I just realized that something is going on in the financial markets with the Boeing stock price, BA on the stock exchange. Boeing stock peaked just after the first 737 MAX crash in October of 2018. The peak price was just under $430 a share. After the second MAX crash a year ago the stock fell but basically leveled off just over $340 a share with some ups and downs through the year with its most recent peak at $340.49 a share on February 10, just four weeks ago. Since that time it has dropped to just under $155 a share yesterday afternoon, March 12, 2020.
Why?
Well certainly for one thing there's the fall in stock prices around the world driven by uncertainty over the economic impact of the coronavirus COVID-19. While that in itself is a potential conspiracy theory bombshell, there appears to me that there might be something else going on as well. Yes the airline industry is being impacted by fears of flying with coronavirus infected passengers, but three days ago and again yesterday serious critical videos against Boeing concerning the 737 MAX and the erosion of Boeing's corporate philosophy concerning profit verses quality were published.
The first was published on YouTube by The Wall Street Journal on March 10, 2020:
Inside the Boeing 737 MAX Scandal That Rocked Aviation | WSJ
The second was published on YouTube yesterday March 12, 2020 by Bloomberg:
How Boeing Lost Its Way
So the question that comes to my mind is this:
Why would these two big-time financial publishers pick this moment in time to attack Boeing's financial worth? Why strike right now when all stocks, not just Boeing, are in jeopardy?
A conspiracy theorist would suggest, no doubt, that the idea is to drive this stock as low as it can be driven in order to make it one of the best investments possible on Wall Street. I can remember a time when bad publicity drove Apple stock down to somewhere in the range of $13.00 a share back in 1997 I think it was. We all thought Apple was finished. A lot of people made a lot of money on Apple after that bottoming out of the stock.
Update March 18, 2020
Boeing stock bottomed at $102 per share yesterday before bouncing back. It sits at $124 as of the start of the day today.
Contrast that news to this article dated February 17, 2020, just one month ago:
Will Boeing Stock Fly High Ever Again? CNN online
So just a month ago experts were saying Boeing was a good deal in the $320 range. Now it's hovering just over one hundred and investors are wondering?
Boeing's near-term future hinges on two things right now. When will the airline industry recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and will the public ever trust the 737 MAX? It's hard to imagine a company with Boeing's production capacity failing so quickly, going belly-up, but how low can the stock price go before investors have faith in the company and the industry again? That's the question. If I had money to invest, at what point would I think Boeing was a good risk?