Factory work may have caused 737 problems
Published 12:01 am Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Investigators trying to determine why the roof of a Southwest Airlines jet peeled open in flight this month are focusing on the manufacturing process at Boeing. Government and industry officials say investigators noticed that the stricken jet and five other Southwest planes that had cracks in their
metal skins were all built at about the same time in the same Boeing plant. The officials cautioned Monday that no final determination has been made about why the planes developed cracks in an area of the fuselage many years before Boeing expected to see problems. A 5-foot hole tore open in the roof of the Southwest Boeing 737 as it climbed to 34,000 feet above Arizona on April 1. The pilot guided the plane to a safe emergency landing. Metal fatigue was initially suspected. Now investigators think the seeds of the near-disaster might have been planted in the factory.
Netflix growth beats expectations
Netflix Inc. attracted another 3.6 million customers to its video subscription service in the first quarter, the biggest growth spurt yet in a prosperous run that has established the company as a Hollywood power broker and Wall Street darling. The financial results announced Monday topped analyst forecasts. But management offered a cautious outlook that included a second-quarter earnings projection below analyst estimates. That caused Netflix shares to shed more than 5 percent in Monday’s extended trading. Netflix’s first quarter earnings nearly doubled to $60.2 million, or $1.11 per share, during the first quarter. That was up from $32.3 million, or 59 cents per share, at the same time last year. The performance was 4 cents per share above the average estimate among analysts surveyed by FactSet.
What should Fed officials do next?
Federal Reserve officials are expected to signal this week that their $600 billion Treasury bond purchase program will end in June as planned. Now, the debate shifts to the Fed’s next potential moves to stave off inflation. The Fed could raise the rate it charges banks for emergency loans, or tighten credit by boosting the rate it pays banks on money they leave at the central bank, selling securities from the Fed’s portfolio, with an agreement to buy them back later.
T-bill rates rise in Monday auction
The Treasury Department auctioned three-month bills at a discount rate of 0.065 percent, up from 0.06 percent last week. Six-month bills were sold at a discount rate of 0.115 percent, up from a record low of 0.11 percent last week. For a $10,000 bill, the three-month price was $9,998.36, while a six-month bill sold for $9,994.19. Separately, the Federal Reserve said Monday that the average yield for one-year Treasury bills, a popular index for changing adjustable rate mortgages, was unchanged at 0.24 percent last week, the same as the previous week.
From Herald news services
