Trump Media shares climb after Biden's faltering show in first presidential debate (updated)

Phunware

28/06/2024 14:36

(Adds analyst comments and details on TMTG results in
paragraphs 5-7, updates shares throughout)
       June 28 (Reuters) - Shares of Trump Media & Technology
Group  DJT.O  rose more than 6% on Friday after President Joe
Biden's faltering performance against Republican rival Donald
Trump at the first 2024 U.S. presidential debate.
    Biden's allies scrambled to contain the fallout from his
shaky performance after he struggled to stem a barrage of
attacks and false claims from Trump.
    Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which owns
Trump's social media platform Truth Social, was last up 5.5% at
$38.62, while software developer Phunware  PHUN.O , which worked
on Trump's 2020 election campaign app, climbed 1.6% to $6.4.
    Shares of video-sharing platform Rumble  RUM.O , popular
with conservatives, edged up 1.4% to $5.80.
    "We will see these movements linked increasingly to how the
election expectations evolve around Trump ... markets are happy
to have one indicator to look to in order to price in all this,"
Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, said.
    "Fundamentally speaking, there is nothing much behind the
Trump Media & Technology Group. The moves that we see are mostly
speculative."
    The company reported revenue of $770,500 for the March
quarter and an adjusted operating loss of $12.1 million. It was
last valued at $6.7 billion.
    TMTG's shares have more than doubled this year as Trump
gained momentum in his bid to become the Republican candidate in
the election. The stock came under pressure earlier this month
after a jury found Trump guilty of falsifying documents to cover
up a payment to silence a porn star.
    Trump owned 64.9% of TMTG as of June 10, which is worth
about $4.2 billion as of last close, according to LSEG data.
    Meanwhile, prison operators Geo Group  GEO.N  and CoreCivic
 CXW.N  climbed 4.9% and 2.9%, respectively, on expectations of
a tighter crackdown on illegal immigration.
    Trump said during the debate that Biden had failed to secure
the southern U.S. border.

 (Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Pranav Kashyap in Bengaluru;
Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
 ((sruthi.shankar@thomsonreuters.com; within U.S. +1 646 223
8780; outside U.S. +91 80 6182 2787))