F-35

European stocks halted two days of declines, with the Stoxx 600 fractionally in the green and Italy’s bonds climbing after Monte Paschi requested a bailout and Italy pledged to provide support for its other ailing lenders. S&P futures were little changed among extremely thin volumes while Chinese stocks dropped amid concerns on higher borrowing costs. Oil slid, while gold advanced; bitcoin soared to multi-year highs, rising above $900.

Another day, another market-moving tweet from Donald Trump.

Moments ago, the president-elect, following up on his recent spat with Lockheed over the F-35, which one week ago Trump said its "program and cost is out of control”, continued his crusade on over-budget government programs, when he tweeted that "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 Super Hornet!"

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In response to president-elect Trump's tweet over "out of control costs", Lockheed Martin has officially responded:

"This is an amazing day for the Israeli people. It's exciting to bring this airplane and its capabilities to the country.

 

We welcome the opportunity to address any questions the president-elect has about the program. It's an amazing program. Lockheed Martin and its industry partners understand the importance of affordability for the F-35 program.