Boeing Upgrade, US Automakers Stocks Fall, Moderna Rises

On this episode of Stock Movers:

- Boeing (BA) shares are up on word that the Trump administration has been including orders for Boeing planes in trade discussions. That news is helping restore Bank of America’s confidence in the stock. “Boeing aircraft have emerged as a favored trade mechanism in recent US trade negotiations, which we suspect will continue,” Ronald Epstein of Bank of America wrote in a research note. The analyst said deals — including a record order from Qatar Airways — as well as the end of China’s ban on airlines taking delivery of Boeing planes are creating a buying opportunity in shares. Epstein raised the stock to a buy from neutral while boosting the 12-month price target to $260, the highest on Wall Street and about 25% higher than where the stock currently trades, from a target of $185.

- General Motors (GM) and Ford (F) shares are slipping after President Donald Trump said Friday that he would increase steel and aluminum tariffs to 50% from 25%. Trump hopes the increased levies will protect margins for domestic mills and spur investment in new production capacity, and shares of US steel and aluminum makers surged in after-hours trading after the announcement on Friday. But construction companies have warned that levies on steel and aluminum — which Trump had already raised from 10% to 25% — will increase the cost of critical building materials.

- Moderna (MRNA) shares are up after the company gained US approval for a new Covid vaccine for a narrower group of people, in the latest sign that regulators are restricting access to immunizations under the leadership of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The company’s second-generation vaccine is cleared for all adults over 65 and anyone over 12 who has at least one risk factor for severe disease, Moderna said in a statement Saturday. Moderna’s Covid shot had previously been approved for people 12 years of age and older regardless of their underlying health.

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