Trump attacks Nasdaq over Truth Social's routine trading halt CNN Business

CNN
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Former President Donald Trump has criticized Nasdaq for halting regular trading of his social media company's shares and even threatened to remove the listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

“Why is NASDAQ stopping selling DJT?” Trump said on Truth Social on Friday, referring to the ticker symbol of Truth Social owner Trump Media and Technology Group. “What right do they have to do that? They've done it twice today. What's going on?”

Trump suggested that Nasdaq was “taking orders from the SEC,” an agency he accused of delaying the Trump Media merger for “political reasons.”

What happened was that Trump Media stock, which trades on the Nasdaq Composite, skyrocketed on Friday, after Trump himself broke the big news: He announced that he would not sell shares in the company.

The spike was so large that it triggered two five-minute trading breaks designed to provide a cooling period.

Such trading halts are regular and occur dozens of times a day for various stocks.

For Trump Media ( DJT ), the first break occurred at 2:26 pm ET and was lifted at 2:31 pm ET, according to Nasdaq's website. Trump announced during a press conference just minutes after he “will not sell” shares of the company. This comment raised the stock 25%.

The stock resumed trading at 2:34 pm ET before halting for another five minutes.

Nasdaq explained that the freezes were due to rules known as limit up-limit downs, designed “to protect investors and the public interest.”

“These types of stops are very common,” Joe Saluzzi, a market structure expert and co-founder of Themis Trading, told CNN in an email Saturday.

Saluzzi noted that such freezes are mandated by federal regulators and have covered the entire US exchange-listed stock market since 2013.

“Therefore, Mr. Trump's threat to move his stock from the Nasdaq to the NYSE will have no effect because both the Nasdaq and the NYSE follow the same SEC rules,” he said.

While this all seemed routine, Trump threatened to punish Nasdaq.

“I'm going to hold NASDAQ, and possibly the SEC, accountable for what they're doing,” he said in his Truth Social post. “If they do it again, we will move the stock to the New York Stock Exchange.”

Nasdaq did not respond to CNN's request for comment.