Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. BBBY, -36.40% plunged 35.7% in afternoon trading Thursday, putting them on track for the biggest one-day loss since going public in June 1992, a day after they soared to a record gain, The selloff comes as bad timing for J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. JPM, +1.71%, which disclosed Thursday that it has acquired a 6.7 million share stake, or 5.5% of the shares outstanding. That would make the bank the fifth largest shareholder, according to FactSet data. The home accessories retailer’s stock has been among those that are heavily shorted that have caught up in the recently trading frenzy. The stock shot up 43.5% on Wednesday, the stock’s biggest-ever one-day gain, to close at a more-than 5-year high on record volume of 90.3 million shares. That was the stock’s fifth-straight gain, with the stock soaring 112% over that time. At Wednesday’s closing price, J.P. Morgan Chase’s stake was worth $356.4 million, but was now worth $229.2 million. Thursday’s selloff comes as online trading platform Robinhood said it was preventing users from making new purchases of the stock, along with several others, including GameStop Corp.’s GME, -43.18% and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc.’s AMC, -56.38%. Bed Bath & Beyond’s stock has run up 61.2% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 SPX, +0.98% has gained 16.7%.
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