Shares in Trump Media slump after former president convicted in hush money trial

Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group, the owner of social networking site Truth Social, slumped Thursday after former U.S. president Donald Trump was convicted in his hush money trial.

Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group, the owner of social networking site Truth Social, slumped Thursday after former U.S. president Donald Trump was convicted in his hush money trial.

A New York jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business records in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through hush money payments to a porn actor who said the two had sex.

Trump Media's stock was down about nine per cent in after-hours trading Thursday as news of the verdict emerged.

The stock, which trades under the ticker symbol "DJT," has been extraordinarily volatile since its debut in late March, joining the group of meme stocks that are prone to ricochet from highs to lows as small-pocketed investors attempt to catch an upward momentum swing at the right time.

The stock has tripled this year, in the process frequently making double-digit percentage moves either higher or lower on a single day. It peaked at nearly US$80 in intraday trading on March 26. For context, the S&P 500 is up almost 10 per cent year to date.

Earlier this month, Trump Media reported that it lost more than US$300 million last quarter, according to its first earnings report as a publicly traded company.

For the three-month period that ended March 31, the company posted a loss of US$327.6 million, which it said included $311 million in non-cash expenses related to its merger with a company called Digital World Acquisition Corp. DWAC was an example of what's known as a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, which can give young companies quicker and easier routes to getting their shares trading publicly, but with much less scrutiny.