Boeing Company (BA) announced its fourth quarter and full-year earnings report on Tuesday, January 28. Despite the aircraft manufacturer reporting its largest annual loss in four years, the company’s shares rose by almost 8% as plane production continues to take off.

Boeing reported quarterly revenue of $15.24 billion, below analysts’ estimates of $16.21 billion. Last year at this time, quarterly revenue was recorded at $22.02 billion. Full-year revenue reached $66.52 billion, a decrease from $77.79 billion one year ago.

“We made progress on key areas to stabilize our operations during the quarter and continued to strengthen important aspects of our safety and quality plan,” said Boeing CEO, Kelly Ortberg. "My team and I are focused on making the fundamental changes needed to fully recover our company's performance and restore trust with our customers, employees, suppliers, investors, regulators and all others who are counting on us."

The company reported a net loss of $3.87 billion or $5.46 per adjusted share. During the same quarter last year, the company had a net loss of $23.0 million or $0.04 per adjusted share. For the full year, the company reported a net loss of $11.82 billion.

The Seattle-founded aerospace giant reported mixed revenue results during the fourth quarter. Boeing’s Commercial Airplanes revenue dropped to $4.76 billion, a 55% decrease from $10.48 billion in the same quarter last year. Defense, Space & Security revenue fell to $5.41 billion, a 20% decrease from $6.75 billion this time last year. Global Services revenue increased 6% to $5.12 billion from $4.85 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023. Boeing suffered its largest annual loss since 2020 in part from a two-month machinist strike which the company hopes to continue to recover by increasing production and delivery operations.

Boeing Company (BA) shares closed at $176.52, remaining relatively unchanged for the week.

General Motors Drives Up Earnings

General Motors Company (GM) reported its fourth quarter and full-year earnings report on Tuesday, January 28. Even though the automaker exceeded expectations for quarterly earnings, the company’s stock fell more than 8% following the release of the report.

General Motors announced revenue of $47.70 billion for the quarter, up 11% from $42.98 billion at this time last year. Revenue beat analysts’ expectations of $43.93 billion. Full-year revenue reached $187.44 billion, an increase from $171.84 billion one year ago.

“I would like to open this letter by thanking the entire GM team, including our dealers and suppliers, for helping deliver an outstanding 2024,” said General Motors CEO, Mary Barra, in a letter to shareholders. “As we look to the year ahead, we will continue to allocate capital consistently and in a balanced manner, and our vehicle portfolio will continue to get stronger.”

General Motors reported quarterly net losses of $2.96 billion or $1.64 per adjusted share. This is compared to a net income of $2.10 billion or $1.59 per adjusted share during the same quarter last year. For the full year, the company reported net income of $6.01 billion.

The automotive manufacturing company’s North America segment saw fourth quarter revenue increase to $39.53 billion, up from $35.23 billion year-over-year. General Motors’ International segment reported revenue of $3.99 billion, up from $3.94 billion in the prior year. General Motors announced its full-year guidance for fiscal 2025 and expects income between $11.2 billion to $12.5 billion or $11 to $12 per adjusted share.

General Motors Company (GM) shares ended the week at $49.46, down 8.9% for the week.

Starbucks Brews Strong Earnings

Starbucks Corporation (SBUX) reported its quarterly financial results on Tuesday, January 28. The coffeehouse chain reported revenue that surpassed expectations, causing its shares to climb to 5% following the release of the report.

The company reported first quarter revenue of $9.40 billion, down slightly from $9.43 billion reported in the same quarter last year. This exceeded analysts’ expected revenue of $9.31 billion.

“While we are only one quarter into our turnaround, we are moving quickly to act on the 'Back to Starbucks' efforts and we have seen a positive response,” said Starbucks CEO, Brian Niccol. “We believe this is the fundamental change in strategy needed to solve our underlying issues, restore confidence in our brand and return the business to sustainable, long-term growth.”

Starbucks’ net income for the quarter was $780.8 million or $0.69 per adjusted share. This was down from $1.02 billion or $0.90 per adjusted share in the same quarter last year.

Starbucks opened 377 net new stores in the first quarter and ended the period with 40,576 stores in total. Comparable store sales in North America decreased by 4% and international comparable sales also decreased by 4%, which were both attributed in part to a decline in comparable transactions. Active U.S. Rewards Membership reached 34.6 million in the first quarter, up 1% year-over-year. The company declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.61 per share. The cash dividend will be due to the stockholders of record on February 14, 2025, with a payment date of February 28, 2025.

Starbucks Corporation (SBUX) shares ended the week at $107.68, up 9.4% for the week.

The Dow started the week at 44,149 and closed at 44,545 on 1/31. The S&P 500 started the week at 5,969 and closed at 6,041. The NASDAQ started the week at 19,234 and closed at 19,627.

U.S. Treasury yields fell after minutes from the Federal Reserve’s January policy meeting were released, and investors assessed the Fed’s decision to pause cutting interest rates further. Yields trended lower toward the end of the week as the latest employment data showed the lowest unemployment claims filed in over three weeks.

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve released the minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting held on January 28 and 29, 2025. At the meeting, policy makers agreed to hold the benchmark rate steady at a range of between 4.25% to 4.50%. Recent data shows inflation remaining at about half a percentage point or more above the Fed’s 2% goal.

"Pressing the pause button," said head of multisector fixed income investing at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Lindsay Rosner. "[T]he FOMC will want to see further progress in the inflation data to deliver the next rate cut highlighted by the fact they removed the reference on inflation making progress."

The benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield opened the week of January 27 at 4.63% and traded as low as 4.48% on Thursday. The 30-year Treasury bond opened the week at 4.85% and traded as low as 4.75% on Thursday.

On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that initial claims for unemployment decreased by 16,000 to 207,000 for the week ended January 25. This was less than analysts’ estimates of 220,000 claims. Continuing unemployment claims fell by 42,000 to 1.86 million.

“Today’s claims data support the Fed chairman’s assertion at his press conference yesterday that the [Federal Open Market Committee] need not be in any rush to ease monetary conditions again,” said chief economist at High Frequency Economics, Carl Weinberg.

The 10-year Treasury note yield finished the week of 1/27 at 4.54% while the 30-year Treasury note yield finished the week at 4.79%.

Freddie Mac released its latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey on Thursday, January 30. The survey indicated the 30-year fixed mortgage rate persistently lingering around 7%.

This week, the 30-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 6.95%, down from last week’s average of 6.96%. Last year at this time, the 30-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 6.63%.

The 15-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 6.12% this week, down from last week’s average of 6.16%. During the same week last year, the 15-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 5.94%.

"The 30-year fixed-rate has hovered between 6% and 7% for most of the last two and a half years. That trend continued this week, with the average rate remaining essentially flat at 6.95%,” said Freddie Mac’s Chief Economist, Sam Khater. "Driven by these higher rates and a persistent supply shortage, affordability hurdles still exist for many homebuyers and a significant number of them remain on the sidelines.”

Based on published national averages, the savings rate was 0.41% as of 1/21. The one-year CD averaged 1.82%.

Editor’s Note: The publicly available financial information is offered as a helpful and informative service to our friends. This article is not an endorsement of any company, product or service.