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Top news and what to watch in the markets on Thursday, April 23, 2020....
Boeing Co (BA) is being sued by Kuwaiti Alafco Aviation Lease and Finance Co., for refusing to return the $336 million it paid for the delivery of 40 of its grounded 737 MAX jets.Alafco Aviation had canceled the plane order March 6 after the aerospace company allegedly failed to deliver the aircraft on time, according to media reports.The delivery of the order was expected be received in March 2010, Alafco Aviation said in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in Chicago.The failure to deliver the planes, “and the circumstances in which they have occurred, substantially impair the value of the purchase agreement as a whole,” Alafco said in the lawsuit. “Accordingly, Alafco has canceled its 737 Max aircraft orders and requested return of all advance payments.”The lawsuit is the latest blow to the aerospace company, which has seen shares plunging almost 60% this year. The stock slid 1% to close...
(Bloomberg) -- Follow Bloomberg on LINE messenger for all the business news and analysis you need.The owner of one of Vietnam’s biggest rice exporters, Nguyen Quang Hoa, can only watch as 500 containers of sticky rice stranded in a port container yard for a month slowly degrades.He’s furloughed 400 factory workers, but his losses keep growing. If he doesn’t ship the 12,500 tons of rice soon, he’s worried his Chinese clients will reject it, and his company will be forced to default on $13 million in bank loans.“We may have to throw away all the sticky rice, and spend more money getting rid of it,” said Hoa, director and founder of Duong Vu Co. “My company is teetering on the edge of collapse.”Hoa is one of more than 100 traders in Vietnam hurt by a government measure last month to restrict shipments on concerns that global demand will spike as the...
AT&T (T) has released soft results for the first quarter of 2020, but nonetheless reassured investors that it has sufficient free cash flow to support its dividend payout. Shares fell 2% in Wednesday’s trading, bringing T’s year-to-date loss to 25%.Most notably, revenue declined 4.6% year-over-year, 2% worse than expected, mostly due to lower growth at WarnerMedia and Latin America. The company also posted EBITDA 1.7% below consensus, and EPS of $0.84 a penny below.Meanwhile capex of $4.97B came in 2.8% above consensus, while FCF of $3.90B was 24% below. However, AT&T did add 163,000 postpaid phone subscribers, doubling from 80,000 in the same period last year.“The COVID pandemic had a 5 cents per share impact on our first quarter,” said Randall Stephenson, AT&T Chairman and CEO. “We have a strong cash position, a strong balance sheet, and our core businesses are solid and continue to generate good free cash flow —...
Underlying sales across Asia, the Middle East and Russia, fell 3.7%, as lockdowns in the quarter restricted restaurant visits and shopping in China and led to factory shutdowns that halted production in India. In Europe, Turkey and Latin America, Unilever's 3 billion euro ($3.2 billion) ice cream business was hit by national efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, deterring distributors in holiday destinations from buying stock. "Many of our classic out-of-home retailers like leisure sites, travel hubs, beaches and tourist destinations were closed," Chief Financial Officer Graeme Pitkethly said on a call....
