On the afternoon of 15 May, after President Trump flew home from his summit with Xi Jinping, the news that should have set Boeing's headquarters alight finally landed. China had agreed to buy 200 of its jets — the planemaker's first major Chinese order since 2017, and the formal end of an eight-year cold spell in a market once seen as Boeing's most important growth story.
The headline was huge. The reaction was not.
Boeing's shares fell almost 5% on the day. Not because investors thought the deal was bad, but because they had spent weeks bracing for something much bigger. Industry analysts had been quietly modelling an order of around 500 aircraft, with some scenarios stretching toward 750. When the real number landed at 200 — with a vague "up to 750 if they do a good job" tacked on by the president — traders did what traders do. They sold the gap between hope and reality.
It's a strange thing to watch a company win back a customer it has been chasing for the better part of a decade, and have the market call it a disappointment. But that gap — between the political theatre and the share price — is the real story here. And it tells you almost everything you need to know about why "comebacks" are so much harder than they look in a press release.
