Facebook shares climbed Wednesday in premarket trading after its long-awaited initial public offering was followed by a two-day slide in stock price.
The stock advanced nearly 3 percent, or 86 cents to $31.86 but remained below its IPO price of $38.
Facebook shares opened trading on Friday at $42.05 and climbed to $45 before closing at $38.23 that day, barely above the IPO price. Shares then dropped 10 percent from the IPO price on Monday, and the stock closed at $31 on Tuesday, down 18 percent from the IPO.
Investors had been hoping for a big first-day pop in the share price after Facebook's IPO raised $16 billion, valuing the company at $104 billion — more than Amazon.com Inc., at $98 billion.
On Tuesday, regulators said they were examining whether Morgan Stanley, the investment bank that shepherded Facebook Inc. through its IPO, selectively informed clients of an analyst's negative report about the company before the stock started trading.
The bank said that its procedures complied with regulations and it "followed the same procedures for the Facebook offering that it follows for all IPOs."
And the first class action lawsuits for Facebook shareholders have begun to roll in.
The stock trades on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker symbol "FB."
