Facebook Closes at $38.18 After Hectic Day

Massive hype. Massive volume.

A disappointing close.

After YEARS of anticipation, shares of Facebook finally started trading on the NASDAQ earlier today.

Facebook ended up pricing their initial public offering (IPO) at $38/share due to intense demand from retail investors.

The stock opened up at $42.05, traded down almost immediately to $38, rebounded into the low $40s and then closed the day at just over $38/share. The stock WANTED to drop below the $38 level late in the day, but the IPO's underwriters just wouldn't let that happen. Facebook's performance today was embarrassing enough as it was - if the stock had actually closed in the red, it would have been an unmitigated disaster. The underwriters of the Facebook IPO created a wall at $38 and just wouldn't surrender.

How the stock trades next week and into the future? That will be interesting. If Facebook loses the $38/share level, it could easily trade down into the low $30s.

Most people were of the opinion that Facebook would trade MUCH higher today. Most of the closing price predictions that I saw today were in the mid $40s and low $50s - not too many people were predicting that Facebook would close unchanged.

If you bought off the open today (as many people did), that means that you are currently down roughly 10% on your investment.

If you were "lucky" enough to get some of the actual initial public offering, you are BARELY up on your investment. I'm sure that many of the people who were able to get some of the IPO shares were figuring that they were likely to see a return of between 25-50% today.

Volume for Facebook today was MASSIVE - over 573 million shares of the stock ended up changing hands today. The volume in the first and last hours of trading was particularly heavy.

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Where will Facebook trade next week? Will it be able to keep its head above the $38 mark, or is it destined to trade lower without the support of underwriters?

All in all, today's IPO was a big disappointment.

Filed under: General Market News | Internet Companies