By Heard Editors
Lincoln-Douglas it wasn't.
On a light day for corporate and economic news, the buzz was all about Thursday night's first (and last?) presidential debate between presumptive Republican candidate Donald Trump and President Joe Biden. Viewers weren't expecting great oratory from either man, but the postmortems were about style, not substance.
As the debate was still running and Biden showed his age with a shaky performance, betting markets shifted notably in Trump's favor. The odds of someone else being the Democratic nominee rose as well (a possibility that is no longer taboo within the party according to Wall Street Journal reporting). It was instructive to see how markets reacted Friday to Trump's increased odds. Like some voters, they had a surprisingly hard time making up their minds.
Take the company most associated with Trump, and the one whose ticker symbol bears his initials. Trump Media & Technology Group shares jumped in early trading and then slumped sharply, dropping by 11%.
Leading cryptocurrencies, which Trump has recently seen favoring, fell with the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index down 2.26%. "Bitcoin Bros" Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss recently endorsed the former president and donated heavily to his campaignin their favorite unit of exchange, naturally.
Likewise, oil and gas stocks, after some initial excitement about the improved fortunes of a candidate seen as less-antagonistic to fossil fuels, gave up some of their initial gains. Oil and natural gas futures prices themselves fell.
One surprise winner, and surely the oddest of them all, was a Chinese company that has nothing to do with U.S. presidential politics. Shares of Wisesoft, whose local language pronunciation sounds like "Trump," surged and were halted in local trading says Hong Kong based reporter Rebecca Feng.
The day's biggest mover among blue chip stocks was Nike, a Dow component. After another weak quarter, its shares plunged 20%. As Heard on the Street's Jinjoo Lee explains, its pullback from popular shoe lines has left its product slate bare and investors frustrated. Neither Biden nor Nike will be changing their mottos to "Just Blew It," but that certainly was the consensus.
The week's final trading session also marked the last one of the quarter and the first half of 2024. Those periods started with a bang but ended with a mild whimper: All three major U.S. stock indices retreated with the hottest of them all, the Nasdaq Composite, dropping the most Fridaya 0.7% decline.
This item is part of a Wall Street Journal live coverage event. The full stream can be found by searching P/WSJL (WSJ Live Coverage).
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 28, 2024 17:30 ET (21:30 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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