Stock Market Today, June 18: AMC Rallies After Record May Attendance Drives Trading Momentum
AMC Entertainment Holdings (NYSE:AMC), a movie theater exhibition and cinema operator, closed at $2.83 and rose 6.39%. Traders were weighing record May attendance, a $150 million equity sale, and a $4 billion long-term debt load. Investors are watching summer box-office trends and the next earnings window for liquidity updates.
Trading volume reached 80.8 million shares, coming in about 140% above its three-month average of 33.6 million shares. AMC Entertainment Holdings IPO'd in 2013 and has fallen 99% since going public.
How the markets moved today
The S&P 500 (SNPINDEX:^GSPC) closed at 7,501 and rose 1.08%, while the Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX:^IXIC) closed at 26,518 and gained 1.91%. Among movie theater and cinema operations peers, Cinemark Holdings (NYSE:CNK) closed at $33.76, up 1.96%, while National CineMedia (NASDAQ:NCMI) closed at $3.40, falling 6.34%.
What this means for investors
The summer movie season is just kicking off, but AMC is already seeing solid attendance. The company said May saw the highest attendance since 2019, both domestically and globally. That has investors jumping into the theater operator’s stock.
The company still isn’t on solid financial footing, though. Investors need to consider more than just its debt load, too. Last week, AMC completed a $150 million equity offering to help boost its balance sheet.
That move helps the company, but it is dilutive to existing shareholders. AMC will likely need more than a single year of strong box-office attendance to reward shareholders.
Should you buy stock in AMC Entertainment right now?
Before you buy stock in AMC Entertainment, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and AMC Entertainment wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $415,040!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,256,076!*
Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 920% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 207% for the S&P 500. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors.
See the 10 stocks »
*Stock Advisor returns as of June 18, 2026.
Howard Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Recommended Articles
