Wall Street sentiment on Boeing is improving as 737 MAX production increases
Sentiment on Wall Street been strengthening steadily on Boeing shares, with the aerospace behemoth finally gaining some momentum. Sixty-nine percent of analysts surveyed by FactSet rate Boeing either buy or overweight. That's up from 52% at the end of 2024. Consensus price targets call for about 2% upside from Wednesday's close. The stock has been on a tear in 2025 as well, with a gain of nearly 20%, while the S & P 500 has ticked up 1.5%. JPMorgan, Wolfe Research and Bernstein are among the Wall Street shops that have raised price targets for Boeing stock over the past month. JPMorgan and Wolfe Research both attributed their more upbeat view to the improved pace of production for the troubled 737 MAX and a record-breaking order from Qatar Airways that followed President Donald Trump's visit to the Middle Eastern country. For Bernstein analyst Douglas Harned, Boeing's ability to steadily increase monthly production of its 737 MAX, with the hopes of stabilizing at around 38 per month, is a key reason he thinks sentiment has shifted. "This stock is a momentum-type stock, and people will want to be in it well ahead of when they're actually there," Harned told CNBC when discussing the company's monthly production goals. "What you've seen is slowly, but surely, skeptical people have started to see the evidence — or hear about it at least — in a more compelling way than in the past." Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said last month that the company was resuming plane deliveries to China in June, after the Trump administration's trade war prompted a pause. Ortberg also told Bernstein at the firm's Strategic Differences Conference last month that Boeing could produce as many as 42 737 MAX planes by the end of the year. "We think of this as truly 'back to the future' as we look at how the stock behaved back before 2019, prior to the 737MAX groundings and Covid, when there was optimism about the future," Harned wrote in a Monday note, where he also labeled Boeing stock a top pick. Harned's $249 per share price target implies about 17% upside from Wednesday's $211.98 close. BA YTD mountain Boeing stock in 2025. Boeing's troubles extend back to 2018, when Lion Air Flight 610 crashed killing all 189 aboard. After a second deadly crash, the 737 MAX fleet was grounded for 20 months . Just last year, Boeing faced more trouble after the door flew off of one of its 737 MAX 9's midair. Wolfe Research analyst Myles Walton said in a May note to clients that he had already been optimistic that 2025 would see significantly improved production times for the 737 MAX fleet, however, the Qatar order provided more confidence that the stock could continue to run. "A Big Beautiful Order should help (not yet) big beautiful cash flow," the analyst said. Walton upped his price target to $230 per share from $195 last month, which equates to about 9% upside from Wednesday's close. "With balance sheet concerns addressed for the next few years and a backlog of ~$500b, we see potential for BA to outperform if the company can improve execution," JPMorgan analyst Seth Seifman wrote in a note last month. "Specifically, this means gradually increasing production of 737s and 787s while bringing the 777X closer to entering service." Despite Seifman's optimism, JPMorgan's $200 per share price target implies shares could slide 6% from here.
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21 minutes ago
Trump's tariffs could pay for his tax cuts -- but it likely wouldn't be much of a bargain
WASHINGTON -- WASHINGTON (AP) — The tax cuts in President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act would likely gouge a hole in the federal budget. The president has a patch handy, though: his sweeping import taxes — tariffs. The Congressional Budget Office, the government's nonpartisan arbiter of tax and spending matters, says the One Big Beautiful Bill, passed by the House last month and now under consideration in the Senate, would increase federal budget deficits by $2.4 trillion over the next decade. That is because its tax cuts would drain the government's coffers faster than its spending cuts would save money. By bringing in revenue for the Treasury, on the other hand, the tariffs that Trump announced through May 13 — including his so-called reciprocal levies of up to 50% on countries with which the United States has a trade deficit — would offset the budget impact of the tax-cut bill and reduce deficits over the next decade by $2.5 trillion. So it's basically a wash. That's the budget math anyway. The real answer is more complicated. Actually using tariffs to finance a big chunk of the federal government would be a painful and perilous undertaking, budget wonks say. 'It's a very dangerous way to try to raise revenue,' said Kent Smetters of the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Wharton Budget Model, who served in President George W. Bush's Treasury Department. Trump has long advocated tariffs as an economic elixir. He says they can protect American industries, bring factories back to the United States, give him leverage to win concessions over foreign governments — and raise a lot of money. He's even suggested that they could replace the federal income tax, which now brings in about half of federal revenue. 'It's possible we'll do a complete tax cut,'' he told reporters in April. 