By Dean Seal
The near assassination of Donald Trump this weekend has spawned a rally in shares of his social media platform Truth Social's parent company, boosting the former president's stake in the company by more than $1 billion.
Shares of Trump Media & Technology opened the market up nearly 50% at $46.20. The gains started to unwind from there, pulling back to a 34% gain at around $41.40 at 30 minutes into trading. The stock had hit a high of $66.22 from when trading began in March.
Only about a quarter of Trump Media's shares are available on the open market. Trump himself owns about 65% of the company's shares. Monday's gains add more than $1.19 billion to his stake in the company, which is currently valued at around $4.73 billion.
Trump Media went public earlier this year by combining with a blank-check company and has attracted Trump-supporting retail traders, who have rallied behind the stock despite the company generating just $3.3 million in sales in the first nine months of 2023.
Shares have fluctuated in the months since, often ebbing and flowing with the vicissitudes of Trump's prospects for reelection.
The stock moved lower in May after Trump was convicted in a hush-money trial, and rose last month after a presidential debate between Trump and incumbent Joe Biden that was widely seen as a victory for the former president.
Monday's run-up comes as major indexes post small gains. Crypto markets are trending higher as well, with the price of Bitcoin up 5% over the past 24 hours. Trump has held himself out as a proponent of cryptocurrency and is expected to speak at the Bitcoin Conference later this month.
Meanwhile shares of Tesla are up 6% at $263.48 in early trading. Following Saturday's shooting, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he endorsed the former president.
Write to Dean Seal at dean.seal@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
07-15-24 1107ET
