Boeing brings back the saying: “Wings don’t mean take-off”

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.

This article was written by FL Contributors at www.forexlive.com.