Boeing's new chief executive Ortberg welcomed by financial markets
Boeing’s appointment of Kelly Ortberg appears to have been welcomed by financial markets.
The company’s share price is up 1.5% in early trading on Wednesday even though it published some fairly bleak quarterly results at the same time.
Ortberg beat other contenders such as Stephanie Pope, whose elevation to chief operating officer and endorsement by Calhoun had set off speculation that she was being groomed for the top job.
At the Farnborough air show last week Pope was asked her views repeatedly on what a new chief executive should do. At the time she responded with a knowing smile – perhaps she was aware that she was no longer in the running? But she will play a key role in any turnaround at the manufacturer.
Another contender was former Spirit Aerosystems chief executive Patrick Shanahan.
RBC Capital Markets analyst Ken Herbert said in a note (reported by Reuters):
This is a strong and safe pick. We can appreciate Ortberg’s age may be higher than some investors would have liked to see. However, we believe Ortberg’s reputation at Rockwell Collins and United Technologies/RTX is strong.
In other business news today:
Oil prices have rebounded on Wednesday after Iran promised to avenge the political leader of Hamas who was allegedly killed by Israel.
The Bank of Japan announced an interest rate hike and laid out plans for the ending of massive bond purchases used to stimulate the economy.
Rio Tinto gave welcome news for the London Stock Exchange rejecting investor calls to drop its UK listing and concentrate on Australia.
HSBC is giving a further $4.8bn to shareholders, providing a final parting gift from the outgoing chief executive, Noel Quinn, after a rise in second-quarter profit.
Eurozone prices rose slightly faster than expected in the year to July at an annual rate of 2.6%, in data that could give pause to the European Central Bank (ECB) as it prepares for more rate cuts.
You can continue to follow our live coverage from across the world:
In our coverage of the Middle East crisis, Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh killed in Tehran as Iran vows ‘revenge’
In our coverage of the Southport stabbing, the home secretary will ‘look at’ whether EDL should be proscribed group; detectives given more time to question suspect
In UK politics, Angela Rayner defends removing ‘beauty’ requirement from new planning rules for homes
In US politics, Kamala Harris to appear with running mate for first joint event on Tuesday
And of course it is the Paris 2024 Olympics, day five: triathlon and rowing golds for GB and Reilly wins BMX silver
Thank you for reading today. Do join us tomorrow for a rash of industrial results. JJ
There is a fairly wild move in the share price of Metro Bank. It is up more than 30% today after guiding that it expects to return to profit this year.
The UK lender was once seen as a possible challenger to the five dominant high street players, but that promise dissipated after it made serious accounting blunders and missed out on the digital banking revolution. That pushed it into the arms of a billionaire bailout by the Colombian businessman Jaime Gilinski Bacal.
You can see the scale of its troubles in its share price performance over the last year – but also the scale of its share price move today on the bottom right-hand side:
Metro’s positive guidance came despite a fairly unremarkable performance in the second quarter, according to Guardian’s banking correspondent Kalyeena Makortoff:
Metro Bank said it expected to return to profitability in the fourth quarter of this year.
The UK high street challenger Metro Bank released earnings on Wednesday, showing that the lender swung to a pre-tax loss of £33.5m in the first half of the year, having reported a profit of £15.4m a year earlier. It came amid a 22% drop in net interest income, as the bank was forced to pay out more to savers after Metro’s campaign to boost deposits at the end of last year.
It had been trying to make up for an outflow of cash last autumn, when market panic over the state of its balance sheet forced Metro to enter into a £925m rescue deal that left it 53%-owned by the Colombian billionaire Jaime Gilinski Bacal.
