Business

The spring housing market might be getting underway a little early this year.
A recent slide in mortgage rates pushed buyers back into the market.
Supply is still tight, but more houses could soon be available.

A sharp drop in mortgage interest rates in December may have kickstarted this year’s spring housing market early. Rates are about a full percentage point lower than they were in October, and consumers expect they will fall even more.
Optimism about mortgage rates increased sharply in December, according to a monthly consumer survey by Fannie Mae. For the first time since the survey was launched in 2010, more homeowners on net believe rates will go down rather than up, according to Mark Palim, deputy chief economist at Fannie Mae.

“This significant shift in consumer expectations comes on the heels of the recent bond market rally,” said Palim. “Notably, homeowners and higher-income groups reported greater rate optimism than renters.”
The average rate on the 30-year fixed has been on a wild ride since the start of the Covid pandemic. It hit more than a dozen record lows in 2020 and 2021, below 3%, causing a historic run on homebuying and a sharp rise in prices, only to then more than double in 2022. Rates hit a more than 20-year high in October 2023, hovering around 8% before falling back below 7% in December. Rates, however, are still twice what they were three years ago.

Ryan Paredes (R) and Ariadna Paredes look at a home being shown to them by Ryan Ratliff, a Real Estate Sales Associate with Re/Max Advance Realty, on April 20, 2023 in Cutler Bay, Florida. 
Joe Raedle | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Buyers are coming back. Washington, D.C.-area real estate agent Paul Legere hosted two open houses over the weekend — homes in the $1.1 million to $1.2 million price range — and said they were the busiest he’s experienced in the last year.
“Similar report from my co-worker,” he added. “Even on Saturday, during torrential rain, we both had over 10 groups of active shoppers. These were people that had been in the market and had slowed or put their search on hold and are coming back, earnestly looking for a new property.”

Looking for inventory

Legere said he expects to see “an infusion” of inventory in the next week or two. Tight inventory has helped keep prices higher, another hurdle for potential homebuyers.

“Homeowners have told us repeatedly of late that high mortgage rates are the top reason why it’s both a bad time to buy and sell a home, and so a more positive mortgage rate outlook may [incentivize] some to list their homes for sale, helping increase the supply of existing homes in the new year,” said Palim.
A recent report from Redfin, a national real estate brokerage, found demand starting to pick up in December as rates fell. Redfin’s Homebuyer Demand Index — a seasonally adjusted measure of requests for tours and other homebuying services from Redfin agents — was up 10% from a month ago to its highest level since August, according to the report. Pending sales, which measure signed contracts on existing homes, were down 3% from December 2022, but that was the smallest decline in two years.
Much will depend on both interest rates and home prices in the months to come. Prices continue to rise, due to lack of supply, and if rates continue to drop, price gains could accelerate. The lower the rate, the more potential homebuyers can afford.
While mortgage rates are expected to drop further, that will depend on the strength of the economy and inflation.
“The rate momentum is as good as the trajectory of economic data. So if the data continues to do what it has been doing, there’s no reason rates couldn’t go down into the 5’s, possibly even the high 4’s if some of the talking heads are right about recession in 2024,” Matthew Graham, chief operating officer of Mortgage News Daily, said on CNBC’s “The Exchange.”
The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage hit a recent low of 6.61% at the end of December, but is up slightly this month to 6.76%, according to Mortgage News Daily. More

United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket successfully launched its long-awaited inaugural mission from Cape Canaveral, Florida, early Monday.
Vulcan successfully deployed its main payload, the Peregrine lunar cargo lander, for Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic, which aims to land on the moon Feb. 23.
ULA’s Vulcan represents the latest challenger to the launch business of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, with the companies fiercely competing for lucrative national security rocket contracts.

The brand new rocket, United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur, lifts off from Space Launch Complex 41d at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Jan. 8, 2024, for its maiden voyage, carrying Astrobotic’s Peregrine Lunar Lander.
Chandan Khanna | AFP | Getty Images

A new U.S. rocket reached orbit early Monday, and the launch was a big one — not just in scale of the vehicle, but also in significance for a market that has become dominated by a single player in recent years.
United Launch Alliance, or ULA, successfully launched its long-awaited inaugural Vulcan rocket from Florida’s Cape Canaveral. The 202-foot-tall rocket successfully deployed its main payload, the Peregrine lunar cargo lander, for Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic about an hour later.

