Donald Trump said it would be difficult for him to post a $454 million bond while appealing a fraud conviction and celebrated on Monday when the amount was lowered to $175 million on appeal.
Most Read from MarketWatch
But the former president’s need for cash may be dwarfed by his profit following the merger of his social-media platform with Digital World Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. DJT began trading under their new “DJT” ticker Tuesday, and closed at $61.96 Thursday — up 68% from a week earlier.
Based on Trump’s reported stake of 78,750,000 shares, his stock in the combined company was worth $4.88 billon at Thursday’s close.
A market capitalization of $8.84 billion for a company that has generated only about $5 million in revenue makes DJT the definition of a meme stock. Lukas I. Alpert looked into this phenomenon and explained why Trump himself may have a hard time cashing in at anywhere near the current valuation for his shares.
Investors’ enthusiasm for DJT, as well as for Reddit, which completed its IPO last week, raises the obvious question of whether or not we are looking at a signal that the stock market is near a top. This is when the words “irrational exuberance” come to the fore. So Mark Hulbert compared this year’s IPO and related action to previous market cycles, and came to this conclusion.
More on the Trump merger and its aftermath:
What might cause a broad pullback for stocks?
The S&P 500 SPX has rallied 26% since the end of October, with dividends reinvested. Even a strong trend for the stock market has its periodic pullbacks. Joseph Adinolfi explained that typically the catalyst for a market correction is one of these three things.
More about the stock market:
Expanding the AI stock basket
Nvidia Corp. NVDA dominates coverage of stocks related to artificial intelligence, because of its leadership in providing graphics processing units (GPU) to data centers supporting their clients’ development of AI products and services. The stock has more than doubled so far this year, after more than tripling during 2023.
Where should investors look next to make a lot of money from the AI buildout? In the Need to Know column on Thursday, Barbara Kollmeyer shared two screens of AI stocks from analysts at Citigroup, who suggest investors take a global approach to the phenomenon.
Related: Microsoft is already bigger than Apple, but its ‘iPhone moment’ could be coming
How brokerage accounts work
Maybe you are already an expert on how brokerage accounts work, but chances are you know someone who would benefit from learning more about them. Beth Pinsker answers commonly asked questions about how the accounts work in the above video.
Here are two of her articles from the Fix My Portfolio column:
A strategy for investors who worry about stocks
Michael Brush explains how covered call strategies work — they can provide downside protection in the stock market, along with extra income.
Here’s a look at how Wall Street analysts’ favorite stock picks performed over the past five years.
Aftermath of the Baltimore bridge disaster
The collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore on Tuesday was tragic, and salvage work was being done on Friday, following the suspension of rescue efforts. MarketWatch’s live coverage included the effects of the disruption on various industries.
More coverage:
Retirement planning
In the Help Me Retire column, Alessandra Malito looked at the numbers for a 72-year-old woman who has prepared well for retirement, but needs to decide whether or not she should purchase long-term care insurance.
Estate planning: Our mom is 80 and in a downward spiral, and we don’t know how to protect her money. How do we avoid high taxes?
Boeing makes some moves
Boeing Co. BA CEO David Calhoun said this week that he would step down at the end of 2024. Boeing chairman Larry Kellner resigned and was replaced by Steve Mollenkopf, who was previously CEO of Qualcomm Inc. QCOM.
Mollenkopf will lead Boeing’s search for a new CEO, the company said.
Boeing also said that Stan Deal, who led its Commercial Airplanes unit, had retired and was replaced by Stephanie Pope, who had been serving as Boeing’s chief operating officer.
Kellner has degrees in electrical engineering, while Calhoun and Pope have accounting backgrounds.
With mounting concern over Boeing’s manufacturing quality, it wasn’t a surprise to see changes in leadership at the company. The question now is how Boeing can rehabilitate its manufacturing and its reputation for safety.
More reaction:
A sour note, even from a Tesla cheerleader
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives has long been a Tesla Inc. TSLA enthusiast. He continues to rate the stock “outperform,” and his price target for the stock is the second highest among 51 analysts polled by FactSet. Tesla’s share price has fallen 29% this year to $175.79.
On Thursday, Ives lowered his price target for Tesla to $300 from $315, and called the first quarter a “nightmare” for the company when it came to vehicle deliveries. Ciara Linnane and Claudia Assis covered this and other reactions to developments at Tesla, and previewed its delivery numbers.
Other EV-related coverage:
SBF fallout
Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of virtual currency exchange FTX, was convicted of fraud in November. On Thursday he was sentenced to 25 years in prison. FTX collapsed in November 2022, when billions of dollars of clients’ assets were inaccessible.
Frances Yue looked into how victims of SBF’s fraud had moved on and interviewed investors who were affected, including Anthony Scaramucci.
The housing market
Change is in the air, with some cooling down of certain housing markets in the U.S., and the National Association of Realtors’ settlement of lawsuits tied to commissions paid to home buyers’ agents. Here is coverage from Aarthi Swaminathan:
Most Read from MarketWatch
Signup bonus from
