Despite being one of the world's largest aircraft, spacecraft, and military hardware manufacturers, you'd think they'd be more conscious of the quality of their products, right?
Not so much. Although there were no further accidents due to the failure of the maneuvering system, the Boeing 737 Max series continues to reveal new problems.
First, an emergency door decided to take a little flight on its own in mid-air, and then there's this wild incident in San Francisco. A Boeing 777 lost a wheel during takeoff on a Friday.
And as if that's not enough drama, at least 50 people got hurt on a Boeing 787 operated by LATAM Airlines. It took a sudden nosedive during a flight from Sydney to Auckland.
It has yet to be discovered exactly why it happened, though. Safety experts say most airplane accidents are a mix of different things going wrong.
Something is wrong with the company, or could it just be bad luck?
The fact that the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) six-week audit of Boeing's production of the 737 Max jet found problems everywhere suggests the former.
Of 56 controls, the company failed 33. In 97 cases, Boeing was unable to comply with the rules by not following the "approved manufacturing process, procedure or instruction."
There were also problems with their quality control paperwork. The market didn't take this news lightly. Boeing shares fell 3% on Monday and, in total, are down more than 23% since the beginning of the year.
Boeing won't go bankrupt because of this, but there's not much positivity in the air, which is why, on forums like WallStreetBets, people are talking about buying Puts against Boeing.
Meanwhile, Airbus, Boeing's European competitor, is benefiting from Boeing's woes. Its shares have been up 11% since the start of the year.
What can we expect?
Aside from the problems above, Boeing has started talking to its unions, but they are asking for wage increases of more than 40% so that it will be a challenging deal.
This year's talks are renegotiating the entire agreement for the first time since 2008. Back then, an impasse was reached, and union workers stopped working for eight weeks.
That mess cost Boeing a lot of money in delays and penalties. Previous agreement breakdowns with IAM District 751 have also resulted in all-out strikes.
All in all, making bets with Boeing stock in the current flux of news and challenges seems like risky business. However, if you like risk, don't forget to do some homework beforehand.
In particular, analyze support and resistance levels, as well as volume indicators. It may not be a dealbreaker, but at least it serves to understand where the stock may be headed.
