In any industry where there are a monoply or essentially two companies competing, it is a given that each should be making money the question is how much? In the airline business, the two companies are Boeing and Airbus, although along with commercial airliners, which as average citizens we fly, they have other divisions which most of us do not think about for example military and space.

In terms of Boeing, the company came out with the 737 Max and it was going to be their cash cow for the next decade, but something happened and 2 flights crashed and all the regulators grounded the planes. Boeing has been scrambling to fix the problem and has lost a CEO, although he left with a healthy package. In an article by Alistair Smout and David Shepardson of Reuters, despite finding another flaw in the software, Boeing remains highly confident the plane will be flying in mid 2020.

US Federal Aviation administrator Steve Dickson mentioned the flaw but did not think it would cause a significant delay. The most important regulator in the world is the US regulator. If they are confident that is good news.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, companies which try to follow the rules of the regulators, when good news is given, stocks tend to rise. It tends to mean, there is continuing work to be done but light can be seen at the end of the tunnel. For your investments, in understanding the industry also understand who regulates it. The corporate loves and hates regulation, but for investors regulation can help keep competitors at bay or ensuring one company has a built in advantage. In many industries regulators are a good thing and companies should try to stay within the regulations.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.