Boeing Co.

BA 2.55%

Boeing received a boost with a new order on Monday. Southwest Airlines Co.

LUV 2.06%

said it was purchasing 100 new Boeing 737 MAX jets, a victory for the aircraft maker after suffering from a prolonged grounding of the ailing plane and fallout from the pandemic. The order also means Boeing will retain its lockdown on one of its largest airline customers. Southwest’s fleet is made up entirely of 737 jets, but the carrier had reassessed this strategy. The nearly two-year grounding of Boeing’s 737 MAX planes followed two crashes that left 346 dead. Boeing shares rose 2.3% on Monday.

Micron technology Inc.

MU 0.96%

Two chipmakers surround a Japanese semiconductor company in the midst of a global race to scale. Micron Technology and Western Digital Corp.

are each exploring a potential deal for Kioxia Holdings Corp. which could value the Japanese semiconductor company at around $ 30 billion. Tokyo-based Kioxia, controlled by private equity firm Bain Capital, had planned an initial public offering before suspending it at the end of September. An IPO later this year is still possible if Kioxia fails to come to a deal with one of the suitors. Consolidation has swept the chip industry as companies seek scale and expand their product portfolios to support the growing number of everyday items connected to the internet. Micron shares rose 4.8% on Thursday.

Johnson & johnson

Johnson & Johnson’s production of Covid-19 vaccines has encountered a problem. The drugmaker said on Wednesday it saw quality problems in the production of 15 million doses of the vaccine, which were not distributed. J&J detected the problem by performing quality checks at a factory owned by contract manufacturer Emergent BioSolutions Inc.

J&J manufactured the main ingredient in the vaccine doses for the United States in one of the company’s own factories, so the lack of quality did not affect these doses, which were given to people in the States. “United, although he scrapped the problematic batch,” J&J said. it would be able to produce enough doses to meet US production targets in the coming months. J&J shares fell 0.9% on Thursday.

Soft Inc.

The appetite for Chewy’s pet products is on the rise. The online pet retailer reported its first quarterly profit and more than $ 2 billion in sales in the last period, helped by the pandemic surge in online shopping and pet ownership of company. Overall, sales for the holiday quarter increased more than 50% to $ 2.04 billion. Chewy, which went public in 2019 but remains controlled by PetSmart Inc. and its owners, last year began rolling out medication personalization at its pharmacy and a free telehealth service for customers who set up automatic shipments. . Chewy’s shares rose 5.4% on Wednesday.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Co.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt opens his next chapter under a new owner. News Corp has agreed to buy the consumer arm of the educational publisher for $ 349 million, adding a portfolio of high-profile novels from authors such as George Orwell, Philip Roth and JRR Tolkien to the HarperCollins Publishers division of News Corp. News Corp also owns the publisher of the Wall Street Journal Dow Jones & Co. and news agencies in the UK and Australia, among other assets. The deal marks the second sale of a well-known publisher in less than six months. Last November, Bertelsmann SE, owner of Penguin Random House, agreed to buy Simon & Schuster from ViacomCBS Inc.

for nearly $ 2.18 billion. Houghton shares gained 19% on Monday.

Alliance of Walgreens boots Inc.

The vaccine rollout is set to help Walgreens recover. The drugstore chain reported higher quarterly profit on Wednesday as vaccine rollout intensified in the U.S. Walgreens said it has administered more than eight million vaccines to date, including four million in March, and the number higher partly led the company to raise its earnings forecast. . Vaccinations are on the rise across the country and its competitors, including CVS Health Corp.

, as well as the supermarket chain Kroger Co.

and Walmart Inc.,

are also pushing for consumers to visit their sites to receive vaccines. Walgreens shares added 3.6% on Wednesday.

Write to Francesca Fontana at [email protected]