Wall Street has high expectations for Howmet International, which began trading under the symbol HWM on the New York Stock Exchange last Wednesday, opening at 151/4.

One by one, US Airways Group Inc. is implementing the initiatives that management pledged they would pursue in the wake of securing a new five-year pact with pilots aimed at lowering costs.

Like their U.S. counterparts, most major European airlines are likely to post record or near-record profits for the year, with Lufthansa German Airlines' financial performance among the European industry's strongest.

Shareholders of both Lockheed Martin Corp. and General Electric Co. will be well-served by an accord between the two industry giants in which GE will swap $2.8 billion of its preferred stock in Lockheed Martin for cash and various operations Lockheed Martin had been seeking to divest.

Atlas Air Inc. is girding for the strong possibility that new 747-400s it has on order could be delayed 30-60 days because of the Boeing Co.'s production problems.

Wall Street is giving Boeing Co. the benefit of the doubt and buying into the notion that the company's production problems, although severe, are only temporary.

Market observers must be wondering how much longer major U.S. airlines can sustain their remarkable stock-price performance of the last 3-6 months.

No one has ever accused aerospace executive Bernard Schwartz of aiming low in his drive to build rapidly growing, highly profitable companies.