Trump ‘loves the Truth’

Hey Superheroes,

Good news abounds this week with both the S&P 500 and ASX 200 closing at yet another new high and of course… the extra long weekend! 

The only bummer really is that cocoa prices have more than tripled in the last year, so you might have to fork out a bit extra for those Easter chocolates. They might be tasting a bit bittersweet this year.

Before you clock off for the week, here are your stories. 

Donald Trump’s one-day gain of US$4.6 billion 

Know that feeling when your portfolio suddenly jumps by a couple hundred bucks, or even a few grand, in one day? Now multiply that excitement by about 1,000… that’s what Donald Trump must’ve felt when he saw his portfolio jump by a solid 10-figures last Tuesday. 

Trump Media & Technology Group (NASDAQ: DJT), of which Trump holds roughly a 60% stake, made its public debut via a SPAC (more on that in a moment) just two days ago. It jumped by as much as 59% on its first day.

📱 “I LOVE THE TRUTH!”

Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) has quite the interesting history. It was incorporated in February 2021 – a few weeks after Donald Trump infamously got booted off mainstream social media platforms. TMTG currently operates TMTG News and Truth Social, a social media platform that looks a little biiiitttt like Twitter. 

While TMTG hasn’t published data on its user base, some estimates put it at about 1 million monthly active users. In comparison, fellow market debutant Reddit had 73.1 million daily active users last quarter. 

At the height of its share price rally, Truth Social had a market value of over $1,000 per signed-up user, compared to $147 per active user for Reddit, $80 for Twitter (or X) and $46 for Snapchat.

🧐 What’s a SPAC?

TMTG made its public debut through a SPAC, which is short for “Special Purpose Acquisition Company.” SPACs function as publicly-traded entities created with the goal of eventually merging with or acquiring an existing company. It’s often used as an alternative to an IPO, as merging with a SPAC requires less paperwork and regulatory burden.

What’s unique is that investors can readily trade shares of a SPAC on the market prior to any merger. In this scenario, you might notice that the ticker NASDAQ:DJT already had a price history before TMTG merged with it on Tuesday.

Fun fact: In 2020, SPACs accounted for more than half of newly listed U.S. companies.

TMTG is available on Superhero under the ticker, DJT.US.

🔦  Some other things we’re shining the Spotlight on:

• DESPITE TAYLOR SWIFT: The latest inflation data for the 12 months ending in February stayed at 3.40%, below the expected 3.50%. Experts breathed a sigh of relief, as they had anticipated Taylor Swift’s February concerts to potentially cause a spike in inflation.
• MESO-BLASTED THROUGH: Mesoblast (ASX:MSB) is up just over 65% for the week after reporting progress with the U.S. FDA towards getting one of its treatments approved. Mesoblast will be filing a resubmission of its application next quarter.
• ONE BILLIONAIRE IS ALL IT TAKES: Platinum Asset Management (ASX:PTM) plunged over 20% after revealing that it lost A$1.4B in funds under management from one client deciding to rebalance their portfolio. The drop in funds would result in about A$18M in lost fees per year.

That’s all for this week’s Spotlight! AU markets will be closed tomorrow and on Monday, while US markets will be closed tomorrow but reopen on Monday.

Keep up to date with market news and insights by following us on Instagram, @superheroau! Happy Easter, everyone!