Foot Locker results disappointing

NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Foot Locker tumbled in early trading Friday on weak profit and revenue numbers. The shoe retailer also cut its outlook for the year.

Foot Locker now expects full-year earnings per share to be up by high-single digits, a more reserved outlook than the double digit increase it had forecast earlier. The company cited its $1.2 billion stock repurchase program announced in February.

Shares of Foot Locker Inc. tumbled 16% at the opening bell Friday.

Wall Street may be particularly sensitive to any weakness from companies like Foot Locker in light of escalating trade tensions with China.

This week, Foot Locker and more than 170 shoe and retail companies, including Adidas and Nike, sent a letter to President Donald Trump urging him not to double down on new tariffs as the trade dispute with China drags on.

“The proposed additional tariff of 25 percent on footwear would be catastrophic for our consumers, our companies, and the American economy as a whole,” they wrote.

The group said that the industry’s trade association, the Footwear Distributors & Retailers of America, estimates the proposed tariff would add $7 billion in additional costs for footwear customers each year.

United cancels more ‘Max’ flights

(AP) — United Airlines is canceling another month’s worth of flights with Boeing 737 Max planes that were grounded after two deadly accidents.

United said Friday it has removed the Max from its schedule through Aug. 3 and will cancel about 2,400 flights in June and July as a result. It had previously canceled all Max flights through early July.

Southwest and American have already dropped the Max from their schedules into August.

Boeing is making changes to flight-control software that investigators believe played a role in crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that together killed 346 people. The company is expected to soon formally submit its changes and a proposal for additional pilot training to the Federal Aviation Administration for approval.

The FAA held a meeting Thursday in Fort Worth, Texas, with nearly 60 officials from more than 30 countries to explain its process for analyzing Boeing’s changes to the Max. Acting FAA Administrator Daniel Elwell declined to give a timetable for the agency’s review, saying the FAA won’t allow the Max to return to the skies until it is convinced the plane is safe.