For the last five years Boeing (NYSE:BA), which will report third quarter numbers on Wednesday, has flown. Its shares have almost quadrupled since mid-2002, and its new midsize long-distance passenger jet, the 787 Dreamliner, is the fastest selling commercial aircraft in history. In 2009, the group should deliver more than twice the number of planes it did in 2005. Meanwhile the traditional question of how Boeing is doing relative to its only commercial aircraft competitor, Airbus, seems almost redundant. The European plane maker is the wrong side of the dollar, two years late with the A380, its flagship super-jumbo, and struggling to restructure during an insider trading investigation.

Plane orders at Boeing this year have reached 893, pointing to a total for 2007 not that far off last year's record of 1044. Projections for passenger growth, combined with the structural need for quieter and more efficient modern jets suggest healthy long term prospects. In addition, the US airlines are running ageing fleets and have not placed orders of any significance since the last downturn after 9/11.

The defence business, which contributes half of sales, is not doing badly either. Management aims to move profit margins into double digit figures in 2008. With more than 90 per cent of its business coming straight from the US government, it benefits from the remarkable growth in military spending. Winning the

It's official. This is the worst year ever for layoffs in the U.S. financial-services industry -- and there's still more than two months to go.

As of October, finance companies had announced 130,000 job cuts for the year to date, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That's more than double the 50,000 cuts announced in 2006 and well ahead of the record 116,000 announced in 2001. Finance firms are reeling from deep losses in subprime mortgages, as well as from risky corporate bonds and loans. "It's the worst year on record for job cuts in the financial-services sector," says John Pedderson, a Challenger, Gray spokesman. While the firm tracks job cuts, it makes no effort to compare them to job creation, or to track total employment for the sector.

Wall Street Slashes Workforce

About 80% of the job cuts have been announced during the last two months, as the depth of the housing recession has become more apparent, according to Pedderson. The cuts have hit mortgage lenders particularly hard, which isn't a surprise. Countrywide Financial (NYSE:CFC - News), the largest U.S. mortgage lender, cut jobs in September. The lender, which employed about 56,000 people before the cuts, eliminated up to 12,000 positions. Mortgage lender IndyMac Bancorp (NYSE:IMB - News) said in

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Bank of America Corp. said Wednesday it will eliminate 3,000 jobs, an announcement that came less than a week after the nation's second-largest bank reported a huge drop in earnings for the third quarter.

The cuts will affect less than 2 percent of the company's staff. Most of them will be from Bank of America's investment banking unit, the company said.

The Charlotte-based bank also said Wednesday that it is launching a strategic review of its investment banking business.

Gene Taylor, head of Global Corporate and Investment Banking, will retire at the end of this year and be replaced by Brian Moynihan, who ran the company's Global Wealth and Investment Management business.

"While some of these changes are a direct result of our underperformance, others have been contemplated for a number of months as we looked at how we could operate more effectively," Bank of America Chief Executive Kenneth D. Lewis said in a statement. "We must have a platform that operates