Trump's big trip was supposed to sell 500 Boeing planes. China is only buying 200 of them.

By Claudia Assis

Boeing's stock takes its steepest fall in six months

Wall Street was expecting a much larger Chinese jet order for Boeing.

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg went to China with President Donald Trump amid hopes that the visit would result in China ordering about 500 Boeing airplanes.

Trump said Thursday that China would be buying 200 jets, a much smaller order than Wall Street expected. It was a setback for Boeing and for the long-anticipated meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Boeing's stock promptly fell and was logged its steepest drop in six months.

Trump, who is on a historic visit to China with a delegation that includes the CEOs of more than a dozen of the biggest U.S. companies, told Fox News how many planes were being ordered by China. Boeing (BA) did not immediately return a request for comment or confirm the order.

For months, Wall Street had speculated that China would order about 500 aircraft from Boeing, after nearly a decade of not ordering any from the company.

Boeing shares dropped 4.7% on Thursday, to the lowest close in two weeks and the worst one-day decline since Oct. 30, when they dropped 6.3%.

The selloff reversed an earlier gain of as much as 1.4% at stock's intraday high.

On Tuesday, Boeing reported the delivery of 47 commercial jets in April, up from 45 in April 2025. The company also received orders for 136 planes in April. Its backlog of unfilled orders stands at 6,814, up from 6,726 at the end of March.

Ortberg said in late April that orders from China would be "100% dependent on the U.S.-China negotiations and relations." He added that he was "highly confident" that if an agreement between the two countries was cemented, it would include aircraft orders.

Ortberg made those comments to analysts after Boeing reported better-than-expected first-quarter results last month. He declined to give the number of airplanes expected for the order, only saying that it was "a big number."

An order for 200 jets might certainly be described by some as big, just not as big as Wall Street was expecting.

-Claudia Assis

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