As most of you know, today was a national holiday, the observance of Martin Luther King’s birthday. As a result, I have no bad news or good news to report concerning U.S. airline stocks because the equity markets were closed.

Having said that I would advise that you batten down the hatches tonight.

Why?

Because in the rest of the world stock markets fell sharply today. In fact, some declines were as steep as those we saw post – September 11.

Meanwhile, U.S. stock index futures reflected these heavy declines in the overseas markets, as they ended the day down more than 4% — a harbinger of a highly probable sharply lower opening for stocks on Tuesday.

Yep, looks like there might be another reason, besides the bone-chilling cold, to get out your own Ratty Old Bear Suit out of the closet this week.