Boeing employees to get $5,231 bonuses

Boeing released official calculations Thursday on its employee stock-bonus plan, showing that employees who have worked for the previous four years, through June 30, will receive bonuses worth $5,231.46 in stock and cash before taxes. Current and retired employees who worked for a portion of time during the past four years will receive smaller, pro-rated bonuses.

Next week, employees will be able to find out what they are receiving by checking an internal Web site on pay and benefits, said Boeing spokesman Todd Blecher. Employees will receive the cash portion of their bonus next week, and the stock bonuses will be distributed in early August, Blecher said. About 63,000 current and former employees in the Puget Sound region are eligible for the payouts.

Boeing established the stock-bonus program for employees in 1996. It was designed to reward workers every two years if the company's stock price rose more than 3 percent a year.

Airbus $8.8 billion, Boeing $10 billion

Airbus announced orders for 29 jets on Thursday from U.S. leasing company CIT Group and Hungarian low-cost carrier Wizz Air.

Unveiling the deals on the fourth day of the Farnborough Air Show, the European aircraft maker said Wizz Air ordered 20 A320s in a deal worth about $1.4 billion at list prices. The airline, with an all-Airbus fleet, had ordered 12 A320 aircraft plus 12 options a year ago.

Airbus said CIT is buying five A330-200 and four A320 planes. They're worth about $1.1 billion at list prices.

The deals took Airbus' total orders or commitments at the air show to 114 planes, worth about $8.8 billion at list prices.

Rival Boeing gained orders and commitments for 76 aircraft but sold more larger jets than Airbus, topping $10 billion at list prices.

Boeing said on its Web site that in total, it has won 510 orders so far this year, according to figures through Tuesday.

Softening in the housing market has been gradual and marked by little increase in mortgage delinquencies or home foreclosures, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Thursday.

"The downturn in the housing market so far appears orderly," Bernanke told members of the House Financial Services Committee.

When asked if higher interest rates could cause a more rapid deterioration in housing as those with adjustable-rate mortgages would likely see their rates, and payments, head higher, Bernanke said the Fed estimates that 20 percent of outstanding mortgages have variable rates. Half of those are set to change interest rates this year, he said.

"So there will be some effect on variable-rate mortgages," Bernanke said. "But it should be a relatively slow process that would provide some cushion."

Compiled from Seattle Times staff, The Associated Press and USA Today