.
Rigetti Computing
- RGTI slipped at the beginning of the week following Google’s Willow chip breakthrough and Reuters’ report that the U.S. is considering new curbs on exports of technology utilizing U.S. software to China. Momentum shifted Oct. 23 with reports of Donald Trump administration talks for $10 million equity stakes in quantum firms. However, a Commerce Department official told CNBC that the U.S. government is not in talks with quantum computing companies. But Rigetti told CNBC in a statement that "We are continuously engaging with the U.S. government on funding opportunities."
- Meanwhile, some retail investors were debating whether RGTI was an obvious short after its CEO statement.
- The stock had a 52-week range of $1.06 to $58.15, trading around $39 to $41 per share, as of the publication of this article. It was up 97.98% YTD and 3,199.58% over the year.
- According to Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings, it was maintaining a stronger price trend over the short, medium, and long terms. Additional performance details are available here.
International Business Machines
- The speculations about the Trump administration’s possible stake in quantum firms brought IBM discussions to the fore, as it had an advanced quantum product with a focus on fault-tolerant logical qubits. Popular market commentators Martin Shkreli and Jim Cramer supported the idea of taking a stake in IBM over RGTI, IONQ, and QBTS.
- Investors largely agreed with the view that IBM was a superior choice for an investment.
- The stock had a 52-week range of $203.51 to $301.04, trading around $283 to $285 per share, as of the publication of this article. It was up 29.58% year-to-date but 30.50% higher over the year.
- It maintains a stronger price trend over the short, medium, and long terms, with a strong quality score, as per Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings. Additional performance details are available here.
Amazon.com
- Amazon kicked off the week with a major AWS outage stemming from DNS resolution issues in DynamoDB endpoints, disrupting services for thousands of sites. Later internal docs revealed plans to automate 75% of U.S. operations by 2033 via robots like the new Blue Jay system, drawing criticism from Sen. Bernie Sanders on worker impacts while boosting efficiency hype.
- Retail investors emphasized decoupling AMZN from its AWS business with the ongoing issues and negative YTD returns.
- The stock had a 52-week range of $161.43 to $242.52, trading around $220 to $222 per share, as of the publication of this article. It was up 0.40% year-to-date and 18.62% over the year.
- While this stock had a strong growth ranking, Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings showed that it had a weaker price trend in the short and medium terms but a strong trend in the long term. Additional performance details are available here.
Retail focus blended meme-driven narrative with earnings outlook and corporate news flow, as the S&P 500, Dow Jones, and Nasdaq witnessed positive market action during the week.
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