Sector Snap: Airline shares rise
NEW YORK — Airline stocks rose Friday as oil prices tumbled, easing the carriers' fears over jet fuel costs.
The broader market also gained, as investors shrugged off another rise in the national unemployment rate, which the government said Friday broke above 10 percent last month for the first time in 26 years.
The Dow Jones industrial average inched higher by 17.46, to 10,023.42.
But airline stocks may have gained more from the drop in oil prices. Benchmark crude for December delivery dropped by $2.19, to $77.43 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The Amex Airline Index rose 4.4 percent, with all 13 of its component stocks closing higher.
Shares of Continental Airlines Inc. rose $1.03, or 8.8 percent, to $12.77; Delta Air Lines Inc. shares gained 46 cents, or 6.3 percent, to $7.79; United parent UAL Corp. added 44 cents, or 6.8 percent, to $6.96; American Airlines parent AMR Corp. rose 23 cents, or 4.2 percent, to $5.65; Southwest Airlines Co. increased 29 cents, or 3.5 percent, to $8.65; and US Airways gained 24 cents, or 8.1 percent, to $3.19.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Most Popular News
-
A.R. Rahman, Jennifer Hudson headline state dinner
It's an all-star lineup for Tuesday's first state dinner of the Obama White House: Oscar-winners Jennifer Hudson and A.R. Rahman headline the entertainment list.
-
Jet-winged adventurer ditches in Atlantic, unhurt
A Swiss adventurer trying to soar from Morocco to Spain on jet-powered wings ditched safely into the Atlantic on Wednesday after hitting turbulence and clouds so thick he could not tell if he was flying up or down.
-
Authorities: Hanged Ky. census worker killed self
When an eastern Kentucky census worker was found naked, bound with duct tape and hanging from a tree with "fed" scrawled on his chest, suspicion fell on the hardscrabble Appalachian area where bad news seems like a way of life.
-
Vicki Kennedy describes husband's cancer battle
The widow of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy told Oprah Winfrey in an interview broadcast Wednesday that even as her husband knew he was dying of brain cancer he had been "in training" to make sure he had enough strength to attend President Barack Obama's inauguration.
