What happened
Shares of GoPro (GPRO +1.65%) soared as much as 18.2% before giving back some of those gains to trade up around 8% as of 3:30 p.m. EDT Friday. The move came on heavy trading volume despite a lack of company-specific news, even with the broader market down today -- the Nasdaq index is off 1.4% as of this writing -- on reports that President Trump is considering whether to restrict investments in Chinese equities.
So what
To be clear, any news on China trade shouldn't positively influence GoPro. The company already told investors late last month that Chinese tariffs are not expected to impact its second-half 2019 performance, primarily as it moved the majority of its U.S.-bound camera production to Mexico in June.
GoPro's HERO7 line of cameras were launched in September 2018. Image source: GoPro.
But there is another potential culprit for today's move. In keeping with its typical annual launch cadence (its popular HERO7 camera line was introduced in late September last year), GoPro is widely expected to introduce new camera models next week.
Now what
If that happens, it would help fulfill CEO Nick Woodman's recent promise for a stronger second half driven partly by the "strength of new products slated for later this year."
Even with new cameras spurring it forward, GoPro will still have plenty of work to do in order to return to sustained, profitable growth over the long term. So I'll reiterate that investors would do well to focus on the health of its underlying business as it implements its ongoing turnaround. But for now, as traders position themselves for a potentially encouraging new product lineup, it's not particularly surprising to see GoPro rallying on a down day for the broader markets.
