Boeing shares fall as Trump’s China jet order undershoots expectations
Make us a preferred source
Make us a preferred source on Google
The news: Boeing shares fell about 5% after US President Donald Trump announced China had agreed to buy 200 Boeing jets, with the figure falling well short of market expectations.
What they said: Speaking in a Fox News interview with host Sean Hannity during his visit to Beijing, where he met Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday, Trump said: “One thing he agreed to today, he’s going to order 200 jets. That’s a big thing. Boeings.”
He added that “Boeing wanted 150, they got 200.”
It is unclear which types of planes are included. No Chinese airline had confirmed the order and Boeing did not immediately comment.
Bloomberg Intelligence analyst George Ferguson said the figure “is a disappointment for a market looking for 300 or more” and cautioned that past agreements with China have sometimes failed to materialise
The context: Bloomberg had reported in March that the two sides were closing in on a 500-jet order for 737 Max aircraft, and Jefferies had reportedly estimated the order could reach as many as 500 planes.
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, part of Trump’s delegation, told analysts ahead of the trip: “I’m not going to give you the number of airplanes, but it’s a big number.”
If completed, the deal would be Boeing’s first major sale into China in nearly a decade.
