Trump media shares soar on reelection bid boost

The shares of Donald Trump’s media company surged in early trading Monday after a failed assassination attempt on the former president over the weekend boosted momentum for the so-called Trump trade across markets.

Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., which trades under the ticker DJT and debuted earlier this year, was up around 50% in early trading. Other stocks seen as benefiting from the Republican winning another term — from private prison firms to cryptocurrency miners — rallied in early trading.

“It’s all about the Trump trade right now,” said Matthew Tuttle, chief executive officer at Tuttle Capital Management. The reaction in Trump Media shares is expected as investors tend to use the stock as “the direct Trump trade,” he added.

The chances of the presumptive Republican candidate, who was shot at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, winning a second term increased in the aftermath of the attack, according to PredictIt data.

Shares of Trump Media have been volatile since debuting in March as traders responded to Trump’s and President Biden’s shifting odds to clinch the presidential race. The former president owns a majority stake in the company, which operates the social media platform Truth Social that was launched after Trump’s ban from major sites following the 2021 Capitol riot.

Conservative video network company Rumble Inc. was up about 9% in early trading.

More broadly, the candidate’s rising odds of victory bolstered sectors seen as benefitting from another Trump term. Gun stocks rose, with Smith & Wesson Brands Inc. up more than 6% and Sturm Ruger & Company Inc. gaining about 5%. Private prison companies GEO Group Inc. and CoreCivic Inc. each rose more than 7%.

Cryptocurrency-linked stocks including Coinbase Global Inc. and miners such as Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. gained as Bitcoin rallied. Health insurers, which are seen as potential beneficiaries of less regulation under a Trump administration, rose: UnitedHealth Group Inc. advanced 2.1% and Humana Inc. was higher by 2.5%. Tesla Inc. rose about 4% after Elon Musk endorsed Trump.

Meanwhile, shares of solar energy firms slumped, given Democrats are seen as being more friendly toward the industry. Enphase Energy Inc. and First Solar Inc. both fell about 4%.

The broader market is ticking higher to start the week, with S&P 500 Index futures up about 0.4%.

“While expectations of a Trump win in November are boosting futures this morning, the event is unlikely to sustainably impact markets,” wrote Tom Essaye, president and founder of Sevens Report.

Bradham and Chok write for Bloomberg.