Shares of construction-materials companies powered higher in the days after the presidential election, with some climbing the ladder to all-time highs, amid expectations that a Donald Trump presidency will line the pockets of road and bridge fixers and the potential builders of his border wall.
Vulcan Materials Co.’s stock rocketed $11.82, or 9.9 percent, to a record close. Shares of Vulcan posted the biggest one-day price gain since the stock went public in January 1972. The percentage gain was the biggest in four years.
Martin Marietta Materials Inc. shares shot up $23.38, or 12 percent, also to a record high, and with the biggest price gain since it went public in February 1994.
Among other construction-materials companies, shares of Granite Construction Inc. ran up 11 percent to a nine-year high and Eagle Materials Inc. surged 8.4 percent to a two-year high.
U.S. Concrete climbed 11 percent, while Summit Materials was up 9.4 percent.
But there is also opposition to Trump’s plan for infrastructure on the horizon, and it may not come from the other party – in fact, some Democrats seem happy to dive into the issue with the president-elect – but rather from conservative Republicans, according to Politico’s transportation report. Some conservative groups are already drawing comparisons between Trump’s 10-year, $1 trillion proposal and President Barack Obama’s stimulus.
“Conservatives do not view infrastructure spending as an economic stimulus, and congressional Republicans rightly rejected that approach in 2009,” said Dan Holler, a spokesman for Heritage Action for America. “It would be a mistake to prioritize big-government endeavors over important issues like repealing Obamacare, reforming our regulatory system and expanding domestic energy production,” Holler added.
Still, Trump hasn’t outlined all the details of his plan yet. The language Trump has put out so far suggests that his actual infrastructure spending would amount to far less than $1 trillion in federal money – instead relying on means like tax credits to spur private investment in transportation projects. He also hasn’t suggested any fix for the government’s perpetually cash-strapped Highway Trust Fund, which relies on a federal gasoline tax that Congress hasn’t hiked for 23 years.