Boeing is adding another item to its long list of things that have gone wrong this year: It stock is having the longest losing streak since 2018. Boeing stock fell about 2% in Friday trading, and year-to-date it’s down almost 35%. That’s the second-worst performance among S&P 500 stocks in 2024, behind insurance company Globe Life — which is being targeted by short-sellers.
Investors have been down on Boeing since a door plug blew out midflight on an Alaska Airlines-operated 737 Max 9 plane. The incident has unleashed a wave of new scrutiny, including a Justice Department criminal probe and passenger lawsuits. What’s remarkable about the latest streak is that none of the downward moves have been more than a 2% daily loss. It’s less a big drop than a steady drip of negative sentiment from the market. The last time things were this gloomy, Boeing was dealing with a different 737 Max problem, after a 737 Max 8 plane crashed shortly after takeoff.
“There’s changes that need to happen,” Boeing CFO Brian West said at a recent conference. “There’s no doubt about it.”
Those changes will be expensive, if a recent $160 million compensatory payment to Alaska Airlines is any indication.
Boeing has been delivering nearly half as many planes to its airline customers as it was just a few months ago. Customers have complained about a holdup in receiving their orders, and some have even turned to Boeing’s French rival Airbus — which told investors this week that it will have no problem taking advantage of the situation to keep up its dominance of the commercial airliner market.
Boeing presents its next quarterly earnings report in about two weeks.