Astrobotic’s Peregrine is bound for the moon, where it will attempt a landing on Feb. 23, potentially becoming the first American spacecraft to soft land on the moon since Apollo 17 more than 50 years ago.
Under a NASA-funded program known as the Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, Astrobotic’s mission represents one of six lunar launches of landers from three different companies slated for this year.

Taking on SpaceX

The United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket is transported to the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Jan. 5, 2024.
Chandan Khanna | AFP | Getty Images

The brand new rocket, United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur, lifts off from Space Launch Complex 41d at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Jan. 8, 2024, for its maiden voyage, carrying Astrobotic’s Peregrine Lunar Lander.
Gregg Newton | AFP | Getty Images

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Boeing shares tumbled in premarket trading Monday.
The Federal Aviation Administration grounded dozens of Boeing Max 737 9 planes after a plug door blew out midair during an Alaska Airlines flight.
Friday’s accident occurred just as Boeing has been trying to ramp up output of the Max and brings fresh scrutiny of Boeing’s quality assurances.

An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max-9 aircraft grounded at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) in Seattle, Washington, US, on Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024. 
David Ryder | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Shares of Boeing tumbled roughly 8% in premarket trading Monday, as investors digested the news that the Federal Aviation Administration had ordered airlines to ground dozens of Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft for urgent inspections.
The FAA issued the order on Saturday after a door plug blew out in the middle of an Alaska Airlines flight on Friday when the nearly brand-new aircraft was flying at around 16,000 feet.

The incident again thrusts Boeing back into the spotlight. CEO Dave Calhoun has been trying to assure investors that Boeing is getting back on better footing after a string of problems including two crashes that killed 346 people, pandemic supply-chain havoc and a series of quality defects.
Large-scale groundings by aviation authorities are rare, but the FAA has been scrutinizing Boeing and its best-selling 737 Max since the fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019. Boeing said it agrees with the FAA’s decision to ground the Max 9 planes for inspections. It was working on drafting instructions with federal regulators for airlines to begin instructors.
Friday’s accident occurred just as Boeing has been trying to ramp up output of the Max.
“An escape of this nature makes one question the quality control of the 737 delivery ramp and the impact of inexperienced labor on both Boeing and its supply chain,” Bank of America aerospace analyst Ron Epstein wrote in an analyst note Monday, adding that the plane was delivered just months earlier. “This aircraft still had ‘new airplane’ smell and the sticker price in its window.”
The FAA on Saturday said around 171 planes would be affected by its emergency airworthiness directive, which applies to U.S. airlines and carriers operating in U.S. territory. Alaska Airlines and United Airlines are the largest operators of the 737 Max 9 model, of which around 215 are flying worldwide, according to Cirium.

Of the 171 aircraft grounded under the directive, United Airlines has 79 and Alaska has 65, while the remaining 74 are spread across six other airlines.
The National Transportation Safety Board over the weekend described a harrowing few minutes onboard the Alaska Airlines flight, starting with a loud bang and a force so violent it tore off headrests and seatbacks, and blew open the cockpit door.
A schoolteacher found the door blown-out plane panel in his backyard, the NTSB said late Sunday.
Images shared on social media showed a hole in the side of the aircraft and passengers using oxygen masks. The flight — Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 — returned to Portland, Oregon, shortly after departing for Ontario, California.
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, noted that Friday’s incident is the latest in a “string of problems for the company,” and suggested airlines using 737 Max planes will be “thinking long and hard about their future aircraft requirements.”
Shares of Boeing’s European rival Airbus gained 1.7% by mid-morning on Monday as investors speculated that it could take market share from the U.S. powerhouse.
“There are naturally questions being asked about the quality checks and whether Boeing is trying to do too much too fast,” Mould said.
“Boeing’s management will be under considerable pressure from the regulators and customers to explain what’s going on, which means considerable headwinds ahead for the business. It’s no wonder investors have raced to sell the shares as the risks to the investment case have just shot up.” More

Moderna said its Covid vaccine generated about $6.7 billion in sales in 2023, meeting its forecast for the year.
But revenue from the shot fell around two-thirds from the more than $18 billion it booked in 2022. 
Moderna’s announcement, which came ahead of its presentation at the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, illustrates the steep drop in demand for Covid products last year as cases and public concern about the virus dwindled front their pandemic peaks.

