US airline stocks were dragged down by the US Labor Department report showing the US economy shed a further 467,000 jobs in Jun-2009 – 100,000 more than market expectations – and pushing the US unemployment rate to a 26-year high of 9.5%. But oil prices tumbled by close to 4%, which muted the overall hit on airline stocks.
US LCCs were hardest hit yesterday, with AirTran, Southwest, JetBlue and Allegiant falling 4.9%, 4.4%, 3.9% and 0.7%, respectively. FedEx and UPS were also rocked by the jobless report, falling 3.3% and 4.4%, respectively.
US majors Delta, United and American went the other way, rising 0.5%, 0.6% and 1.9%. Investors apparently liked Continental Airlines (+6.2%) traffic report for June showing record domestic load factors. Perhaps the estimated 19.5% to 20.5% RASM decline last month was better than expected. These are strange times.
North & South America selected airlines daily share price movements (% change): 02-Jul-09
