Airbus Hands Boeing The Keys To The Plane (BA)

The smoke signals have been rising above the horizon for some time now. Emirates Airlines has dropped orders for the ten Airbus 340s it was buying and will go with the Boeing 777 instead. Emirates is also sending some of its folks to Airbus to see whether the European airplane manufacturer will ever actually build the 380 super-jumbo jet. If the visit goes badly, Boeing could pick up some 747 orders as well.

When Boeing announced earnings recently, its stock dropped from about $84 to $80.. Investors were trading the past instead of the future. Never a good thing.

Boeing earnings were down, partly because the company closed its airplane broadband unit. However, sales were up as were airplane deliveries. Boeing also raised guidance for next year.

The folks on Wall St. wanted a little more than Boeing had to offer, and refused to trade the shares higher. Maybe it will take Airbus shutting down for them to see the orders coming Boeing’s way.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in com.panies that he writes about