Boeing shares are in a tailspin.
The aerospace giant has plummeted 8 percent in the past two trading days, pushing the stock into a correction. It is now down more than 10 percent from its 52-week highs.
“I’ve become more concerned about the stock recently,” Matt Maley, equity strategist at Miller Tabak, said on CNBC’s “Trading Nation” on Thursday. “The vast majority of its gains came in the first two weeks of the year. Then it’s become stuck in a range lately so it’s been kind of dead money for almost 11 months now.”
Boeing’s shares are still up more than 12 percent year to date. Yet over the past six months, whipsaw trading has caused the stock to shed around 11 percent.
“That range has been a wide one and it’s actually formed what’s called a broadening top,” said Maley. “They’re very rare and they usually signal a top for the stock so if we break down below the lower end of that pattern, it’s going to be a big concern for the stock.”
The bottom end of that chart is at around $300, a 10 percent drop from current levels.
“We can’t get too concerned about the stock quite yet, but again unless we get something better coming on this trade front, this is something that is becoming more an issue on a technical basis,” said Maley.
Stacey Gilbert, market strategist at Susquehanna, says options traders expect more wild swings for Boeing.
“In terms of volatility, that’s what’s changed most aggressively in this stock,” Gilbert said on “Trading Nation” on Thursday. “Over the last two years, the likelihood that Boeing was going to be up or down 40 percent over a one-year period was implied in the market at roughly 5 percent. It’s now almost seven times as likely.”
The likelihood of a 40 percent move up or down over a one-year period for Boeing is now a one standard deviation, or roughly 33 percent, says Gilbert.
“The overall shift in a risk-off in the marketplace has dramatically changed the risk profile to what Boeing shares can move, and I think that’s what investors should be aware of,” added Gilbert.
