The good old US of A can't seem to win a trick at the moment. Its economy is cracking and the dollar is being trumped. Now its own air force has awarded a €35bn contract to build aerial refuelling tankers, not to Boeing, as widely expected, but to a team lead by EADS, the European aerospace and defence group. That EADS's partner is LA-based Northrop Grumman seems to be no consolation to US politicians fuming over jobs.

The management of EADS will be overjoyed to give long-suffering shareholders some good news. The company's stock price has halved since its 2006 highs on the back of delays to Airbus's A380 super jumbo and the falling dollar versus the euro. Certainly, the win fits perfectly with the management's stated aim to reduce EADS's dependence on Airbus, which last year accounted for about 65 per cent of revenues.