Boeing Co. Investors shrugged off President-elect Donald Trump’s threat to cancel an order with the aerospace giant to build Air Force One planes, after comments by the company and the White House suggested the numbers Trump quoted didn’t add up. 
 
 Boeing’s stock BA, -0.24% inched up 8 cents, or less than 0.1%, but had been down as much as 1.4% earlier in the session. 
 
 Based on 647.9 million shares outstanding as of Sept. 30, according to the company’s third-quarter report, the stock’s gain Boeing’s market capitalization by $51.8 million, a lot better than the $1.39 billion that was lost at the stock’s intraday low of $150.02. 
 
 The stock had dropped in morning trade after Trump tweeted that an order for Boeing to build a new Air Force One should be canceled because costs had risen to over $4 billion, which would be well more than double earlier budget estimates. 
 
 Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion. Cancel order! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 6, 2016 
 
 He also told reporters in the lobby of Trump Tower, where he works and lives, that the building of the plane was “totally out of control,” as costs were spiraling, according to ABC News. 
 
 “I think it’s ridiculous. I think Boeing is doing a little bit of a number,” Trump said. “We want Boeing to make a lot of money, but not that much money.” 
 
 Trump claims new Air Force One "out of control": "We want Boeing to make a lot of money, but not that much money." https://t.co/pSI7kxR3uH pic.twitter.com/73qk508UA5 — ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) December 6, 2016 
 
 But Boeing’s response to Trump’s comments suggested a very different number. 
 
 “We are currently under contract for $170 million to determine the capabilities of these complex military aircraft that serve the unique requirements of the President of the United States,” Boeing said in a statement. “We look forward to working with the U.S. Air Force on subsequent phases of the program allowing us to deliver the best planes for the President at the best value for the American taxpayer.” 
 
 The White House also questioned Trump’s numbers. 
 
 “I’d refer to my colleagues at the Department of Defense for the particulars of the procurement contract,” said press secretary Josh Earnest. “Some on the statistics that have been, uh, cited, shall we say, don’t appear to reflect the nature of the financial agreement between Boeing and the Department of Defense.” 
 
 Boeing had secured a contract in January to start work on the 747-8 jumbo jets that would replace the planes used as Air Force One beginning early next decade. Although the Pentagon didn’t disclose the expected cost of the two new planes at the time, earlier budget estimates put the cost at more than $1.6 billion. 
 
 Before Trump’s tweet, which was sent just before 9 a.m. Eastern, ahead of the stock market’s open, the stock had traded unchanged at $152.16. 
 
 FactSet 
 
 The stock slid to a premarket low of $149.75, down 1.6% from Monday’s close, before recovering slightly. Since the opening bell, the stock has traded within a range of $150.02 to $152.64. 
 
 Trump’s tweet and comments come after Boeing Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg made comments that could be interpreted as veiled criticism of Trump’s trade policies. In a speech to the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association on Friday, Muilenburg cautioned against “antiglobalization sentiments” propagated by candidates before the election, and against pulling back from trade agreements “that have set the rules for international commerce for decades.” 
 
 Don’t miss: Opinion: The ‘market,’ it turns out, doesn’t love Donald Trump’s policies. 
 
 See also: What President-elect Trump means for every U.S. industry. 
 
 Boeing’s stock has gained 5.3% so far in 2016, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.33% has climbed 10.5%. Shares of Boeing rival Airbus Group SE AIR, +1.74% have lost 4.2% this year. 
 
 Rob Schroeder contributed to this report. ||||| This post has been updated. 
 
 Shares of stock in aircraft manufacturer Boeing fell nearly $2 a share before markets opened on Tuesday. 
 
 The reason? A tweet from the president-elect. 
 
 Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion. Cancel order! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 6, 2016 
 
 Were Boeing to lose a $4 billion contract, that would certainly cause people to be skeptical of future earnings. But this, as seems always to be the case with Donald Trump tweets, is not the full story. 
 
 As our Christian Davenport reports, the contract with Boeing is currently $170 million. The government's plan to replace Air Force One actually involves two different planes which would serve future presidents for years to come. Boeing won the contract in 2015; the new planes are expected to be operational in about a decade. The $170 million isn't for manufacturing, after all. It's for Boeing's work "determin[ing] the capabilities" of the planes they will eventually produce. 
 
 It was natural to wonder, given the apparently unprompted nature of Trump's tweet, if part of his comment was meant to suggest he would prefer to use his existing aircraft for the job of the presidency. His campaign spent $6.7 million on his personal aircraft after he announced his candidacy, and he has called Air Force One "a step down" from his personal aircraft "in every way." (Not size, mind you.) Once Trump received a Secret Service detail, the agency paid $1.6 million for its agents to travel with him -- money that went to TAG Air, a company owned by Trump. 
 
 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump documented the changes he made to his 757 jet in a 2011 video on his YouTube channel. (Donald Trump/YouTube) 
 
 Trump's current plane is also a Boeing. 
 
