Boeing shares fell a little more than 3% in late-morning trading in New York after a new report from The Wall Street Journal stated that deliveries of some narrow-body 737 MAX jets would be delayed following the discovery of scratched wiring on newly built aircraft.

Boeing told the WSJ that each affected jet can be fixed within days and that the wiring flaw will not derail its target of delivering about 500 737 MAX jets this year, though March deliveries could be slowed.

The wiring issue is yet another manufacturing setback as Boeing tries to demonstrate to FAA regulators that it has improved quality control following the January 2024 midair door-plug blowout, the two 737 MAX crashes, and other quality-related issues related to the narrow-body jet.

Boeing shares fell 3.3% following the report, leaving the stock roughly flat on the year." 

Last week, a Bloomberg report cited people familiar with the talks as saying that the planemaker and China could agree to a 500-plane order for 737 MAX jets at the Trump-Xi summit later this month.

Goldman analysts led by Noah Poponak recently shared an aircraft delivery tracker with clients showing Boeing deliveries tracking at around 52 for February, including 43 737 MAX jets and 3 787s.

The WSJ report made no reference to which systems the flawed wiring affected. Hopefully, it was not critical flight systems.