If you’re a stockholder with the company that makes Etch A Sketch, you’ve got Mitt Romney and one of his political advisers to thank for a sudden bounce.
Shares in Ohio Art (OART), makers of the child’s toy, more than doubled to $9.65 today after Etch A Sketch became a dominant theme in the GOP presidential race.
Bloomberg News reported the stock price went up after three trades totaling 800 shares on the over-the-counter market. It reached a high of $12.50 for the biggest intraday rise in more than 30 years, Bloomberg said.
Etch A Sketch is part of the political firmament after Romney strategist Eric Fehrnstrom was asked in a CNN interview about the candidate’s political strategy for the general election.
“I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes. It’s like Etch A Sketch,” Fehrnstrom said Wednesday. “You can shake it up, and we start all over again.”
The firestorm over the comment consumed the Romney campaign for most of Wednesday and continues today as GOP rival Rick Santorum and Democrats keep playing up the remark.
Santorum held up the toy at a Texas campaign event, calling Romney an “Etch A Sketch candidate” who isn’t a true conservative. Romney has insisted his views won’t change in the fall if he is the nominee.
Fehrnstrom made light of the flap on Twitter today.
“Etch A Sketch stock is up? Psst, I’ll mention Mr. Potato Head next. Buy Hasbro,” he tweeted with a link to a National Journal story about the stock jump.
{USA Today/Matzav.com Newscenter}
did he say gas prices???