Nikos Pekiaridis | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Moderna on Monday said its Covid vaccine sales plunged by about two-thirds in 2023 to $6.7 billion, as fewer people rolled up their sleeves for an updated version of the jab.
The revenue from the shots met Moderna’s forecast for the year, even as sales plummeted from the more than $18 billion the company booked in 2022. 

Moderna’s announcement, which came ahead of its presentation at the annual JPMorgan Healthcare Conference, shows the steep drop in demand for Covid products last year as cases and public concern about the virus dwindled from their pandemic peaks. Weakening demand for the company’s shot, its only commercially available product, led shares of Moderna to fall nearly 45% last year. 
Roughly $6.1 billion of Moderna’s revenue related to the shot came from sales of the vaccine. Another $600 million was deferred revenue related to the company’s work with Gavi, a nongovernmental global vaccine organization that coordinated a global shot distribution program, Moderna said in a release.
Moderna during its third-quarter earnings report in November forecast at least $6 billion in full-year Covid vaccine sales, but did not provide a range for that guidance. In August, before the rollout of its latest version of the jab, the company said it expected the shot to rake in $6 billion to $8 billion in revenue.
The company noted that the vaccine won 48% of the U.S. Covid vaccine market share last year. That’s up from the 37% market it captured in 2022. 
But the biotech company expects sales from the shot to drop even further in 2024. It reiterated its companywide full-year sales guidance of roughly $4 billion on Monday. Notably, that forecast includes revenue from its vaccine against respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, which could win Food and Drug Administration approval in April. 

Moderna said it expects to return to sales growth in 2025 with the launch of new products. The company currently has 45 products in development, nine of which are in late-stage trials. They include Moderna’s combination shot targeting Covid and the flu, which could win approval as early as 2025.
The company said it expects to “break even” by 2026. More

Boeing is under renewed scrutiny after a blocked exit door blew out midair during an Alaska Airlines flight on Friday.
No serious injuries were reported on Alaska Flight 1282.
Boeing has been working to get its 737 Max program back on track after two fatal crashes, the Covid-19 pandemic’s supply-chain havoc, and a series of smaller but troubling quality issues in recent months.

Boeing’s new 737 MAX-9 is pictured under construction at their production facility in Renton, Washington, Feb. 13, 2017.
Jason Redmond | Reuters

Boeing’s plan to get back on solid footing after a series of quality flaws in its best-selling jet suffered a near-disastrous blow Friday when a plane panel blew out during an Alaska Airlines flight, leaving a gaping hole in Row 26.
The Federal Aviation Administration less than a day later ordered a grounding of most 737 Max 9 planes, affecting some 171 aircraft worldwide, so they can be inspected. On Sunday, the the agency said, “they will remain grounded until the FAA is satisfied that they are safe.”

Several factors onboard Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 Friday afternoon — including its lower-than-cruising altitude and unoccupied seats where it mattered most — helped avoid serious injury, or worse, for the flight’s 171 passengers and six crew. The force from the event was so violent it appeared to have ripped some headrests and seatbacks out of the cabin, according to early details of the federal investigation.
The terrifying incident means renewed scrutiny for Boeing, which has been working to get its 737 Max program back on track after two fatal crashes, the Covid-19 pandemic’s supply-chain havoc, and a series of smaller but troubling quality issues in recent months.
The 737 Max 9 flown by Alaska Airlines on Friday was delivered less than three months ago.
“The fact that it was a practically brand-new aircraft is a cause for concern,” said Jim Hall, a former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.
United Airlines and Alaska Airlines, the largest operators of the 737 Max 9, on Saturday said they suspended flights with those planes, forcing the carriers to cancel more than 400 flights.

