News updates from April 24: Meta shares fall after earnings; Spain’s PM considers quitting

Boeing: The US planemaker’s earnings will be closely watched by investors as it navigates a crisis of confidence in the safety and quality of its products following January’s mid-air blowout of a Boeing door panel during an Alaska Airlines flight. Revenue is expected to have declined 9.5 per cent to $16.2bn in the three months ending March. The company is expected to report a loss of $1.21 a share, compared with a loss of 69 cents a year ago. 

Meta: The Facebook parent is expected to show earnings almost doubled to $4.32 a share in the first quarter on revenue that is expected to have surged 26.2 per cent to $36.1bn thanks to a boost in advertising sales.

Other companies: General Dynamics, AT&T, Hilton, Biogen and Hasbro are all reporting before the bell. Chipotle, Ford, Whirlpool and Wyndham Hotels will report after the market closes. 

Durable goods: Orders for long-lasting goods such as washing machines and aircraft are forecast to have increased 2.5 per cent in March after rising 1.3 per cent in February, according to an LSEG poll of economists. New orders for non-defence capital goods excluding aircraft, a proxy for business investment, are forecast to have ticked up 0.2 per cent, a slower pace than 0.7 per cent growth in February. 

Antony Blinken: The US secretary of state will arrive in China for a three-day visit. Blinken will meet senior government officials in Shanghai and Beijing and will discuss the crisis in the Middle East, Russia’s war against Ukraine, cross-Strait issues and the South China Sea.