Facebook shares trim gains after early pop

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg rings the Nasdaq's opening bell from Menlo Park, Calif.

By Roland Jones

Updated at 2:00 p.m. ET: After jumping more than 10 percent at the start of trading, shares of Facebook pulled back in their market debut Friday, suggesting a cooler-than-expected reception for one of the most watched initial public offerings of stock of recent years.

Facebook?s stock jumped to?$43 in initial trading, up about 13 percent from an IPO price of $38. But the stock quickly gave back some of its initial jump and fell as low as $38 in their first half hour of trading, at which point IPO underwriters stepped in to support its price, according to reports. Facebook?s share price was lately trading just below $41.

The broader stock market was lower Friday, with social media stocks among the day?s biggest losers. Shares of LinkedIn, Pandora and Groupon were all lower.

Facebook?s opening trade was delayed. Its stock was originally due to begin trading on the Nasdaq stock market at 11 a.m. ET, but was delayed by about 30 minutes as traders experienced problems with changing and canceling orders they had submitted to the Nasdaq, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Despite the technical difficulties, retail demand for the Facebook offering was very strong, traders told CNBC, with an expected retail component of 15 percent to 25 percent. Trading volume in Facebook exceeded 100 million shares in the first three minutes of the stock?s trading, the Journal said.

Facebook?s market reception was unusual. Other recent big Internet IPOs have seen strong starts, including LinkedIn, which went public almost exactly a year ago at $45 a share and closed at $94 on a volatile first day of trading that saw its shares top $122 at one point.

Related: Want a piece of Facebook? Here's what you need to know

That means investors lucky enough to get in at the offering price were able to book an immediate paper profit of more than 100 percent or?"flip" shares and cash in. Other investors paid as much as $122 a share for LinkedIn that day and were left with paper losses. (LinkedIn shares currently trade for about $100.)?

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg reminds employees the company's mission is to make the world more open and connected. Then he rings the opening bell.

Groupon, another recent Internet IPO, leaped 27 percent on its opening day.

Earlier Friday, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg rang the opening bell for the Nasdaq stock market from Facebook?s headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. Shares of Facebook are now trading on the Nasdaq under the symbol ?FB.? (You can track the performance of Facebook?s stock price here).

Facebook went public after the close of trading Thursday at $38 a share, raising $16 billion in a landmark initial public offering that values the company at more than $100 billion.

Investment banks organizing the?stock offering set the price at the top end of the range of $34 to $38 per share estimated by Facebook in a regulatory filing earlier this week.

At $38 a share, the offering values the eight-year-old company at $104 billion, making its IPO the largest-ever stock market debut for an Internet company. It will raise more than?$16 billion for Facebook and selling shareholders, including?Zuckerberg, and ultimately could raise up to?$18.4 billion, assuming underwriters exercise their option for ?overallotments? to meet strong demand.

Related: Facebook founder Zuckerberg opens trading at Nasdaq

Zuckerberg updated his profile on Facebook Friday morning, listing his company on the Nasdaq market.

Facebook has enjoyed remarkably swift growth. In just eight years the company has gone from a college service founded in a Harvard dorm to the third-largest public offering of stock in U.S. history, after stock offerings from General Motors and Visa.

The sky-high valuation of Facebook puts it a bit ahead of Web veteran Amazon.com, which has more than 10 times Facebook's $3.7 billion in revenue. But Facebook is growing quickly and posted $1 billion in profits last year, more than Amazon's $631 million.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Facebook will make its much-hyped debut on Wall Street Friday morning, and it's shaping up to be one of the largest IPOs ever, with analysts predicting the social network will be valued at more than $100 billion. TODAY's Savannah Guthrie takes a look at whether the stock will live up to the hype.

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