Farm machinery shares drop on US probe into market practices
Deere, CNH, AGCO see shares fall today
Shares of farm equipment manufacturers including Deere & Co. plunged after the Federal Trade Commission and the US Department of Agriculture launched an inquiry into market practices, including potential anticompetitive conduct.
The public inquiry, announced Wednesday, seeks to address a “growing number of complaints” from farmers that they “face other barriers to acquiring agricultural equipment and the services required to keep equipment operating.”
Deere dropped as much as 5.7%, the most intraday in three months, while rivals AGCO Corp. and CNH Industrial NV tumbled 8.4% and 7.5%, respectively. Caterpillar Inc. shares fell as much as 6.6%.
The companies didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The latest move is part of the FTC’s “work to preserve competition in the agricultural sector,” according to the release. That includes a July settlement with Deere, which resolved a lawsuit that alleged the company unlawfully limited the ability of farmers and independent repair providers to service the company’s farm equipment.
The Trump administration has accelerated its attempts to address high costs for farmers ahead of the midterm elections, including by temporarily loosening restrictions on tax-free, off-road diesel earlier this week. Andrew Ferguson, the FTC’s chairman, said Wednesday in a post on X that the “Trump Administration has our farmers’ backs.”
“America’s farmers have a hard enough job as it is,” Ferguson said. “They shouldn’t have to overcome artificial service barriers to keep their farm machinery running, or pay inflated prices for critical equipment.”
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins added in a separate post that farmers “far too often” mention restrictions to their ability to repair their own equipment, leading to higher costs and lost labor.
The price of machinery has been one of many financial stressors for farmers, especially as elevated interest rates make such investments even costlier. Farmers have pulled back on purchasing new equipment in recent years amid weak crop prices, weighing on the sales of machinery manufacturers including Deere. The industry has only recently begun to see a modest recovery, with Deere in August noting an increase in orders for next year.
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