Investing.com -- Shares of Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) sunk today on news that President-elect Trump is unhappy with the defense contractor's performance, and has asked rival Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) to provide a price quote for a replacement fighter plane.
The F-35 price has doubled, and the number of aircraft delivered to the military has been small, at fewer than 200 fighters, according to defense analysts.
Shares of Lockheed dropped yesterday by 2%, and another 1.17% today during intraday trading.
The price per share is now $249.88, down $2.92.
"Based on the tremendous cost and cost-overruns of the Lockheed-Martin F-35, I have asked Boeing to price-out a comparable F-18 Hornet," said Trump in a posting on the Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) social media site.
President Barack Obama also had issues with the F-35 when he came to office in 2009 and worked with Congress on the issue, apparently to no avail, however, as the problems persist.
President-elect Trump has made a lot of news in the military sphere in recent days, meeting with the leading defense contractors and calling for an arms race -- meaning a move to improve nuclear weapons technologies, not the number of warheads -- while he is on a working Christmas vacation at the Mar-a-Lago resort he owns in Palm Beach, Fla.