GRAPEVINE, Texas — Shares of GameStop Corp. climbed Thursday morning, trading at $19.15, up 17 cents, or 0.90%, as of 10:02 a.m. ET, as investors continued positioning ahead of the video game retailer's full second-quarter earnings report, scheduled for after market close on Tuesday, Sept. 8.

The stock's modest gain comes as GameStop's business increasingly reflects the impact of its sizable investment portfolio, particularly a large stake in eBay, rather than the performance of its traditional video game and collectibles retail operations, which have continued to shrink.

GameStop released preliminary second-quarter results on Aug. 31, disclosing that it expects quarterly net income of between $290 million and $310 million, nearly double the $168.6 million the company reported during the same period a year earlier. The stronger bottom line, however, is not being driven by a rebound in core sales. Instead, GameStop said quarterly revenue is expected to fall to between $780 million and $800 million, down from $972.2 million a year earlier, with the sales decline attributed to the prior year's launch of the Nintendo Switch 2, planned store closures, and the divestiture of the company's operations in France.

The gap between GameStop's shrinking sales and its rising net income has been driven largely by investment gains tied to the company's eBay position. GameStop said its quarterly net income figure includes approximately $238 million in net gains related to its eBay derivative asset and equity investment. As of Aug. 1, GameStop held roughly 43.4 million shares of eBay common stock, with a fair value of approximately $4.947........

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