President Donald Trump’s praise for companies that invest in U.S. operations has been shown to positively affect stocks—but that’s not really working out for Toyota.
On Monday, Japan-based automotive manufacturer Toyota said it would invest some $1.3 billion in a Kentucky plant as part of its previously announced plan to invest $10 billion in the United States. President Trump was quoted in the company’s press release, saying that this announcement is “further evidence that manufacturers are now confident that the economic climate has greatly improved under my administration and echoes the recent National Association of Manufacturers’ 2017 Outlook Survey showing that 93% of manufacturers are now optimistic, which is an increase of 37% from just a few months ago.”
But despite his praise, Toyota’s shares remained largely flat throughout the day, even while its peers Ford and General Motors were up over 1% at points in the day. For comparison, shares of Charter Communications jumped 3% in March after Trump praised its plan to hire 20,000 workers in the U.S. over the next four years. Ford shares rose 2% in March, too, after Trump praised the company’s decision to invest $1.2 billion in Michigan plants as part of a previously announced agreement with the United Auto Workers union.
It’s unclear what exactly caused Toyota’s stock to stay flat. It’s possible investors already priced in Toyota’s $1.2 billion investment, seeing as the company first announced that $10 billion figure back in January. At that time, Trump had brought attention to Toyota for its plans to build a plant in Mexico.
