The first presidential debate between U.S. President Joe Biden and former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is projected on a screen projector during a watch party hosted by the Michigan Conservative Coalition in Novi, Michigan, U.S., June 27, 2024. REUTERS/Emily Elconin
(Reuters) -Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group fell in choppy trading on Friday, erasing earlier gains driven by President Joe Biden's shaky performance against Republican rival Donald Trump at the first 2024 U.S. presidential debate.
TMTG shares have been volatile all year, as the stock is mostly driven by retail traders amid Trump's quest to return to the White House. The company itself loses money and is by some measures one of the most overvalued stocks among U.S. listings, with a price-to-revenue ratio in the thousands.
"Fundamentally speaking, there is nothing much behind the Trump Media & Technology Group. The moves that we see are mostly speculative," said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank.
Trading volumes surged after Thursday's debate and shares shot up in the morning as traders responded to Biden's performance. But the stock was unable to hold on to its gains and was last off by 6%.
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.
The company, owner of Trump's social media platform Truth Social, 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 shares rose as much as 8% early in the session as Biden's allies scrambled to contain the fallout from his performance after he struggled to stem a barrage of attacks and false claims from Trump.
Retail traders were net buyers of the stock on Friday, with their buy orders outnumbering sell orders by a 1.6 ratio at 12 p.m. ET, J.P.Morgan data showed.
Trump owned 64.9% of TMTG as of June 10, worth about $4.2 billion as of the stock's last close, according to LSEG data.
Separately, five small exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tied to the two U.S. political parties or their platforms were barely moving after Thursday's debate.
The largest of these, the Unusual Whales Subversive Democratic Trading ETF has assets of $94.5 million, and was up 0.7%. The Unusual Whales Subversive Republican Trading ETF was 0.8% higher and has about $24.6 million in assets.
Christian H. Cooper, portfolio manager at Subversive Capital, which launched both funds last year, said he is seeing flows of KRUZ "modestly above average" on Friday. Full flows data for Friday won't be available until Monday.
(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Pranav Kashyap in Bengaluru and Suzanne McGee in New York; Editing by Devika Syamnath and Shounak Dasgupta)
