Toyota shares plummeted within minutes of a threatening tweet from the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, causing the company to lose around $1.2 billion in value.
The car company tanked on the stock market within five minutes of Donald Trump vowing to stop the firm from moving to Baja California in Mexico, where it already has a plant.
Mr Trump was seemingly responding to comments made by Toyota Motor president Akio Toyota at an auto industry event that the company was still forging ahead with plans to up production in Mexico.
“We will consider our option as we see what policies the incoming president adopts,” he said.
Honda president and CEO Takahiro Hachigo added: “We produce cars in Mexico for markets including North America and Europe and we have no immediate plan to change this.”
Mr Trump responded there was “no way” the move was going to happen.
“Build plant in US or pay big border tax!” he tweeted.
Mr Trump sent the tweet at 1.14pm ET, and within minutes the share price of the $200 billion market capitalisation company plummeted. Shortly before New York stock markets closed on Thursday, the share price had not recovered and were down from pre-tweet by 0.5 per cent.
The Baja California plant makes about 100,000 pickup trucks per year, but the company wants to raise this number to around 160,000. The proposed $1 billion plant in Guanajuato would shift production of the compact Corollas from Canada and make about 200,000 per year.
The drop in shares, which are likely to rebound after the immediate shock has worn off, is not the first time Mr Trump’s tweets have played havoc with company values.
Source: US Independent
Loud Whispers 
Leave a comment