Trump praise lifts Palantir chatter

President Donald Trump’s April 10 Truth Social post praising Palantir briefly lifted the company’s shares and set off a fresh burst of online trading chatter. (cnbc.com) Trump wrote that “Palantir Technologies (PLTR) has proven to have great war fighting capabilities and equipment” and included the stock ticker in the post. Within minutes, Palantir shares rose about 3 percent from their intraday lows, according to The Hill and CNBC. (thehill.com) (cnbc.com) The bounce did not hold through the session. The Hill reported that Palantir was still down 3.7 percent by about 2:30 p.m. Eastern time, and CNBC said the stock was headed for a 14 percent weekly drop, its worst week in more than a year. (thehill.com) (cnbc.com) Palantir sells software that helps governments and companies combine large data sets and run artificial intelligence tools on top of them. In defense work, its Maven Smart System has been used by the United States military, and Reuters reporting cited by CNBC said the Pentagon plans to make that system a formal “program of record,” which would put it into the military’s regular budget process. (cnbc.com) (bloomberg.com) That military role helps explain why Trump’s post landed so quickly with traders. CNBC reported that Palantir gets more than half of its United States revenue from government customers, including the Pentagon and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (cnbc.com) The episode also drew immediate criticism because the post named both the company and its ticker symbol. The Hill reported that Senator Mark Warner asked on X whether the message was “another blatant example of Trump manipulating markets,” while Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington told CNBC the post was unusual and potentially aimed at helping the stock price. (thehill.com) (cnbc.com) Palantir was already in the spotlight before Trump posted. CNBC said short seller Michael Burry had renewed his bet against the stock that week, and software shares were under pressure from investor worries about artificial intelligence competition. (cnbc.com) The political backdrop has shifted around the company as well. CNBC reported that Chief Executive Alex Karp, who had criticized Trump in the past and donated to former President Joe Biden’s campaign, has backed the new administration’s policies in recent months, even as Palantir’s immigration and surveillance work has drawn objections from advocates and Democratic lawmakers. (cnbc.com) (thehill.com) By Friday afternoon, the market had mostly given back the initial pop, but the post had already done one clear thing: it pushed Palantir back into the center of a week when politics, defense contracts, and meme-like trading all collided in one stock. (thehill.com) (cnbc.com)