Wall Street Breakfast

Boeing to plead guilty in 737 MAX fraud case

Boeing (BA) to plead guilty to criminal fraud charge in 737 MAX probe. (00:21) Hurricane Beryl shutters oil-exporting hub in Texas. (01:18) SK On is said to declare ‘emergency’ as EV sales disappoint. (02:11)

Episode transcripts seekingalpha.com/wsb.

Show links:
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Duration:: 5m
Broadcast on:: 08 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Breakfast, where we cover the top news for investors every morning. Good morning. Today is Monday, July 8. I'm Julie Morgan. Boeing is pleading guilty. Oil export hubs close ahead of barrel, and SKL on is declaring an emergency. Boeing has agreed to plead guilty to a criminal charge of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government. The Department of Justice found that Boeing violated a settlement over two fatal 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019. Under the proposed plea deal filed by prosecutors on Sunday, the company will face the maximum criminal fine of $487.2 million. The deal recommends that the court credit the 243.6 million criminal monetary penalty Boeing previously paid, with the net result being that Boeing will have to pay another $243.6 million. The plane maker will be required to invest $455 million to strengthen its compliance and safety programs. It will also be on probation for three years subject to special conditions, including its board meeting the victim's families and an independent compliance monitor. Worries about Hurricane Barrel, which has regained strength as a Category 1 hurricane, led authorities on Sunday to close or restrict vessel traffic at key ports. The storm made landfall near Matagorda, Texas overnight. The port of Corpus Christi, the biggest export hub for crude oil in the United States, closed on Sunday. No vessels are allowed to enter, transit, or remain without the permission of the captain. Reuters reported on Sunday that the closures may temporarily halt crude exports, shipments of oil to refineries, and of motor fuels from those plants. All inbound vessel traffic at the ports of Houston, Galveston, Freeport, and Texas City were suspended on Sunday. This same storm swept through the Caribbean as a Category 5. We'll take a look at crude oil features in just a few minutes. SKON, a South Korean maker of batteries for electric vehicles, said it was in crisis because its customers are struggling with lackluster EV sales in Europe and the United States. The Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing a letter to employees that the company's chief executive plans to cut costs as part of the company's emergency management. SKON and Ford Motor have a joint venture called Blue Oval SK to make batteries for Ford and Lincoln EVs. Starting next year, Blue Oval SK will run battery factories in Glendale, Kentucky and in Stanton, Tennessee. According to the website, a subsidiary of SKON, SK Innovation, also employs about 2,600 people at two EV battery plants in Commerce, Georgia. I have a few other articles I'd like to tell you about that you can find on Seeking Alpha. There's a shake-up in the entertainment industry, Paramount and Skydance agreed emerge. That's actually the top story in the Wall Street Breakfast newsletter, our daily one-page news summary. You can find a link to the newsletter in show notes. It's Monday, so of course we're talking about more mergers. Karlsberg agrees to buy Britvik in a $4 billion deal. And we're asking a question that you may have wondered yourself for what's a good alternative stock to Nvidia. On our catalyst watch for the day, the Walmart deal's shopping event starts today. And options trading volume is elevated on fair-day future intelligent and cons. Now for a look at the markets today, as of 6am, Dow, S&P and NASDAQ features are in the red. Crude Oil is down 1.4% at $82 a barrel. Bitcoin is down 0.4% at 57,000. In the world markets, the FTSE 100 is up 0.3%, and the DAX is up 0.5%. And this one is probably not a surprise. Paramount Global is on our list of the biggest movers of the day pre-market. Class A and Class B shares of Paramount Global are up 7% and 5% respectively, following the announcement of the Hollywood Studios merger with Skydance Media, in an all-stock deal valuing Skydance at $4.75 billion. On today's economic calendar, at 3pm consumer credit. That's it for today's Wall Street Breakfast. Thanks for listening! To take full advantage of seeking alpha with coverage on significant stocks and ETFs, become a premium subscriber. Check out seekingalpha.com/subscriptions. I'm your host, Julie Morgan. Go out and make it a great day! [BLANK_AUDIO]