‘Transitional year’

Boeing’s leadership has spent roughly five years regrouping after the 2018 and 2019 fatal crashes of its smaller and more popular Boeing 737 Max 8, which prompted a worldwide grounding of the both the Max 8 and Max 9, the two types flying commercially.
It successfully won back regulator approval to allow carriers to fly the planes in late 2020 and has won hundreds of new orders for the planes as airlines trip over each other to secure new jets, which are sold out for most of this decade at Boeing and rival Airbus.
Boeing has been trying to ramp up production of the workhorse jet while simultaneously stamping out quality issues such as rudder system bolts that were possibly loose and holes that were incorrectly drilled on certain aircraft. Those defects prompted additional inspections and in some cases slowed down deliveries to airlines.
Boeing still hasn’t won regulator approval for carriers to start flying the smallest Max 7 and largest Max 10 models.
“I’ve heard from a few of you wondering if we’ve lost a step in this recovery,” Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun told Wall Street analysts on an earnings call in October. “You might not be surprised to hear that I view it as exactly the opposite. Over the last several years, we’ve added rigor around our quality processes.”
Calhoun said last month in a statement announcing a new COO that 2024 would be a “significant transitional year in our performance as we continue to restore our operational and financial strength.”
Wall Street analysts expect Boeing to post its sixth consecutive quarterly net loss when it reports results on Jan. 31, according to FactSet estimates. They also expect the manufacturer to be profitable this year, starting in the first quarter.
Shares of Boeing gained close to 37% in 2023, the stock’s best percentage gain since 2017 and its first annual gain since a modest rise in 2019.

Flight risk

Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the investigation into Friday’s accident, said at a press briefing Saturday night in Portland, Oregon, that the probe is centered around the Alaska Airlines flight and the plane, not the entire fleet of Boeing 737 Maxes.
There will be big questions to answer about how exactly the panel blew out at 16,000 feet, putting a plane full of passengers at risk.
Fuselage supplier Spirit Aerosystems said it installed the plug door, an emergency exit door that’s cut into the plane but not intended for use under certain plane configurations, like those on United and Alaska, and is therefore sealed off. A Boeing spokeswoman declined to comment on whether Boeing is the last to seal the door before the planes are delivered to airlines, citing the ongoing investigation.
John Goglia, a former member of the NTSB and a transportation safety consultant, said that the Alaska Airlines incident will likely be a “blip” for Boeing but argued federal regulators should further scrutinize Boeing as it gears up to produce even more 737 Maxes.
“If I was the FAA, I’d say, ‘Show me six months where you don’t have any assembly problems,'” he said. “The FAA needs to slow Boeing down.”
According to Jefferies, the 737 Max 9 represents just 2% of Boeing’s backlog of more than 4,500 Max planes. It’s far less popular than the Max 8, which accounts for around 68% of the Maxes that customers have ordered from Boeing.
And while the planes will remain grounded for the time being, some safety experts don’t expect the same level of impact on the company as it saw after the 2018 and 2019 Max crashes, in which a piece of flight-control software was implicated.
Richard Aboulafia, managing director at aviation consulting firm Aerodynamic Advisory, said the problem on the Alaska Airlines plane appears to be a manufacturing problem, not an inherent design flaw.
That should make the investigation and recovery easier for Boeing, he said.
And, of course, there’s the fact that no one died following Friday’s flight in contrast to the 346 people who were killed in the 2018 and 2019 crashes.

Narrowly escaping tragedy

No serious injuries were reported after the Alaska Airlines flight.
No one was seated in 26A and 26B, the window and middle seats next to the panel that blew out. The plane hadn’t yet reached cruising altitude — which can be double the 16,000 feet where the incident occurred — also helping matters, because passengers and flight attendants weren’t walking around the cabin.
As of Saturday night, the NTSB was asking the public for help finding the lost door, which investigators believe landed in a Portland suburb.
“We don’t often talk about psychological injury, but I’m sure that happened here,” Homendy, the NTSB chair said at a news conference in Portland on Saturday night.
“We are very, very fortunate that this didn’t end up as something more tragic,” Homendy said. More

The Federal Aviation Administration on Saturday ordered airlines to ground more than 170 Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft for inspections.
Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 made an emergency landing after a panel on the side of the plane blew off midflight.
Alaska and United Airlines said late Saturday that they were grounding their entire fleets of Boeing 737 Max 9s.

Passenger oxygen masks hang from the roof next to a missing window and a portion of a side wall of an Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, which had been bound for Ontario, California and suffered depressurization soon after departing, in Portland, Oregon, U.S., on Jan. 5, 2024, in this picture obtained from social media.
Instagram/@strawberrvy | Instagram/@strawberrvy Via Reute

The Federal Aviation Administration on Saturday ordered a temporary grounding of dozens of Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft for inspections, a day after a piece of the aircraft blew out in the middle of an Alaska Airlines flight.
Images and video of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 that were shared on social media showed a gaping hole on the side of the plane and passengers using oxygen masks before it returned to Portland shortly after taking off for Ontario, California, on Friday afternoon.

