One plane, lotta baggage (David Ryder/Getty Images)

Hey Snackers,

Feathers aren’t the only thing that’s colorful about these parrots: a wildlife park in the UK plans to transfer eight potty-beaked parrots to live with “non-swearing” birds, hoping they’ll abandon their cuss-heavy dialogue (including telling visitors to “f*** off”).

The S&P 500 snapped its six-day win streak on Friday, after reaching record highs. The Fed’s fave inflation gauge showed price pressures cooled last month, while US GDP growth came in stronger than expected, boosting optimism that the economy’s in soft-landing territory.

Boeing’s quality concern crisis is creating headwinds for fleet-needy airlines

Haven’t you people ever heard of… closing the jet-plane door? There was panic at the window this month when a sealed door on a Boeing 737 Max 9 plane yeeted off mid-flight, prompting an emergency landing. No one was injured during the Alaska flight, but passengers, airlines, and regulators are riled up as they try to figure out what happened.

• Screw loose: Investigators found the door was missing certain bolts, and Alaska said it found loose bolts on “many” of its 737 Max 9s.

• Full Hangar: The FAA grounded 171 of the planes and halted plans for expanded Max production. Still, the agency gave instructions for inspecting and returning grounded Max 9s to the skies (Alaska and United flew a few over the weekend).

• Awk: Boeing, whose stock has descended more than 20% this month, reports on Wednesday. Its forecast could be cloudy.

Boeing's blues affect airlines... Alaska and United, the only two US carriers that use the 737 Max 9, canceled thousands of flights following the doorbacle. Alaska said grounded planes will cost it $150M, and United’s forecasting a Q1 loss. Both airlines’ CEOs criticized Boeing. Meanwhile, gov’t agency investigations into other Boeing models could uncover more issues. The door was just the latest in a string of problems and production delays.

• Boeing is still working to build back trust following two 737 Max 8 crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people.

Quality concerns can cause quantity concerns... Boeing and it's European Rival Airbus dominate the tarmac (especially: Airbus A320s and Boeing 737s). Airbus surpassed Boeing as the world’s most in-demand plane maker in 2019, and Boeing’s repeated problems have helped Airbus stay in the lead. Last year, Airbus won 2.1K net orders compared to Boeing’s 1.3K. Boeing could lose more hangar real estate as it loses trust.

Coming up this week

Big Tech temp check… Microsoft , Google , Apple , and Meta are set to report. In the fall, Microsoft notched record quarterly sales as AI-vestments boosted its cloud biz. Meta posted record profit and its fastest sales growth in two years as ad $$ rebounded (Google’s ad biz also benefited from your YouTube binges). Apple beat estimates, but sales of shiny iDevices sagged. Tech stocks have lifted the market to record highs as AI hype grows. Meanwhile the FTC launched an investigation into cloud giants’ AI partnerships (think: Microsoft + OpenAI )

Super gassy… Exxon , Chevron , Marathon Petroleum , Shell , and Phillips 66 are fueling up to drop quarterly #s. In Q3, oil titans saw profits drop compared to 2022’s eye-popping record earnings. Now execs are trying to gas up returns by boosting production and scooping up rivals. Mega acquisitions by Exxon and Chevron made last quarter the biggest ever for oil deals at $144B. But as oil prices slip back down to earth, analysts expect profits to stay under pressure when the gas giants report.

Stories we're watching

A gazillion shrimp cocktails… The world’s largest cruise ship left Miami on Saturday for its maiden passenger-stuffed voyage (the internet’s calling it “human lasagne”) . The Icon of the Seas floats 8K people, 20 decks, 20+ dining spots, and a 55-foot waterfall. Like the sold out Royal Caribbean -owned Icon (the biz reports Thursday, BTW), the cruise industry’s bursting at the “wave season” seams: bookings are expected to hit a record 35.7M this year, up 6% from 2019. But the mega ship and the industry are getting pushback over environmental concerns.

The best time of the year… for accountants. Tax-filing szn kicks off today and millions of Americans could see plumper refunds. Last year, many got a shock when the end of pandemic-era benefits (like bigger child tax credits) led refunds to shrink ~3% from 2022. This year, the IRS raised tax brackets by 7% to ease “bracket creep” — when inflation bumps your income into a higher tax bracket, but your dollars don’t go as far. Thanks to the income-tier adjustments, experts say many refund checks could jump.

• Cred : Zillow joined a number of services that’ve begun letting folks use on-time monthly rent payments to boost their credit scores. A third of US households rent, and poor credit is a major homeownership barrier.

• Carpool : The 1M-member United Autoworkers Union endorsed President Biden for reelection, ending a long holdout over the admin’s EV plans. In September, Biden became the first sitting US president to join a UAW picket line.

• Cleanup : Norfolk Southern ’s profit fell 33% as cleanup costs for the toxic derailment of one of its trains in Ohio a year ago continued to grow. Norfolk raised estimates for the total cost of the derailment to $1.1B+.

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Google’s CEO said “AI” 23 times in the company’s Q3 earnings call

This Week

• Monday: Earnings expected from Ryanair , SoFi , and Whirlpool

• Tuesday : Earnings expected from Alphabet , Electronic Arts , GM , JetBlue , Match Group , Microsoft , Mondelez , Pfizer , and Starbucks

• Wednesday The Fed’s rate-decision announcement. Earnings expected from Aflac , Boeing , Lennox , Mastercard , MetLife , Nasdaq , Novo Nordisk , Phillips 66 , Qualcomm , and Sun Country Airlines

• Thursday: Black History Month begins. Earnings expected from 1-800-Flowers , Amazon , Apple , Clorox , Columbia Sportswear , Deutsche Bank , Dolby , Merck , Meta , Royal Caribbean , Shell , and Sirius XM

• Friday: Groundhog Day. Earnings expected from Chevron , Cigna , and ExxonMobil

Authors of this Snacks own shares of: Alaska Air, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Exxon, GM, Match Group, Microsoft, and Starbucks