Top News

New York, (AP): Wall Street trended lower in premarket trading early Thursday as the crash of another Boeing passenger jet dominated headlines and sent the troubled aerospace giant’s stock spiralling.

Futures for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq each fell 0.5 per cent before the opening bell, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 0.7per cent.

Boeing shares tumbled more than 8 per cent after Air India said a London-bound flight crashed shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad airport Thursday with 242 passengers and crew onboard.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed into a residential area near the airport five minutes after taking off.

The crash comes days before the opening of the Paris Air Show, a major aviation expo where Boeing and European rival Airbus will showcase their aircraft and battle for jet orders from airline customers.

Boeing has been mired in financial and regulatory trouble for more than six years after Lion Air Flight 610, a Boeing 737 Max 8, plunged into the Java Sea off the coast of Indonesia in late 2018, killing all 189 people on board. Five months later, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, a Boeing 737 Max 8, crashed after takeoff from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, killing 157 passengers and crew.

Boeing seemed to finally be emerging from the deep hole it was in after that pair of crashes, but that now appears to be short-lived.

Last month, Boeing announced a pair of major orders in the Middle East during a visit to the region by President Donald Trump. Boeing shares were up close to 25 per cent this year before Thursday’s crash.

Oracle climbed 8.5 per cent after the software maker beat Wall Street’s sales and profit targets and raised its forecast.

Coming later Thursday are the latest government reports on the labour market and inflation at the wholesale level.

Elsewhere, in Europe at midday, Germany’s DAX lost 1.2 per cent and the CAC 40 in Paris slipped 0.8 per cent. Britain’s FTSE 100 was nearly unchanged.

In Asian trading, Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 0.5 per cent to 38,216.06.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng sank 0.5 per cent to 24,234.80, while the Shanghai Composite index edged 0.1per cent lower to 3,404.66.

In South Korea, the Kospi gained 0.9 per cent to 2,933.44, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged 0.1per cent higher to 8,604.50.

Taiwan’s Taiex lost 0.8 per cent.

In energy trading early Thursday, US benchmark crude oil lost USD 1.32 to USD 66.83 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, shed USD 1.30 to USD 68.47 per barrel.

The US dollar slipped to 143.54 Japanese yen from 144.60 yen. The euro rose to USD 1.1603 from USD 1.1487. (AP)