The FAA’s emergency airworthiness directive will affect about 171 planes worldwide and applies to U.S. airlines and carriers operating in U.S. territory, the agency said. Alaska and United Airlines said late Saturday that they were grounding their entire fleets of Boeing 737 Max 9s.
No serious injuries were reported on the flight, according to federal safety officials. There were 171 passengers and six crewmembers on board, Alaska Air said.
“Safety will continue to drive our decision-making as we assist the NTSB’s investigation into Alaska Airlines Flight 1282,” FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said in a statement.
Large-scale groundings of aircraft by the FAA or other aviation authorities are rare. The FAA has heavily scrutinized the Boeing 737 Max since two fatal crashes grounded the jetliner worldwide almost five years ago. Two other models of the Max, the smallest and largest version, have not yet been cleared by the agency to enter commercial service.
The section of the fuselage missing appeared to correspond to an exit not used by Alaska Airlines, or other carriers that don’t have high-density seating configurations, and was plugged.

The National Transportation Safety Board has started its investigation. Chair Jennifer Homendy, at a press briefing in Portland Saturday night, asked the public for help in finding the plane’s missing door.
Homendy said no passengers were seated at the seat closest to the panel or the middle seat in the row where the door blew out and added that it was fortunate that the plane was still climbing and not at cruising altitude when travelers and crew could have been standing or walking through the cabin.
“We could have ended up with something more tragic,” she said.
The incident was described as “an explosive decompression at the window exit,” according to Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, the labor union that represents Alaska’s cabin crew and flight attendants at United, Spirit and other carriers.
Anthony Brickhouse, a professor of aerospace safety at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, said such an incident is extremely rare.
“Rapid decompression is a serious matter,” he said. “To see a gaping hole in an aircraft is not something we typically see. In aviation safety, we would call this a structural failure.”
The incident is also a reminder to keep your seatbelt fastened when seated, he added.
“I always advise people on a commercial aircraft, keep your seatbelt on regardless of what the light says,” Brickhouse said.
Before the FAA issued its directive, Alaska Airlines earlier said it would ground its fleet of Boeing 737 Max 9 planes. On Saturday, the carrier said 18 of the planes “had in-depth and thorough plug door inspections performed as part of a recent heavy maintenance visit,” but later said it would temporarily ground them all.
“We are in touch with the FAA to determine what, if any, further work is required before these aircraft are returned to service,” Alaska said.
As of 7 p.m. ET, Alaska said it canceled 160 flights, affecting 23,000 customers.

Investigation begins

The National Transportation Safety Board sent a team to Portland on Saturday to investigate the incident.
United Airlines, the largest operator of the planes in the U.S., had prepared to ground dozens of its Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft for inspections, CNBC reported earlier. The carrier said late Saturday that it had grounded its entire fleet of 79 Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft, after earlier saying 30 of the planes had already satisfied the FAA’s inspection requirement.
The FAA said the inspections will take between four and eight hours per plane.
The Boeing 737 Max 9 is a larger version of Boeing’s best-selling jetliner, the 737 Max 8. Max planes were grounded worldwide in 2019 after two fatal crashes within about five months of one another. The U.S. lifted its flight ban on the jets in late 2020 after software and training updates.

Plugged door

The Boeing 737 Max 9 has an emergency exit door cut behind the wings for use in dense seating cabin configurations, like those used by budget airlines, according to Flightradar24.
“The doors are not activated on Alaska Airlines aircraft and are permanently ‘plugged,'” Flightradar24 said.
Boeing didn’t comment beyond its statement when asked about the sealed emergency exit door. Spirit AeroSystems, which makes the fuselages for the 737 Max, confirmed to CNBC that it installed the plugged door on the aircraft.
“Safety is our top priority and we deeply regret the impact this event has had on our customers and their passengers,” Boeing said in a statement on Saturday. “We agree with and fully support the FAA’s decision to require immediate inspections of 737-9 airplanes with the same configuration as the affected airplane.”
The company said it is supporting the NTSB’s investigation.
There are 215 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes in service worldwide, according to aviation-data firm Cirium. In addition to United and Alaska Air, other operators include Aeromexico, Turkish Airlines, Icelandair and Panama’s Copa Airlines.
Southwest Airlines and American Airlines operate the smaller 737 Max 8.
Late last year, Boeing urged airlines to inspect aircraft for a “possible” loose bolt in the rudder control system, the latest in a series of manufacturing flaws on Boeing jets that have prompted additional inspections, and slowed deliveries of the jets. More

