Tag Archives: crude oil

Oil Leaps Above $80/Barrel — Airline Stocks Sink

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Want to know why most all airline stocks sunk like they had rocks tied to their little feet today?

That’s right. Give the man in the back row with the red shirt on a gold star.

It’s oil. Or rather, the exploding price of oil.

Crude oil futures closed at 81.37 today — up a hefty $2.25.

Why? One major factor– the continued drop in the value of the dollar. The euro climbed about $1.50 today, the highest level since August 2008.

And as all bright PlaneBuzz readers know — oil is priced in dollars. So as the dollar falls in value, international investors start bidding up the price of oil futures as a play against the weakening U.S. currency.

That’s the way the markets work.

Oil Price Spike, Earnings Sends Shares of Many Airlines Down

Rough day on Wall Street for many airline stocks today — with two big factors pushing down shares. One — March futures options opened today for crude oil. And off they went.

Oil closed up almost $3 to 43.55/barrel today.

But it wasn’t because of a surprise EIA energy supply report. That report, which is normally issued on Wednesday, won’t be issued until tomorrow — because of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Monday holiday observance.

Another factor pushing down shares were the earnings reports for American Airlines and United Airlines.

Shares of American are being hammered, with shares now trading down about 25% for the day. Shares are hovering around 7.85.

Shares of United, which actually posted what I thought were the more negative numbers for the quarter, are down a little over 7% as of this posting, with shares running around 10.78.

But other stocks are taking the day’s news hard as well. As of this posting, shares of JetBlue are down 12%, trading at $6.25, while shares of Delta are down 12%, trading at 9.73.

Shares of Continental are not having a good day either, as shares here are down 13% as of this posting, trading at 16.98.

Wall Street Makes History, Airline Stocks React Erratically, Oil Drops Significantly

It’s official.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average posted its worst week in history this week.

The average had its worst week on record in both point and percentage terms, as did the Standard & Poor’s 500 index.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, after starting the day down more than 700 points, finished down only 128 points, but it was one wild road in between.

Over the last eight days, the Dow has lost just under 2400 points.

As for airline stocks, it was also a volatile mix today as several airlines stocks posted record-breaking one-day gains. But we had some losers in the bunch as well.

On the huge plus side for the day, shares of Republic Holdings picked up a whopping 29% today. Yes, you read that correctly. Shares here closed at 8.94.

But wait — we had one airline stock do even better. Shares of Alaska Air Group shot up 31% on the day, closing at 18.80.

Shares of US Airways also had a great day, as shares here were up 27%, closing at 4.60.

AMR, parent of American Airlines saw their shares pick up 20%, closing at 8 bucks even.

AirTran also had a good day, as shares here picked up a nice 18%, closing at 1.96.

Shares of SkyWest didn’t have a bad day either, as shares here shot up 17%, closing at 13.75.

On the loser side, we really just had a small handful of notable drops for the day.

Shares of Pinnacle were down 10%, closing at 2.37, while shares of Mesa dropped back 15%, closing at 25 cents.

Embraer and Bombardier didn’t have good days either — not surprising considering the action in the market as a whole. Embraer shares closed down 8%, ending the week at 17.20, while shares of Bombardier closed down 16%, ending the week at 3.50.

And, last, but by no means least — where did crude and jet fuel end up today?

Crude futures closed at 77.70, down 8.89 on the day, while the average spot price for jet fuel closed at 2.33, down 21 cents on the day.

Taken by itself, this would be great news for the things with wings.

Unfortunately, there is that elephant that is blocking the view to the nice new HD flatscreen — the rest of the financial/economic mess on a worldwide basis and the recognition, finally, that no, this is not just a little “subprime” mortgage problem centered in California, Arizona and Florida.