Hi guys.
Just taking a break from writing this week’s issue of PlaneBusiness Banter, and I thought I’d drop in here for a bit and get you caught up on few things of note.
One, the price of crude took a hefty bounce upward today, after having lost some ground on the news Wednesday that crude inventories had risen in the U.S. this week.
Light crude futures closed Friday at 116.32, up 3.80 for the day.
As for airline stocks, it was one crazy week in the airline sector, as shares of Mesa Air Group really took off after the airline announced that it had settled with Hawaiian Airlines earlier this week. Shares of Mesa, which closed last Friday at 47 cents, closed today at 1.10. Woo hoo. That’s what happens when a potential bankruptcy filing is able to be put off — at least for now.
Oh, and that gain? A cool 134% on the week.
The second biggest gainer on the week was Allegiant. The airline posted great first quarter numbers this week, as did WestJet. But Allegiant is the one investors jumped on after the news. Shares here ended the week up 39%, closing today at 27.99.
Shares of WestJet were up 3% for the week, ending at 17.03 today. The deal here in a nutshell? The airline posted excellent first quarter earnings this week, but the airline also talked about the challenge of fuel going forward. I think this spooked some folks. But actually the numbers WestJet posted were nothing short of stellar.
All in all, it was a drop dead great week for the airline sector, as we had the vast majority of stocks we track post gains on the week, and we had seventeen airline stocks post double-digit gains for the week.
Not a bad recovery from last week’s carnage on Wall Street for the things with wings.
Technorati Tags: airline stocks, airlines, Allegiant Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Mesa Air Group, WestJet