Alaska Airlines flight 1282 returned to Portland, Oregon after a section of the plane ripped off midair.
Video and photos on social media showed a gaping hole on the side of the plane and passengers in oxygen masks.
Alaska Airlines CEO said the carrier is grounding its fleet of Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft.

An Alaska Airlines plane takes off from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on December 4, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. 
Mario Tama | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Alaska Airlines will temporarily ground its fleet of 65 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes after a section of the plane blew out midflight on Friday, forcing the crew to make an emergency landing.
“Each aircraft will be returned to service only after completion of full maintenance and safety inspections,” CEO Ben Minicucci said. “We anticipate all inspections will be completed in the next few days.”

Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 was heading to Ontario, California from Portland, Oregon, when it returned shortly after departure with 171 passengers and six crew aboard, the airline said.
Images and video of the new Boeing 737 Max 9 shared on social media showed a gaping hole on the side of the plane and passengers using oxygen masks. It landed back in Portland at 5:26 p.m. local time, according to Flightradar24. It had reached an altitude of 16,325 feet before returning to Portland.
The National Transportation Safety Board said “no serious injuries” were reported. It is sending a team to Portland to investigate, arriving later on Saturday. The Federal Aviation Administration also said it plans to investigate.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a Saturday social media post that he had been briefed on the “terrifying incident” and that the FAA plans to “take all appropriate steps going forward.”
“While this type of occurrence is rare, our flight crew was trained and prepared to safely manage the situation,” Alaska said.

The plane was certified in November, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware.

‘Explosive decompression’

Boeing also said it was aware of the incident but declined to comment further.
“We are working to gather more information and are in contact with our airline customer,” it said in a statement. “A Boeing technical team stands ready to support the investigation.”
The incident was described as “an explosive decompression at the window exit,” said Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, the labor union that represents Alaska’s cabin crew and flight attendants at United, Spirit and other carriers.”Our Union strongly believes this decision [to ground the Max 9 fleet] is a prudent and necessary step toward ensuring the safety of all crew and passengers,” she said in a statement. “We will closely monitor the safety inspection process to ensure that aircraft are not returned to service until they are deemed safe for all.”

‘Plugged’ exit door

The Boeing 737 Max 9 has a cabin exit door behind the wings for use in dense seating cabin configurations, like those used by budget airlines, according to Flightradar24.
“The doors are not activated on Alaska Airlines aircraft and are permanently ‘plugged,'” Flightradar24 said.
The airline didn’t immediately respond to a question about the door and Boeing declined to comment beyond its statement.
United Airlines is preparing to ground dozens of its Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft for inspections, according to a person familiar with the matter.
There are 215 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes in service worldwide, according to aviation-data firm Cirium. It had more than 5,000 flights scheduled for this year before the Alaska announcement, Cirium said.
The Boeing 737 Max 9 is a larger version of Boeing’s best-selling jetliner, the 737 Max 8. Max planes were grounded worldwide in 2019 after two fatal crashes within five months. The U.S. lifted its flight ban of the jets in late 2020 after software and training updates.
Late last year, Boeing urged airlines to inspect aircraft for a “possible” loose bolt in the rudder control system, the latest in a series of manufacturing flaws on the planes that have prompted additional inspections.
CORRECTION: Alaska Airlines had about 5,000 flights on the 737 Max 9 scheduled for this year. A previous version mischaracterized the number of flights. More

America maintained its love affair with pickup trucks in 2023 — but a top-selling vehicle from Toyota Motor nearly ruined their tailgate party.
Sales of the Toyota RAV4 compact crossover came within 10,000 units of Stellantis’ Ram pickup truck last year.
CNBC lays out the top 10 best-selling cars in the U.S. in 2023, from Ford, GM, Tesla and others.

