Trump Media stock soars 16% just before Election Day
Shares of Trump Media and Technology Group soared nearly 16% in afternoon trading Monday in a renewed bout of “pre-election euphoria” ahead of the presidential election.
The company’s stock traded at around $35, bringing its market capitalization to $6.89 billion just one day before the former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris face off on the ballot.
Trump Media, the firm behind Trump’s social media platform Truth Social, has had a volatile past few weeks, with its stock seeing double-digit growth one day and facing equally as steep losses the next.
Between Tuesday and Friday last week, the stock shed around 40% of its value.
In the past month, shares of Trump Media have climbed 113%, adding billions to its market value — and to the net worth of the former president, who holds a roughly 57% stake in the company. Trump has previously said he has no plans to let go of his holdings, despite the end of a six-month share lockup period that prevented him and other insiders from selling.
Much of the trading of DJT stock is a result of people’s fanaticism for the former president, making it what Morningstar’s (MORN) vice president of research John Rekenthaler calls an “affinity stock.”
“This is the most emotional stock on the stock exchange,” he previously told Quartz.
While it’s not clear what’s driving either the rallies or the losses, many see Trump Media stock as something of a proxy for Trump’s election odds. National polls currently show Harris and Trump neck and neck ahead of Tuesday’s election. The company has not disclosed any material changes to its operations.
Rekenthaler has warned, however, that Trump Media stock will “go to zero” if the Republican candidate once again loses the White House this election cycle. If Trump were to win, on the other hand, Rekenthaler believes the stock “could do anything.”
