DJT stock jumps in premarket trading as Trump edges closer to victory
11/06/2024 17:27It's set to be another volatile trading session for Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT), the home of Republican nominee Donald Trump's social media platform Truth Social.
Trump Media & Technology Group stock (DJT) surged as much as 27% in premarket trading on Wednesday as Donald Trump edged closer to clinching victory ahead of Kamala Harris in the presidential election.
All states have now closed their respective polling stations. So far, Trump has secured 267 electoral college votes, while Harris has claimed 224, according to the Associated Press. That leaves the former president just three votes short of a second term.
The stock had a wild session during market hours on Tuesday as trading was halted several times due to volatility, with shares quickly erasing 15% gains and reversing Monday's double-digit percentage rise to kick off the week. Despite a recovery from steeper losses, shares still closed down a little over 1%.
The latest price action comes as investors await the final result of the presidential election between the Republican nominee and his challenger. Trump has secured North Carolina, Georgia, and Pennsylvania, three critical swing states, according to the Associated Press (AP). Results from Arizona, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Michigan remain unclear.
Strategists have categorized the stock as a binary bet on the election. Matthew Tuttle, CEO of investment fund Tuttle Capital Management, recently told Yahoo Finance's Catalysts that the trajectory of shares has hinged on "a buy the rumor, sell the fact" trading strategy.
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"I would imagine that the day after him winning, you'd see this come down," he surmised. "If he loses, I think it goes to zero."
Interactive Brokers' chief strategist Steve Sosnick said DJT has taken on a meme-stock "life of its own."
"It was volatile on the way up, and when a stock is that volatile in one direction, it has a tendency to be that volatile in the other direction," he said on a call with Yahoo Finance last week.
In September, shares in the company — the home of the Republican nominee's social media platform, Truth Social — traded at its lowest level since the company's debut following the expiration of its highly publicized lockup period.
Shares had bounced back from their lows, though, as both domestic and overseas betting markets shifted in favor of a Trump victory.
Trump founded Truth Social after he was kicked off major social media apps like Facebook (META) and Twitter, now X, following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots. Trump has since been reinstated on those platforms. He officially returned to posting on X in mid-August after about a year's hiatus.