 The Air Force wouldn't let Trump keep using his plane as president, though, unless it were significantly upgraded. As CNN reported earlier this month, Trump's personal plane would need to be upgraded with critical functionality to serve as his official aircraft. That includes missile detection and avoidance systems, electromagnetic shielding, mid-air refueling mechanisms and confidential communications systems. The cost of those upgrades would be up to Trump. 
 
 As it turns out, though, the Trump tweet may not have been unprompted. CNN's Jake Tapper noted on Twitter that shortly before the tweet (which was posted at 8:52 a.m. Eastern) the Chicago Tribune posted an article quoting the company's CEO, Dennis Muilenberg. (The comments were made at a speech on Friday, not in an interview with the Tribune, as this article originally indicated.) 
 
 "Anyone who paid attention to the recent campaigns and the election results realizes that one of the overarching themes was apprehension about free and fair trade," Muilenberg said at the Illinois Manufacturing Association last week, as noted by Tribune columnist Robert Reed. Fair trade has helped Boeing, which prides itself on being America's largest manufacturing exporter. 
 
 "Last year, we delivered 495 737s from our factory in Renton, Wash., to customers around the world," Muilenberg continued, noting that a third of the planes were sent to China. "This phenomenon would have been unimaginable when I started at the company in 1985." 
 
 Those are pointed comments. It was Trump, of course, who robustly criticized free trade during the general election. And it is Trump who, this week, seemed to threaten a trade war with China. 
 
 Shortly after tweeting that Boeing's contract to build the next Air Force One should be canceled, Dec. 6, President-elect Trump told reporters in the lobby of Trump Tower he wants the company "to make a lot of money but not that much money." (The Washington Post) 
 
 That story has a dateline of 7:30 Central time -- 8:30 Eastern. Trump's tweet came out a few minutes later. 
 
 Update: On the "Today" show on Wednesday morning, Trump denied that he'd seen the Tribune story. 
 
 Trump says he didn't see the article in which Boeing's head criticized him before he sent a tweet saying he would cancel a contract. — Jenna Johnson (@wpjenna) December 7, 2016 
 
 We don't know that Trump was responding to the Tribune story. We do know that the last time he tweeted an out-of-the-blue opinion, about flag-burning, it was immediately after a Fox News segment showing students burning flags. 
 
 We also know that Trump's tweet tanked Boeing's stock price, albeit only briefly. In 2013, Trump tweeted about having just bought stock in Boeing ("great company!"), but his spokesman said on Tuesday that the president-elect no longer holds stock in Boeing, or anything else, having sold it all in June. 
 
 The fluctuations in Boeing's stock price that may have stemmed from Trump's annoyance at a news article criticizing his policies in the lightest of terms, then, only affected other people. 
 
 Update: Some good news for shareholders: Boeing's stock ended the day up slightly. ||||| FILE - In this Nov. 6, 2016 file photo, military personnel salute as Air Force One, with President Barack Obama aboard, departs at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. President-elect Donald Trump wants the government's... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this Nov. 6, 2016 file photo, military personnel salute as Air Force One, with President Barack Obama aboard, departs at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. President-elect Donald Trump wants the government's contract for a new Air Force One canceled. ( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) (Associated Press) 
 
 NEW YORK (AP) — The government should cancel its multibillion-dollar order for new Air Force One presidential planes, Donald Trump declared Tuesday, serving notice he's ready to jump in and start making decisions six weeks before his inauguration. 
 
 Costs for the two Boeing 747s are "totally out of control," Trump told reporters in the lobby of his New York skyscraper. 
 
 The government has contracted with Boeing to build two or more new planes, which would go into service around 2024. That means Trump wouldn't fly on the new planes, which carry U.S. presidents around the globe, unless he pursued and won a second term. But the Air Force has pressed for a faster schedule, saying the current planes are becoming too expensive to repair and keep in good flying shape. 
 
 The contract for the planes was to be about $3 billion, but costs have been reported to be rising. Trump tweeted early Tuesday, "Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion. Cancel order!" 
 
 Later, he said the costs are ridiculous: "I think Boeing is doing a little bit of a number. We want Boeing to make a lot of money, but not that much money. 
 
 The price of Boeing stock dipped after his comments but not drastically. 
 
 Asked for comment about Trump's statements, Boeing spokesman Todd Blecher said, "We are going to have to get back to you after we figure out what's going on." 
 
 Trump now uses his own plane, a Boeing 757, but as president he would travel aboard the Air Force jet, which is equipped with special safety, defensive and communications equipment. 
 
 Later Tuesday, Trump is making the second stop of this "thank you" tour in North Carolina, less than a week after his bombastic return to rallies at an Ohio appearance that felt more like a raucous campaign stop than a traditional speech by a president-to-be. 
 
 At that Cincinnati stop, Trump disparaged the media as "dishonest," inspired loud "Build the wall" chants, took swipes at fellow Republicans and stunned his own aides with his surprise announcement from the stage that he was appointing retired Gen. James Mattis as secretary of defense. 
 
