Boeing ($BA) Pops on Defense Boom: Can 737 Max Momentum Stick?

Boeing ($BA) just went from air shows to air strikes, and Wall Street is loving it. The aerospace giant is shifting focus to stabilizing 737 Max production at 47 planes a month, yes, actual planes, not just paperwork, then aiming for 52 as supply chains recover from all the drama. Meanwhile, defense operations are flexing: missile seeker output is expected to rise 30% (to roughly 850 units this year), keeping the backlog stuffed like a Thanksgiving turkey. Seeking Alpha calls this a 'buy,' and honestly, with the Pentagon tossing contracts like Halloween candy, who can blame them?

Of course, not everything flies smoothly at $BA. Execution risks aren’t exactly small print: recent production hiccups make every target feel like a New Year’s resolution by mid-February. Still, with global defense budgets ballooning (war headlines, anyone?) and airlines desperate for new jets, the Street is betting Boeing finally has more tailwind than turbulence.

Turning to a name only your bank-loving uncle gets excited about: Truist Financial ($TFC). This regional bank just reported 15.4% tangible common equity return for Q2, up from last year’s snoozefest. They’re shaking up leadership (Mike Lyons is the new boss) and retreating from risky consumer loans to fatten profits. Management is basically waving a $5B buyback flag in Wall Street’s face, which you do when you’re feeling yourself after a quarter like that. Analysts call it a buy, but there’s a modest warning sticker attached: exiting businesses is never easy, even if your shareholder letters make it sound like spring cleaning.

Meanwhile, UnitedHealth Group ($UNH) keeps reminding us that every earnings report is basically a plot twist nobody asked for. Revenue just topped $112B for the quarter, and they hiked full-year guidance again, the financial equivalent of a birthday cake with too many candles. But there’s a bittersweet flavor: rising commercial medical costs (now over 11%) threaten to keep margin recovery stalled into the next presidential term or two. The dividend is up, buybacks are on, but Seeking Alpha stays neutral, rightly nervous that healthcare inflation does not care about your quarterly upgrade, thank you very much.

So if you’re rotating out of tech because the headlines feel like a Shakespearean tragedy, defense and banks are suddenly the ‘sensible shoes’ of this party. And for once, nobody is shocked if you want to stay a little boring, at least until Boeing’s supply chain throws another plot twist.