'I think the tariffs will be enough to cut all of the income tax.'' Economists and budget analysts do not share the president's enthusiasm for using tariffs to finance the government or to replace other taxes. 'It's a really bad trade,'' said Erica York, the Tax Foundation's vice president of federal tax policy. 'It's perhaps the dumbest tax reform you could design.'' For one thing, Trump's tariffs are an unstable source of revenue. He bypassed Congress and imposed his biggest import tax hikes through executive orders. That means a future president could simply reverse them. 'Or political whims in Congress could change, and they could decide, 'Hey, we're going revoke this authority because we don't think it's a good thing that the president can just unilaterally impose a $2 trillion tax hike,' '' York said. Or the courts could kill his tariffs before Congress or future presidents do. A federal court in New York has already struck down the centerpiece of his tariff program — the reciprocal and other levies he announced on what he called 'Liberation Day'' April 2 — saying he'd overstepped his authority. An appeals court has allowed the government to keep collecting the levies while the legal challenge winds its way through the court system. Economists also say that tariffs damage the economy. They are a tax on foreign products, paid by importers in the United States and usually passed along to their customers via higher prices. They raise costs for U.S. manufacturers that rely on imported raw materials, components and equipment, making them less competitive than foreign rivals that don't have to pay Trump's tariffs. Tariffs also invite retaliatory taxes on U.S. exports by foreign countries. Indeed, the European Union this week threatened 'countermeasures'' against Trump's unexpected move to raise his tariff on foreign steel and aluminum to 50%. 'You're not just getting the effect of a tax on the U.S. economy,' York said. 'You're also getting the effect of foreign taxes on U.S. exports.'' She said the tariffs will basically wipe out all economic benefits from the One Big Beautiful Bill's tax cuts. Smetters at the Penn Wharton Budget Model said that tariffs also isolate the United States and discourage foreigners from investing in its economy. Foreigners see U.S. Treasurys as a super-safe investment and now own about 30% of the federal government's debt. If they cut back, the federal government would have to pay higher interest rates on Treasury debt to attract a smaller number of potential investors domestically. Higher borrowing costs and reduced investment would wallop the economy, making tariffs the most economically destructive tax available, Smetters said — more than twice as costly in reduced economic growth and wages as what he sees as the next-most damaging: the tax on corporate earnings. Tariffs also hit the poor hardest. They end up being a tax on consumers, and the poor spend more of their income than wealthier people do. Even without the tariffs, the One Big Beautiful Bill slams the poorest because it makes deep cuts to federal food programs and to Medicaid, which provides health care to low-income Americans. After the bill's tax and spending cuts, an analysis by the Penn Wharton Budget Model found, the poorest fifth of American households earning less than $17,000 a year would see their incomes drop by $820 next year. The richest 0.1% earning more than $4.3 million a year would come out ahead by $390,070 in 2026. 'If you layer a regressive tax increase like tariffs on top of that, you make a lot of low- and middle-income households substantially worse off,'' said the Tax Foundation's York. Overall, she said, tariffs are 'a very unreliable source of revenue for the legal reasons, the political reasons as well as the economic reasons. They're a very, very inefficient way to raise revenue. If you raise a dollar of a revenue with tariffs, that's going to cause a lot more economic harm than raising revenue any other way.''
CNBC
27 minutes ago
- CNBC
Jobs, profit-taking and 2 other things that drove the stock market this week
The very public implosion of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk 's alliance may have captivated Wall Street this week, but the government's solid monthly employment report was the real showstopper. In addition to those two developments, earnings from Club names CrowdStrike and Broadcom , and the back-and-forth between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on trade defined the market. 1. Jobs, stocks , Fed : The S & P 500 jumped 1% on Friday on the labor data , which showed job growth in May that was strong enough to ease fears of a recession and warmer-but-not-too-hot wage inflation. With both sides of the Federal Reserve's dual mandate of maximizing employment and fostering price stability in check, the market still felt comfortable rooting for an interest rate cut down the line. For the week, the S & P 500 rose 1.5% , logging its back-to-back weekly gains. For the second time this week, and despite Friday's solid nonfarm payrolls data, Trump prodded Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to cut rates – this time, calling for a full percentage point reduction . The market is predicting virtually no chance of a reduction at the central bank's upcoming meeting later this month. On Wednesday, the president called for a Fed rate cut after the weak ADP private sector hiring report. Powell has been saying all along that he won't be influenced by politics and will be economic data dependent. The Fed chief has also said he would like to see more data on whether Trump's tariffs, which are moving targets and not finalized, negatively impact the economy. 