 Mattis' selection was being formally announced Tuesday, and Mattis will appear with Trump at the evening event in Fayetteville, Vice President-elect Mike Pence said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." 
 
 Later this week there will be rallies in Iowa and Michigan as Trump barnstorms the country to salute his supporters who delivered the victories in the battleground states he needed to capture the White House. 
 
 The North Carolina rally comes a day after Trump chose retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson to be secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, raising fresh concerns about the lack of experience some of Trump's Cabinet picks have with agencies they're now being chosen to lead. 
 
 Carson, who opposed Trump in the Republican primaries, has no background in government or running a large bureaucracy. 
 
 Pence defended Carson's selection, saying he was "absolutely qualified" for the post. 
 
 South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Trump's choice to be ambassador to the United Nations, has no foreign policy experience. Steve Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs partner and Hollywood executive, is Trump's man to lead the Treasury Department but has never worked in government. And Mattis, a widely praised battlefield commander, spent decades in the Marines but now is tapped to run the nation's largest government agency, the Defense Department, with 740,000 civilian employees in addition to 1.3 million service personnel. 
 
 Democrats swiftly criticized Carson's qualifications for his job. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi called him a "disconcerting and disturbingly unqualified choice." And New York Sen. Charles Schumer said he had "serious concerns about Dr. Carson's lack of expertise and experience in dealing with housing issues. Someone who is as anti-government as him is a strange fit for housing secretary, to say the least." 
 
 Carson would oversee a budget of nearly $50 billion that provides rental assistance for more than 5 million households. Demand for that assistance is high in part because housing costs are rising faster than incomes. HUD also promotes home ownership with the Federal Housing Administration underwriting about 1 in 6 mortgages issued in the U.S. The agency is charged with enforcing federal fair housing laws, too. 
 
 In a statement, Trump said he was "thrilled to nominate" Carson, citing his "brilliant mind" and his passion "about strengthening communities and families within those communities." 
 
 Carson, who grew up poor, quickly endorsed Trump after ending his own presidential bid despite Trump noting what he called Carson's "pathological temper." Carson has been coy about joining the new administration, saying shortly after Trump's election victory that he wasn't certain he'd fit into a Cabinet-style role in a job like Health and Human Services secretary. 
 
 Trump's selections also highlight a frequent divide between the two major political parties in their strategies in filling out a Cabinet: In early 2009, Republicans criticized incoming President Barack Obama for not making enough selections with private-sector experience. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Reach Lemire on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire 
 
 ___ 
 
 AP Writer Joseph Pisani contributed ||||| A single tweet from President-elect Donald Trump had immediate real-world implications Tuesday morning, when shortly before the markets opened, Trump criticized Boeing for how expensive its new 747 Air Force One plane is: 
 
 Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion. Cancel order! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 6, 2016 
 
 He expanded upon that tweet in New York on Tuesday morning, saying "the plane is totally out of control. It's going to be over $4 billion for Air Force One program," he said, per CNBC. "I think it's ridiculous, I think Boeing is doing a little bit of a number. We want Boeing to make a lot of money, but not that much money." 
 
 At the mere threat of Trump canceling his order on the latest model of the presidential jet, Boeing's stock plummeted. At Tuesday's opening bell, Boeing stocks were down 0.86 percent and had slid more than 1 percent in early trading. Though that may not sound all that steep, with a market cap at $93 billion, even a 1 percent decline is significant for Boeing. 
 
 Moreover, Politico reported, Trump's tweet seems to have misquoted the actual projected cost of the Boeing 747. Air Force One estimated it would cost $1.65 billion to build two new jets — about $825 million per aircraft. 
 
 When asked for comment by The Associated Press, Boeing spokesman Todd Blecher indicated the company still wasn't quite sure how to respond to the president-elect's tweet. "We are going to get back to you after we figure out what's going on," Blecher said. Becca Stanek
– The immense power that Donald Trump's tweets now carry was brought home Tuesday morning, when he tweeted a complaint about "out of control" costs for Boeing's new 747 Air Force One jets, saying "Cancel order!"—a move that caused Boeing's stock to fall around 1%, or nearly $2 a share, in early trading. The Washington Post reports that the Trump tweet came just minutes after the Chicago Tribune posted a story in which Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg strongly criticized anti-free trade rhetoric during the 2016 campaign, and the timing suggests Trump may have "tanked Boeing's stock because he was mad about a news article." The Post notes that the last time Trump "tweeted an out-of-the-blue opinion, about flag-burning, it was immediately after a Fox News segment showing students burning flags." Trump claimed that the cost of the Air Force One deal had soared to "more than $4 billion," though both Boeing and the White House said his numbers were off. "We are currently under contract for $170 million to determine the capabilities of these complex military aircraft that serve the unique requirements of the President of the United States," Boeing said in a statement. "We look forward to working with the US Air Force on subsequent phases of the program allowing us to deliver the best planes for the President at the best value for the American taxpayer." MarketWatch reports that Boeing stock recovered after the company's comment and finished the day slightly ahead of where it had been before Trump's tweet.