Shares of Boeing were considerably lower on Wall Street Monday as investors reacted to the news of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, the second involving a new Boeing 737 Max 8 in roughly six months.
Boeing’s stock opened with a drop of 12%, regaining some of that as the morning went on, but still staying deeply in negative territory. As of 10:30 a.m. ET, shares were down nearly 36 points, an 8.5% decline.
There’s no official link between the Ethiopian Airlines tragedy and the crash of Indonesia’s Lion Air Flight JT610 in October 2018, but officials are expressing concerns about some of the similarities of the crashes. For example, both accidents took place shortly after take off.
Ethiopia and China have grounded the aircraft, as have several carriers.
The 737 Max is Boeing’s top selling narrow-body plane. Should investigators find a structural problem or design flaw, it could have a more significant impact on the company.
Despite the drop in Boeing stock, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has managed to rebound to Friday’s levels after losing more than 350 points at the beginning of trading Monday.
