While aerospace stock Boeing (BA) is likely still recovering from the impact of the recent Air India report, that recovery may have started too soon. Indian regulators are still looking for root causes, and the CEO of Air India, Campbell Wilson, declared that the probe is “far from over.” This news proved little concern to Boeing investors, and shares notched up fractionally in Tuesday afternoon’s trading.
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Wilson urged Air India staff to “…avoid drawing premature conclusions,” noted a Wall Street Journal report. But Wilson did not mention one surprising finding from the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau’s findings: the fuel control switches in the 787 Dreamliner had been switched off, one by one, seconds after the flight took off. The switches were turned back on seconds later, but not fast enough to prevent a crash.
Wilson did, however, draw attention to several key passages from the report: every mandatory maintenance task had been done, though not the non-mandatory task encouraged by the Federal Aviation Administration calling for those fuel control switches to be checked, at last report. Fuel quality proved solid, and there was “…no abnormality in the takeoff roll.” Plus, the pilots had passed a mandatory breathalyzer test, and their medical status had “…no observations…” involved.
Tariffs Take Aim
The ongoing trade war between the United States and large portions of the planet are carrying on, and Boeing is set to find itself in the crosshairs for European tariff initiatives. Fully 206 pages of tariff targets are in play, according to a report from Bloomberg News, and represents about 95 million euros worth of goods. Boeing aircraft is, not surprisingly, on that list.
The Trump administration will be raising tariffs on the European Union to 30% starting August 1. In response, Maros Sefcovic—head of trade for the EU—notes as being “effectively prohibitive” to trade across the Atlantic. It is not surprising that Boeing would find itself so targeted, especially with Boeing’s chief rival Airbus (EADSY) right there in Europe.
Is Boeing a Good Stock to Buy Right Now?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on BA stock based on 18 Buys, two Holds and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 23.9% rally in its share price over the past year, the average BA price target of $233.25 per share implies 0.08% upside potential.
