A late update, just for the record.
Boeing’s shares ended up falling 3.7% on the day, to finish at $156.77.
Closing post
Time to wrap up
Tens of thousands of Boeing workers have walked off the job early this morning after voting overwhelmingly to strike for higher pay, halting production of the planemaker’s strongest-selling jet as it wrestles with chronic output delays and mounting debt.
The company said on Friday it was ready to talk and “get back to the table to reach a new agreement” as striking workers picketed.
Newly installed Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg had pleaded with workers not to go on strike – the first since 2008 – ahead of the vote, saying the action would put the company’s “recovery in jeopardy”.
About 33,000 workers in Boeing’s US Pacific north-west region late on Thursday voted down a tentative agreement reached between their union and the company that included a 25% pay increase over four years. They voted in favor of a strike beginning on Friday at midnight Pacific time (8am UK time), which will halt production of the 737 Max.
Boeing workers voted 94.6% to reject the agreement, and 96% in favor of striking.
News of the strike knocked Boeing’s shares down by 2% in early trading; they’ve since recovered slightly, and are down 0.9% at $161.41.
In other news…
The gold price has hit a new alltime high of $2,583.29 per ounce, as the US dollar weakens ahead of an expected cut to US interest rates next week.
Goldman Sachs have predicted that UK interest rates will have been slashed to 3% in a year’s time, down from 5% today.
Updated
