Not much to say guys.
Not only did oil move up today on less than robust inventory numbers from the U.S. Department of Energy, but when all the shouting was done and oil closed up almost $3 to $143.57, jet fuel had hit new record levels as well.
Sitting down? Well, you might want to lie down.
New York Jet A closed at $4.32/gallon today.
Probably a good idea if you just stay prone for a while before attempting to get up.
Technorati Tags: aviation fuel, jet fuel, oil prices
One of our PlaneBusiness Banter subscribers wrote this afternoon,
“AMR types had a milestone moment today (not the good type either) the stock options issued in 03 are now officially underwater! ($5 strike price).
P.S. maybe can I write the loss off on my taxes ;-)”
That’s one way to look at it.
Yep. Another bad day in the airline sector today as oil closed up almost a buck, ending the day at $140.97. This was after it shot up as high as $143 and change earlier in the day.
Once again, the airline sector took a hit today. Not as bad as some of the days we’ve seen of late, but of all the airline stocks we track, only two posted small gains on the day — Ryanair which saw ADRs up 2%, closing at 29.10, and Hawaiian Airlines, which saw shares up 1%, closing at 7 bucks even.
Just a sampling of the losses posted for the day.
AMR, parent of American Airlines: down 5% to 4.85.
Alaska down 4% to 14.70
Allegiant, down 7% to 17.33
Delta down 3% to 5.53
Continental down 1% to 9.96
US Airways down 4% to 2.41
Northwest down 2% to 6.52
Southwest was essentially flat on the day, closing at 12.99
ExpressJet down another 5% to 52 cents/share
United Airlines down a whopping 12% — ending the day at 4.60.
Technorati Tags: airline stocks, airlines, Alaska Airlines, Allegiant Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, ExpressJet, Northwest Airlines, oil prices, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines
The AMEX Airline Index closed at 16.20 points Friday. But earlier in the day the index sank to 15.83 points, a new all-time low.
Technorati Tags: airline stocks, airlines, AMEX Airline Index
Another Friday. Another record breaking oil price notched in the record books.
While at one point today, oil traded as high as $142.60/barrel — when all the excitement was over, oil closed at “only” $140.21.
I guess this is what they mean when they say, “Be thankful for small favors.”
Another rotten day for most of the airline sector on Wall Street as well. For those few airline stocks that posted gains on the day, the gains were quite small.
Another day, another horrible milestone in terms of oil prices as the price of a barrel of crude shot up today more than $5 a barrel. In intraday trading the price hit $140.39, but when the markets closed here in the U.S., oil futures closed at $139.64, up a whopping $5.09 for the day.
The news comes as we hear of 8% cuts in management employees at American Airlines, in addition to flight cuts at both American Airlines and United Airlines.
And not too long after these cuts were announced, Southwest Airlines came out and said it had modified their fall schedule — picking up a lot of the pieces that were just discarded by the legacy airline pair.
American said Wednesday that it plans to eliminate 62 flights at Chicago O’Hare: 28 departures on mainline American Airlines flights and 34 flights on American Eagle.
By November, American’s presence at Chicago O’Hare will be down 13%, year over year.
The airline is also pulling back flights out of St. Louis, Dallas-Ft.Worth, and New York’s LaGuardia.
American is ending service completely to Albany, N.Y.; Providence, R.I.; Harrisburg, Pa.; San Luis Obispo, Calif.; Samana, Dominican Republic; and Barranquilla, Colombia.
Meanwhile, United announced that it was ending service to Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.
Today, Southwest Airlines followed-up on these announcements by announcing that it will eliminate 31 flights from its existing schedule and add 40 flights to growth markets. This will see the airline not retiring two aircraft that it had said previously it was going to retire.
Big winners in the new schedule? Denver and ….Ft. Lauderdale.
Home prices post record 15.3% drop
Stocks tank along with confidence
Consumer confidence tumbles to 16-year low
Crude rises in volatile trading
Okay…..just went to check on where oil was trading, and those were the financial headlines that hit me in the face. Kind of makes you want to get back in bed and pull up the covers.
Don’t think it’s going to be a good day for the airline stocks — as oil futures were up before trading began and prices are up, as of this posting. Currently oil is up a little more than 50 cents, trading at 137.25.
Parting the red sea of losses that are stacking up already in the airline sector, ExpressJet is leading the pack. The airline’s shares continue to get just hammered. Shares here are now down 13% already, trading at 88 cents. And how much was that offer that SkyWest had on the table earlier this spring for ExpressJet? Yeah. It was for a lot more than 88 cents.
By the way, lost in all the hubbub of rising oil prices, I know it is June, and we are looking at record heat across much of the country — but just a little peek at what will begin to affect some of you just a scant three months from now.
Know where a gallon of heating oil is trading today? 3.83/gallon.
After a week in which airline stocks managed to hold their own — shares of many airlines were beaten into the ground today, as oil picked up 1.04, closing at 136.40.
Look at some of these one-day double digit drops: Continental ended the day down 16%, closing at 11.96; Delta ended down 12%, closing at 5 bucks even; US Airways lost 19%, closing at 2.54; Northwest lost 17%, closing at 5.51; Mesa was down 14%, ending the day at 48 cents; and United Airlines lost 15%, closing at 6.09.
Horrible day on Wall Street for the things with wings.
Yet another heavy shoe hit the floor today as Midwest Airlines announced that it is grounding its entire MD-80 fleet.
The Business Journal of Milwaukee reports:
“Midwest Airlines will be grounding its entire fleet of MD-80 aircraft — used largely for long-haul flights to the West Coast — and lay off an undetermined number of employees as part of its planned restructuring efforts, airline spokesman Michael Brophy said Friday.
The Oak Creek airline will stop flying about a dozen of the less-efficient MD-80 planes in its effort to counter the skyrocketing cost of fuel. Brophy said the number of affected employees, which would include pilots, have yet to be determined.
The aircraft are used largely for long flights to West Coast destinations like Los Angeles, Seattle and San Francisco. Brophy said the airline has not yet determined whether it would eliminate some of those destinations or reduce the frequency of some of those flights. Midwest has the option of serving those cities with the other airplanes in its fleet, Boeing 717s, from its Kansas City hub.”
Between Maddog groundings at American Airlines and Midwest, Allegiant is going to have a bevy of MD-80 beauties from which to pick their next aircraft.
Another bizarro day on Wall Street today for airline stocks. The price of oil declines a measly 1.88 to $134.86/barrel and the market bids up airline stocks as though we really had some kind of great news.
Meanwhile, for the week, jet fuel closed at $3.94/gallon. (New York)
Yee haw. Time to run out and celebrate.
Well, maybe not.
As of this posting nearly every airline stock we track is down on the day.
One big reason — the price of crude is on the march again.
As of this writing, the price of crude is up more than $6/barrel, hovering around $137.60.
The main mover today is inventory news.
The Energy Information Administration reported today that crude supplies fell by 4.6 million barrels last week. Analysts were looking for a drop of only 1.4 million barrels, according to according to a poll by energy research firm Platts.
Related problem number two — the dollar was trading down today as well.