2. Scorched Earth : Could the relationship between the world's most powerful man, Trump, and the world's richest, Musk, end any other way than the way it did Thursday? Both billionaires went after each other on social media. Trump called Musk "crazy" and threatened to kill federal contracts with Musk's companies, including SpaceX. Musk called for Trump's impeachment, criticized Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" of tax cuts and spending priorities making its way on Capitol Hill, and then said SpaceX would decommission its Dragon spacecraft. Musk later took back that last part. Tesla shares sank over 14% on Thursday – but on Friday, recovered more than 3.5%. Also on Friday, Trump said he was not interested in having a call with Musk. Putting all the drama aside, there are real issues at play here concern the federal budget deficit and the billions upon billions of dollars of stock market value that has been erased from Musk's Tesla . Shares have lost more than 25% year to date. 3. Back on, again : The other Washington-related saga that has implications for stocks is trade talks between the U.S. and China. Trump announced on Friday that U.S.-China trade talks will take place Monday in London. The news comes after Trump and Xi finally talked on the phone Thursday. Last month, high-level U.S. officials met with their Chinese counterparts in Geneva, Switzerland, where they each agreed to pause most of the triple-digit tariff rates on each other's imports. Before the Trump-Xi call, the U.S. president accused China of violating that agreement – to which the Chinese accused the U.S. of not adhering to the deal. Reuters reported on Friday that China granted licenses for rare earth elements to the top three U.S. automakers. Back in April, China, which dominates in rare earths, put export curbs on the resources, which are key to making many of our modern-day products. 4. Records, then selling : Both CrowdStrike and Broadcom saw their stocks finish at record closing highs ahead of this week's respective earnings reports, which led to selling. CRWD YTD mountain CrowdStrike YTD Shares of CrowdStrike hit its closing record of just under $489 on Tuesday. Then after the bell, the cybersecurity delivered a mostly solid quarter . The stock lost 5.8% on Wednesday. Good old profit-taking after a big run to all-time highs contributed to the selling, and so did concerns about mixed guidance and some noise around federal government inquiries into the company — though nothing has changed in our stance toward last July's massive IT outage and its dealings with software reseller Carahsoft. The outage was caused by a botched CrowdStrike software update. CEO George Kurtz appeared on "Mad Money" with Jim and defended his company in the probes , saying the company is cooperating with investigators. On earnings night, we raised our price target to $500 per share from $400 but kept our hold-equivalent 2 rating in recognition of this year's more than 35% gain in the stock. Shares were modestly higher on Thursday and Friday. AVGO YTD mountain Broadcom YTD Broadcom shares closed at a record high of $261 each Wednesday. Then, after Thursday's close, Broadcom delivered a strong quarter and upbeat comments about its key artificial intelligence business. There are no signs that demand for the company's custom AI chips, or "accelerators," and networking solutions will let up anytime soon. On the software side, Broadcom continues to make the most of its blockbuster VMware acquisition. But again, profit-takers swooped in during Friday's session and pushed the stock down 5%. On earnings night, we raised our price target on the stock to $290 per share from $230 but kept our 2 rating. During Friday's Morning Meeting, Jim did tell investors without a position in Broadcom that it would be a good time to buy, starting with a partial position then building it up over time. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long CRWD, AVGO. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
Yahoo
35 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Crypto Currents: Strategy buys more bitcoin
As bitcoin, ethereum and other cryptocurrencies get increasing attention from investors, Wall Street and its traditional banks continue to adjust to the shift. Catch up on this week's top stories highlighting the intersection of these old guard and new school areas of finance with this recap compiled by The Fly. Easily unpack a company's performance with TipRanks' new KPI Data for smart investment decisions Receive undervalued, market resilient stocks right to your inbox with TipRanks' Smart Value Newsletter STRATEGY BUYS MORE BITCOIN: Strategy (MSTR) announced updates on Monday with respect to its at-the-market offering programs and bitcoin holdings. The company purchased 705 bitcoin during the period of May 26 to June 1 at an aggregate purchase price of $75.1M. Strategy now holds 580,955 bitcoin. TRUMP MEDIA FILES REGISTRATION STATEMENT FOR BITCOIN ETF: On Thursday, Trump Media and Technology Group (DJT) announced the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of the initial registration statement on Form S-1 for the Truth Social Bitcoin ETF. The ETF will hold bitcoin directly and offer its shares to investors, aiming to reflect bitcoin's price performance. will act as the ETF's exclusive bitcoin