Boeing…
Ru-oh.
The Seattle Times reports:
Boeing was hit Wednesday by the WannaCry computer virus, initally raising fears within the company that it could cripple some vital airplane production equipment.
Mike VanderWel, chief engineer at Boeing Commercial Airplane production engineering, sent out an alarming memo calling for “All hands on deck.”
“It is metastasizing rapidly out of North Charleston and I just heard 777 (automated spar assembly tools) may have gone down,” VanderWel wrote, adding his concern that the virus could hit equipment used in functional tests of airplanes ready to roll out and potentially “spread to airplane software.
(click here to continue reading Boeing hit by WannaCry virus, but says no impact on jet production | The Seattle Times.)
Couple that with reports that a trade war with China is going to hit Boeing hard, not a good time to be Boeing.
Golden Plowshares
The NYT reported:
Much of the Dow’s underperformance can be traced to the aircraft maker’s stock.
The Trump administration’s trade policies have hit Boeing, the most-heavily weighted stock in the Dow, particularly hard.
Aluminum makes up about 80 percent of the weight of most commercial aircrafts, according to Brooke Sutherland and David Fickling of Gadfly. That means tariffs on imported aluminum would likely raise Boeing’s costs more than its competitors. Boeing also views China, the main target of the Trump administration’s protectionist trade policies, as an important growth market. The country is set to overtake the U.S. as the biggest aviation market by 2022, Ms. Sutherland and Mr. Fickling write.
China could target Boeing if the country decides to retaliate against the U.S.
(click here to continue reading What’s Next for Stocks After the China Tariffs: DealBook Briefing – The New York Times.)
Drowning in Small Talk – Kodalith
The Motley Fool writes:
On Wednesday, Boeing hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping at a tour of its widebody commercial plane factory in Everett, Wash. Concurrent with the visit, Boeing announced that it has finalized agreements to sell 300 aircraft to various Chinese customers — and to open its first factory in China to complete assembly of 737 airliners in particular.
The planes Regarding the airplane sales, Boeing announced the finalization of orders for $38 billion worth of airplanes (at list prices), including:
50 widebody jets, of models not named, to be bought by Chinese airlines (also unnamed). 190 single-aisle 737s to be bought by the same group of airlines. 60 more 737s to be bought by the leasing arm of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and by CDB Leasing. Boeing did not clarify how many, if any, of said 300 airplanes may have already been entered into its order book under previously announced “firm orders.” Tellingly though, Boeing’s latest plane order update contained mention of not 300 new firm orders, but just two — and not for 737s, but 787s.
(click here to continue reading Did Boeing Just Sell Out to China?.)