Bengaluru — Boeing’s profit jumped by more than half in the first quarter, surging past Wall Street forecasts, with strong sales of commercial jets leading it to raise its forecasts for cash flow and earnings after a record 2017. After fellow manufacturer Caterpillar unnerved stock markets by warning of rising metals prices on Tuesday, the world’s biggest aircraft maker said in its quarterly results on Wednesday that margins had improved at the start of 2018. Core earnings, which exclude some pension costs, jumped to $3.64 a share from $2.17 a share a year earlier, dwarfing a consensus forecast of $2.58 a share. Shares jumped more than 2% in response. "It’s not every day that a mega-cap company beats consensus by 40%," Vertical Research Partners’ Robert Stallard wrote in a note. Boeing sold a record 763 aircraft last year and has already announced a rise in commercial deliveries in the first three months of the year. It raised its full-year operating cash flow forecast to $15bn to $...

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