The daily business briefing: May 10, 2023

A Ryanair Boeing 737-800 aircraft at takeoff

Ryanair will buy 150 737 MAX jets from Boeing, and could buy 150 more

(Image credit: Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

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1. Biden, McCarthy meet but remain deadlocked over raising debt ceiling
2. Ryanair orders up to 300 Boeing planes in $40 billion deal
3. Fox News won't change coverage despite Dominion settlement, Carlson firing
4. Rivian shares jump after EV maker's revenue exceeds expectations
5. Stock futures edge lower ahead of inflation data

By Harold Maass, The Week US

published 10 May 2023

1. Biden, McCarthy meet but remain deadlocked over raising debt ceiling

President Biden met with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and other congressional leaders at the White House on Tuesday to work on breaking an impasse on raising the debt ceiling before a catastrophic default that could be weeks away. Biden insists Congress must lift the $31.4 trillion debt limit without conditions. McCarthy and his fellow Republicans are demanding spending cuts in exchange for raising the borrowing cap. It was Biden's first face-to-face meeting with McCarthy since Feb. 1. There was no breakthrough on Tuesday. The leaders agreed to meet again on Friday.

Ryanair said Tuesday it had reached a deal to buy 150 737 MAX jets from Boeing with an option to buy 150 more. The deal, valued at as much as $40 billion at list prices, marks a turnaround in the relationship between the European discount airline and the aircraft maker, after Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary last year criticized Boeing over delays in delivering a previous order. Ryanair says it will use the planes in the new order, which is the largest ever by an Irish company for U.S. goods, to grow its market share in Europe over the coming decade. "It's a bit like a marriage," O'Leary said Tuesday at Boeing's Virginia headquarters. "We have occasional rows and occasional splits and we come together and kiss and make up."

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Fox Corporation's executive chair, Lachlan Murdoch, said Tuesday that Fox News would not change its news and opinion coverage despite the recent firing of top-rated host Tucker Carlson and the company's $787 million settlement in a landmark defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems. The voting equipment company accused Fox News of damaging its reputation by airing of false claims that its voting machines changed some votes for former President Donald Trump to President Biden in the 2020 election. The Dominion case and another defamation lawsuit caused the company to post a quarterly loss. Without those costs, it would have had a healthy profit thanks to strong advertising profit boosted by Fox's Super Bowl broadcast.

Rivian Automotive shares jumped 6 percent in extended trading after the company on Tuesday reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue as it sold more of its electric vehicles at high prices. Rivian said it cut costs in the January-March quarter and was sticking with its annual production forecast of 50,000 EVs, unlike rivals Lucid Group and Fisker, which recently trimmed their production targets. Tesla, which dominates the EV market, has been cutting prices, making it harder for newer EV companies to gain market share. Rivian said it aimed to step up production of its in-house Enduro powertrains, which would enable it to hit its 2023 production target despite parts supply issues.

U.S. stock futures slipped slightly early Wednesday ahead of a key inflation report. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 0.1 percent at 6:45 a.m. ET. S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were down 0.2 percent. The April consumer price index is due out later in the day. Economists surveyed by FactSet forecast a 0.4 percent increase in consumer prices from March to April, up from a 0.1 percent pace the previous month. The annual inflation rate was expected to come in at 5 percent, the same pace as in March. That would mark the first time the annual rate didn't budge after nine months of declines.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.