FAA requires new defect fixed on 737 Maxes

The Federal Aviation Administration has prepared an airworthiness directive requiring all Boeing 737 Maxes to be inspected for a manufacturing defect the jet maker discovered in December.

All Maxes found to have the defect will have to be fixed before they can fly again, although Boeing doesn’t expect this requirement to add further delay to the aircraft’s return to service.

The FAA directive was posted to the Federal Register on Tuesday, a day ahead of formal publication.

The manufacturing defect, which was reported by the Seattle Times and others in January, arose when mechanics working on the final finish of the airplanes, polishing the carbon composite engine pods at the end of the production process, ground away some underlying layers of metal foil in the upper part of the pod that are necessary for lightning protection.

Microsoft supply chain issues cause earnings doubt

REDMOND, Wash. – Microsoft said its supply chain is being hurt by the virus outbreak in China and the company will return to normal operations at a slower pace than expected.

Microsoft had predicted it would record between $10.75 billion and $11.15 billion in revenue from its personal computing segment in the January-March quarter. But Microsoft said the supply chain for its Windows business and Surface devices “are more negatively impacted than previously anticipated.” Thus, the company said it doesn’t expect to meet that target.

Microsoft’s chief financial officer, Amy Hood, had said on a Jan. 29 earnings call that the company had widened the usual range for its revenue forecast because of the “uncertainty related to the public health situation in China.” The company’s statement Wednesday suggests that the range was not wide enough to reflect the spread of the outbreak and its ongoing effects.

Amazon advertisers spending less during virus outbreak

Amazon merchants spent about 6% less on advertising over the past two weeks than they did a year ago, said Daniel Knijnik, who runs Quartile Digital, a New York firm that helps manage Amazon advertising for 2,300 brands selling goods on the site.

Many of them are small outfits forced to react more quickly than big brands selling to the likes of Walmart and Target, he said, because they lack the inventory stockpiles and alternative suppliers their larger counterparts can draw on.

Amazon’s advertising sales are a small piece of overall revenue, but they help the company offset the huge costs of storing and shipping millions of products. In the holiday quarter, what Amazon calls “other” revenue – most of which is advertising – totaled $4.78 billion, up 41% from a year earlier.