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One tweet from President Donald Trump and Amazon loses US$5.7bn in market cap

Last updated: 21:08 16 Aug 2017 BST, First published: 10:08 16 Aug 2017 BST

Amazon
In December 2015, Trump accused Bezos of using the Washington Post as a tax shelter to reduce Amazon's tax bill

US President Donald Trump has done it again. With just one tweet attacking the on-line retail giant on Wednesday, he has caused Amazon.com Inc (NYSE:AMZN) ) to lose around US$5.7bn in market cap.

The two sentence tweet accusing the company of “doing great damage to tax paying retailers” saw the company falling 1.2% in premarket trade.

Trump tweeted: “Amazon is doing great damage to tax paying retailers. Towns, cities and states throughout the US are being hurt - many jobs being lost!”

READ: Uproar as Amazon’s UK tax bill more than halved in 2016

This is not the first time Trump has targeted Amazon. He previously lashed out at Amazon and the Washington Post, which is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, for its coverage.

In June, Trump tweeted: “AmazonWashingtonPost, sometimes referred to as the guardian of Amazon not paying internet taxes“.

And two years ago, In December 2015, Trump had accused Bezos of using the Washington Post as a tax shelter to reduce Amazon's tax bill.

He claimed that Amazon’s stock would “crumble like a paper bag” if it could not use this tax arrangement.

Bezos owns the Washington Post via a holding company which is not linked to Amazon.

Amazon not the first company targeted by Trump

READ: Trump takes aim at Boeing over Air Force One costs

Amazon is not the only company to feel the backlash from the president’s tweets.

Previously, Toyota Motor Corp (NYSE:TM) shares plunged just within minutes after Trump tweeted in January, threatening to stop the firm from moving to Baja California in Mexico.  The company lost around US$1.2bn in value.

And in December, Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) and Lockheed Martin, came under fire by the president who claimed that both the companies were charging the government too much for their services. After that tweet, Boeing's value dropped more than US$1bn, while Lockheed lost US$3.5bn.

Amazon shares closed Wednesday 0.46% lower at US$978.18 each.

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