Crypto stocks, gun stocks and shares of other companies that could benefit from a Donald Trump presidency jumped on Monday after an assassination attempt on the Republican candidate boosted expectations he would win the November election. Trump’s survival after he was shot in the ear during a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday increased his already considerable lead in betting odds over President Joe Biden. Those odds rose more later on Monday after Trump chose US Senator J.D. Vance to be his vice presidential running mate as the Republican Party officially nominated the former president to run again at the start of the party’s national convention in Milwaukee. On politics-wagering website PredictIt, contracts for a Trump election victory traded at 70 cents, up from 60 cents on Friday, with a potential payout of $1. Contracts for a Biden victory were at 26 cents. Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group, majority-owned by Trump, soared 31 percent, lifting its stock market value to $7.7 billion, despite revenue comparable to two US Starbucks shops.
Trump Media is the parent company of social media platform Truth Social, and its shares have now surged 132 percent in 2024 as retail traders bet Trump will win a second term as president. Added: He previously served from 2017 to 2021.
“It’s nearly four months to go (until the election) and things can change, but today the markets are betting on Trump being the victor,” said Ben Laidler, head of equity strategy at Bradesco BBI, adding that Trump Media “is the tip of the spear and the most sensitive to a Trump victory.” Shares of electric vehicle maker Tesla ended 1.8 percent higher after billionaire CEO Elon Musk publicly endorsed Trump following the shooting.
Tesla gave back earlier gains of as much as 7 percent after the announcement of Vance as Trump’s running mate.
Vance last year introduced legislation to eliminate EV tax subsidies and replace them with tax credits for US-made gasoline or diesel-powered vehicles. The bill would gut a core part of the White House clean vehicle strategy and has no realistic chance of winning approval in the current Democratic-controlled Senate. Crypto stocks soared on Monday, tracking a 10 percent rally in bitcoin to a two-week high. Trump has presented himself as a champion of cryptocurrency. Crypto exchange Coinbase Global and bitcoin miners Riot Platforms and Marathon Digital jumped between 11 percent and 18 percent. Long-dated US bond yields rose on expectations that Trump policies would drive up government debt and stoke inflation, while the benchmark S&P 500 rose 0.3 percent.
“Most investors are not changing their overall commitment to US equities. After all, the broad stock market rose under the last Trump administration and has risen under the Biden administration as well,” said Rick Meckler, partner at Cherry Lane Investments.
Gun makers and ammunition stocks Smith & Wesson Brands , Sturm Ruger & Company and Ammo jumped between 5 percent and 15 percent. Gun stocks in the past have surged following mass shootings, civil unrest and fears of gun control that have led to people to buy more firearms out of fear that their availability would become limited.
Shares of private prison operators Geo Group and CoreCivic each jumped about 8 percent. Both are potential beneficiaries of a Trump presidency as he has promised to crack down on illegal immigration, which could boost demand for detention centers.
Video-sharing platform Rumble, popular with conservatives, soared 21 percent. Clean energy stocks slipped as Trump has said he would reverse many of the Biden administration’s signature climate policies, including tax incentives, if he wins the election.
The Invesco Solar ETF fell 5.9 percent and the iShares Global Clean Energy ETF fell 3.9 percent.
The iShares MSCI China ETF dropped about 2 percent. Investors believe a second Trump presidency could fuel trade tensions between Beijing and the United States. US voters view Trump as the better candidate for the economy, according to Reuters/Ipsos polls, even as Biden’s White House seeks to benefit from a solid economy with inflation slowing and low unemployment.
“In the absence of any real policy proclamations from Trump, traders are finding themselves having to speculate,” said Mark Malek, chief investment officer of Siebert Financial Corp.
“A second Trump presidency would mean expansionary economic stimulus in general, lower income taxes, less regulation, and increased tariffs.”
Trump Media, gun stocks surge after assassination attempt
https://arab.news/ye2ju
Trump Media, gun stocks surge after assassination attempt
US congresswoman supports censure of colleague over comments against Arabs, Muslims
- Republican Randy Fine ‘spreading hate,’ Democrat Robin Kelly tells Arab News
- ‘Members of Congress should not be targeting Muslims for political gain’
CHICAGO: Illinois Congresswoman Robin Kelly has said she supports calls in the US House to censure Florida Congressman Randy Fine, who has repeatedly made derogatory comments about Muslims and Arabs on his official social media accounts.
Kelly, a Democrat, denounced anti-Muslim and anti-Arab statements made by Fine, a Republican, saying she expects a censure resolution to be put together by House members possibly next week.
“There’s just no room for hate. That’s just the bottom line. I’ve seen hate. It causes people to lose their lives. It causes people to not have the same opportunities as other people. It causes people to have extra stress, extra trauma. And to categorize a whole group of people is so unfair,” Kelly told Arab News.
“I come from a family with a lot of different ethnicities or cultures, and I’ve seen the damage that hate has done in categorizing any one community.
“The Islamic community is just always presented as the bad guy in the movies and on TV … Being a person of color and seeing things that even my own family have gone through, I’m just very sensitive to it.”
Last month, when a supporter of New York’s Muslim Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on social media that dogs have no place in a Muslim home, Fine wrote: “If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one.”
Then on Feb. 20, Fine introduced to Congress the “Protecting Puppies from Sharia Act,” cosponsored by nine Republicans.
Fine has been criticized in the past for making Islamophobic and anti-Arab comments on his social medial pages.
Last May, when Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib said it was “a crime to use starvation as a weapon in Gaza,” Fine responded: “Tell your fellow Muslim terrorists to release the hostages and surrender. Until then, #StarveAway.”
During his election campaign in December 2023, in response to an anonymous poster on X who criticized delays in getting food trucks into Gaza, Fine wrote: “Stop the trucks. Let them eat rockets. There are plenty of those. #Bombsaway.”
Before running for Congress, responding to a New York Times report and photo of 67 Arab children killed by Israel, he said: “Thanks for the pic.”
Muslim groups in Florida have been complaining about Fine’s rhetoric since 2021, including after he sent a private Instagram message to a Florida Muslim saying: “Go blow yourself up!”
Kelly said she is also disturbed by the comments of Fine’s allies, citing them as a broader undercurrent of Islamophobia rising in the US.
She insisted that Islamophobia is no different than antisemitism or racism against other groups, including African Americans like herself.
Fine and Tennessee Congressman Andy Ogles “are spreading hate and should be censured,” Kelly wrote on her own Facebook page this past week.
“Our country is already divided enough, members of Congress should not be targeting Muslims for political gain.”
Ogles, a cosponsor of the “Protecting Puppies from Sharia Act,” declared: “Muslims don’t belong in American society. Pluralism is a lie.”
Kelly, who was elected to Congress in 2013, said: “I think they should all be censured. I say to people that feel the Islamophobia, ‘Don’t get weary, don’t get lost in the chaos. That’s what they want you to do. You can’t go in your house and close the door. You have to be a voice. You can’t stay on the sidelines because this isn’t acceptable.’”
Arab News reached out to Fine for comment.
