Trump Brags About China Ordering 200 Boeing Jets — Then Boeing Loses Billions in Market Value

Boeing shares dropped more than 4% just moments after President Donald Trump went on Fox News on Thursday, May 14, and announced that China’s President Xi Jinping had agreed to buy 200 Boeing jets during their meeting in Beijing.

“One thing he agreed to today, he’s going to order 200 jets … 200 big ones,” Trump told host Sean Hannity.

Boeing shares dropped more than 4% during trading on Thursday, wiping out billions in market value.

The reason for this drop is that investors had been hoping for something much bigger, like 500 jets, and not just 200.

Expectations Were Set Too High

Negotiators had been working toward a package of around 500 planes, including 737 MAX jets and possibly some widebody jets, said people familiar with the talks. The 200-jet announcement fell short of those hopes.

Details of the new deal, such as delivery timelines and exact models, were not released right away. The White House did not immediately respond to questions about the market’s reaction.

This was supposed to be one of the big business wins from Trump’s trip to China. The two leaders were also discussing an extension of last October’s trade truce, which paused steep U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods and eased tensions over rare earth mineral supplies.

Boeing has been counting on strong Chinese orders, as China is the world’s second-largest aviation market and needs hundreds of new planes every year to keep up with growing air travel demand.

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Analysts say the country will require around 1,000 new jetliners in the near term and as many as 9,000 by 2045.

For Boeing, China has always been a critical customer. The last major order came during Trump’s first term, in November 2017, when Chinese airlines agreed to buy 300 Boeing aircraft while the president was in Beijing.

Relations between the two countries worsened after that, and Boeing has only secured 51 additional orders from China since then, most of them freighters.

This time, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg traveled with Trump and other American executives, hoping to close deals. Trump has made it a point during trade talks to press other countries to buy more American planes.

Investors Left Disappointed

But the smaller number announced Thursday left some investors disappointed. Matt Akers, an aerospace analyst at BNP Paribas, told Reuters that more orders could still come through during this trip. Still, he said, “right now investors are interpreting this as being less than hoped for.”

Chinese aircraft purchases often carry a strong political element. Beijing’s central government must approve big buys by its airlines, and those decisions frequently line up with diplomatic visits or summits.

The actual airlines that will fly the planes are sometimes not even named until closer to delivery.

China has been playing both sides of the Atlantic. It has also been in talks with Airbus for a deal of a similar size.

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For years, the European company has been chipping away at Boeing’s share of the Chinese market. Airbus even opened an assembly plant in Tianjin to build A320 family jets locally.

Both planemakers know that whoever locks in more of China’s future fleet will have a major advantage for decades to come.

Boeing’s stock reaction on Thursday reflected the gap between the hype and the numbers.

Before the announcement, many on Wall Street had priced in expectations of a much larger package. When the figure of 200 jets came out, the market sold off.

Trump’s Key Trade Strategy

Trump has repeatedly highlighted aircraft sales as a key part of his trade strategy.

During his first term and now in his second, he has pushed foreign leaders to increase purchases of Boeing planes to help American workers and reduce the trade deficit.

Trump described the agreement as progress and proof that his approach to China is working. However, the market, at least on Thursday, delivered a different verdict.