Trump Media shares surge after assassination attempt
Shares in Donald Trump’s social media company rose in early trading on Monday.
Trump Media & Technology, the parent company of Truth Social, surged more than 35 percent Monday morning following the attempted assassination of the former president on Saturday.
Trump owns a majority stake in the company, which was valued at $3.8 billion as of June 25, according to LSEG data.
Betting prices also reacted to Saturday’s violence, raising the odds that Trump will retake the White House in November.
A contract for a Trump election victory cost $0.67 early Monday morning, according to data from PredictIt, an online marketplace specializing in betting on political events.
Truth Social’s parent company saw its stock price soar after Trump was shot Saturday
The price reflects a belief that Trump’s chances of winning in November are 67 percent, up from 60 percent on Friday.
Betting on Joe Biden to win the election was at $0.27.
Trump Media stock has been extremely volatile since its IPO in March.
It closed its first day of active trading with a value of $8 billion, but has now joined the ranks of meme stocks that tend to swing between peaks and troughs.
Investors with a smaller budget and novice investors try to buy shares when there is an upward trend, which can cause the price to rise sharply.
Stocks fell after Trump was convicted of falsifying corporate records and rose after President Biden resigned during a debate last month over a car crash.
Trump Media reported in its last earnings report in May that the company lost more than $300 million in the first quarter of this year.
Cryptocurrency stocks also rose on Monday as investors saw a greater chance of an election victory for Trump.
Trump is positioning himself as a champion of crypto, in contrast to the more cautious and skeptical Democratic Party.
Monday morning trading took Bitcoin to a two-week high of $63,000. Coinbase Globals and Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms also saw their shares rise between 5 and 6.5 percent.
“Investors are becoming increasingly confident in a Trump victory, and that’s starting to show across certain sectors,” said Rick Meckler, a partner at Cherry Lane Investments. Reuters.
Trump was shot at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday
The former president gestures as he is surrounded by US Secret Service agents
However, Meckler said the market as a whole was less sensitive to the possibility of either candidate winning.
“Most investors are not changing their overall commitment to U.S. equities,” Meckler explains.
He adds: “After all, the broad stock market rose under the previous Trump administration and it has also risen under the Biden administration.”
The S&P 500 was up 0.8 percent at 11 a.m. EST on Monday.