2023 Ford Super Duty F-350 Limited

DETROIT – America maintained its love affair with pickup trucks in 2023 — but a top-selling vehicle from Toyota Motor nearly ruined their tailgate party.
Sales of the Toyota RAV4 compact crossover came within 10,000 units of Stellantis’ Ram pickup truck last year, a near-No. 3 ranking that would have marked the first time since 2014 that a non-pickup claimed one of the top three U.S. sales podium positions.

The RAV4 has rapidly closed the gap: In 2020, the vehicle undersold the Ram truck by more than 133,000 units. Last year, it lagged by just 9,983. Stellantis sold 444,926 Ram pickups last year, a 5% decline from 2022.
“Trucks are always at the top because they’re bought by not only individuals, but also fleet buyers and we saw heavy fleet buying last year,” said Michelle Krebs, an executive analyst at Cox Automotive. “The RAV4 shows that people want affordable, smaller SUVs, and the fact that there’s also a hybrid version of that makes it popular with people.”
At 750,789 units sold, Ford Motor’s F-Series pickups, which include the F-150 and its larger siblings, led the industry for the 42nd consecutive year. They were followed by General Motors’ Chevrolet Silverado pickup with sales of 543,780 units.
Rounding out the top five were the RAV4 at 434,943 units sold and the Tesla Model Y at 394,497, according to data and sales estimates from Motor Intelligence. (Tesla does not disclose regional sales by vehicle.) The Model Y moved up one position in the rankings compared with 2022.

Toyota RAV4

The success of the RAV4 is notable. It aligns with Toyota’s growing lead as America’s second bestselling automaker, behind GM but outselling Ford each year since 2020.

Toyota first overtook Ford during the coronavirus pandemic and has continued to increase its sales lead since, outpacing the Detroit automaker by more than 250,000 units in 2023.

The Japanese automaker also notably bested GM to become the country’s top-selling automaker for the first time ever in 2021 amid major production and supply chain disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic. GM has since reclaimed its crown and outsold Toyota by hundreds of thousands of vehicles in 2022 and 2023.
Ivan Drury, director of insights at Edmunds, said the RAV4 as well as the Honda CR-V, which ranked sixth last year in sales, offer something completely different than American pickups: Small, economical vehicles that fit many American’s lifestyles and budgets amid high interest rates and economic uncertainty.
“It’s all these other problems that we’ve experienced throughout the last year that kind of force people into practical purchases,” he said. “I think these vehicles speak to the most practical purchase you can buy.”

Overall sales

New vehicle sales were stronger and more consistent than expected throughout 2023, notching the industry’s best year of sales since 2019.
Motor Intelligence reports automakers sold 15.6 million vehicles in the U.S. in 2023, a 12.3% increase from 2022. That compares with more than 17 million vehicles sold in 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic upending the global auto market.
December sales, which were reported this week, were surprisingly strong, as automakers upped incentive spending to move products.
Auto sales to end the year increased 13% compared with December 2022, more than double some analyst forecasts.
Automotive analysts and forecasters expect sales this year to be between roughly 15.6 million and 16.1 million vehicles. GM said Wednesday it expects the industry to hit 16 million units sold in 2024.
Here are the 10 bestselling vehicles in the U.S. by unit sales for 2023, according to Motor Intelligence.

1. Ford F-Series: 750,789 units – up 14.8% from 2022

 2024 Ford F-150 Raptor

2. Chevrolet Silverado: 543,780 – up 5.9%

2024 Chevrolet Silverado HD ZR2

3. Ram pickup: 444,926 – down 5%

A RAM vehicle is displayed at the New York Auto Show, April 13, 2022.
Scott Mlyn | CNBC

4. Toyota RAV4: 434,943 – up 8.8%

2024 Toyota RAV4

5. Tesla Model Y: 394,497 – up 56.5%

Tesla Model Y
Courtesy: Tesla

6. Honda CR-V: 361,457 – up 51.8%

2023 Honda CR-V

7. GMC Sierra: 295,737 – up 22.4%

2022 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate

8. Toyota Camry: 290,649 – down 1.5%

2022 Toyota Camry

9. Nissan Rogue: 271,458 – up 45.6%

2021 Nissan Rogue

10. Jeep Grand Cherokee: 244,594 – up 9.5%

Jeep Grand Cherokee Trailhawk PHEV Concept More