Trump Media & Technology Group Stock Halted After Plunge
Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT), whose stock ticker shares the initials of former President Donald Trump, experienced a sudden halt on Wall Street Tuesday after a sharp decline in its share price.
The pause occurred at 2:42 p.m. Eastern Time, with trading resuming about five minutes later. This temporary suspension was triggered by a mechanism that activates when stocks exhibit unusual volatility.
Earlier in the day, DJT shares had climbed to an intraday high of $33.85, representing a 13% gain. However, the stock plummeted in the afternoon, leading to the halt. After trading resumed, Trump Media's stock price continued to decline, closing at $27.06, down $2.89, or 9.6%, for the day.
The stock rebounded slightly on Wednesday morning, gaining 84 cents, or 3.1%, to $27.90.
This recent downdraft erased some of the gains that had helped lift Trump Media from its September 24 low. The shares have been seen as a proxy for Trump's chances of winning the November 5 presidential election, with DJT swinging upwards when his odds appear to improve. In recent days, two prediction markets have switched to favoring Trump after previously giving Vice President Kamala Harris a better chance of winning.
While the polls haven't changed much, one of Trump's business ventures got off to a rough start on Tuesday. The Trump family's new cryptocurrency platform, World Liberty Financial, suffered outages for much of the day, limiting the number of sales, according to CNBC.
It's unclear if this could cause DJT's stock to falter, given that Trump Media's shareholders largely consist of small investors who are also Trump supporters, rather than investors who are seeking profits, dividends or other traditional measures of financial health.
The volume of trading in DJT stock was also elevated on Tuesday, with about 97 million shares trading hands, according to financial data firm FactSet. The average daily trading volume for the prior 30 days has been about 20 million shares, FactSet shows.
On Tuesday, Trump Media investors took to Truth Social to question the stock's halt and price decline, with some blaming short sellers, a frequent target of both DJT shareholders and its management.
"None of us long-term DJT holders are fooled one bit by what happened today," one member of the DJT investing group wrote Tuesday on Truth Social. "Shorts were losing control, quickly and they called in their chips at the SEC" to halt trading.
It's important to note that the Securities and Exchange Commission doesn't control trading halts, which are activated by stock exchanges.
Earlier this year, Trump Media complained to Nasdaq, the stock exchange where the company is listed, that it was the victim of "potential market manipulation" due to short-selling activity.