custodian, prime execution agent and liquidity provider. The launch of the Truth Social Bitcoin ETF is pending effectiveness of the Registration Statement as well as approval of a Form 19b-4 filing with the SEC. Upon launch, the Shares will be listed on NYSE Arca. Yorkville America Digital acts as the sponsor of the ETF. Additionally on Thursday, Trump Media announced it has filed a registration statement on form S-3 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission related to debt and equity subscription agreements recently entered into with approximately fifty investors that yielded approximately $2.3B in total proceeds. The proceeds will be used for the company's creation of a bitcoin treasury and for general corporate purposes. In accordance with registration obligations in the previously-disclosed agreements, the Registration Statement seeks to register for resale by the investors approximately 56M shares of equity and 29M shares underlying convertible notes. Additionally, having recently become form S-3 eligible, Trump Media is taking the customary step of including within the Registration Statement a universal shelf. CEO Devin Nunes said, 'These activities will provide the company with the capital, assets, independence, flexibility, and security we need to fulfill our goals of rapid expansion, guaranteeing a wide array of ways to access the capital markets when it's most advantageous to do so. We're systematically putting in place all the elements we need to grow the company according to our plans, acquire crown jewel assets, and draw more customers and users into the patriot economy.' MAWSON INFRASTRUCTURE APPOINTS INTERIM CEO: In a Thursday regulatory filing, Mawson Infrastructure Group (MIGI) reported it had provided Rahul Mewawalla with notice that termination of his employment as CEO and President of the company for 'Cause', based on conduct specified in the notice, will be considered at a future meeting of the company's Board of Directors, at which the Board will determine whether his conduct constitutes Cause sufficient to terminate Mewawalla in accordance with the terms of his employment agreement. Mewawalla's employment agreement with the company provides for a cure period, which will end on June 14. On June 2, the Board determined to place Mewawalla on administrative leave from his position as CEO and President and appointed Kaliste Saloom to serve as Interim CEO. Saloom has served as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary since July 1, 2024. HUT 8 INITIATED WITH BUY: On Thursday, Roth Capital initiated coverage of Hut 8 (HUT) with a Buy rating and $25 price target. Hut 8 is transforming into a power-first digital infrastructure platform, with 1.0GW energized, 2.6GW under exclusivity, and long-term growth visibility from bitcoin hosting and high-performance computing colocation, the analyst said. The firm added three HPC sites position the company to benefit from artificial intelligence demand, offering 60%-plus adjusted EBITDA margins. The combination of highly visible colocation agreements in bitcoin and HPC provides Hut 8 a strategic advantage, leading to margin expansion and re-rating potential with strategic execution, contended Roth. ANALYST CALLS GAMESTOP, STRATEGY VALUATION DISPARITY 'BAFFLING': On Thursday, Wedbush reiterated an Underperform rating on GameStop (GME) with a $13.50 price target after the company last week disclosed that it purchased 4,710 bitcoin, 'following the MicroStrategy playbook.' However, Strategy currently trades 1.75-times its bitcoin holdings, while GameStop trades at 2.4-times cash value, suggesting that investors value GameStop's entry into bitcoin at the same premium they assign to Strategy shares, but value GameStop's core operations at $8 per share, the analyst said. The firm added that while it is likely GameStop will convert more of its cash into bitcoin, the disparity in valuation between company and Strategy 'is baffling.' Both companies provide bitcoin investors the ability to use margin to invest in crypto, but GameStop's holdings 'are literally 1% as great as MSTR's,' according to Wedbush. The firm believes GameStop's entry into the trading card business has delivered 'modest success,' but it sees no potential for a rebound in the company's core business. OTHER CRYPTO NEWS: Bitcoin Depot (BTM) price target raised to $6 from $5 at Northland Riot Platforms (RIOT) hires Jonathan Gibbs as Chief Data Center Officer Trump's USD1 (JPM) to offer clients financing against crypto ETFs World Liberty Financial reportedly sends cease-and-desist over memecoin CRYPTO STOCK PLAYS: Publicly traded companies in the space include Bit Digital (BTBT), Coinbase (COIN), Core Scientific (CORZ), Greenidge Generation (GREE), Mara Holdings (MARA), Strategy, Riot Platforms and TeraWulf (WULF). PRICE ACTION: As of time of writing, bitcoin dropped roughly 1% this week to $104,449 in U.S. dollars, according to CoinDesk. Published first on TheFly – the ultimate source for real-time, market-moving breaking financial news. Try Now>> See the top stocks recommended by analysts >> Read More on MSTR: Disclaimer & DisclosureReport an Issue Strategy Announces Underwriting Agreement with Barclays World Liberty Financial sends cease-and-desist over memecoin, Bloomberg reports GameStop and Strategy valuation disparity 'baffling,' says Wedbush Stablecoin Issuer Circle (CRCL) Soars 235% in Market Debut JPMorgan to offer clients financing against crypto ETFs, Bloomberg reports
