Crude Oil Higher - Airlines Higher

Published on Thursday, 11 March 2010 00:31 Written by Gerard Lerod

New York, March 11th (TradersHuddle.com) - The NYSE Airline index ended the session higher by closing at $38.09, which represents 2.67% versus previous day close. The airline index had a pretty much broad rally with 12 out of 13 components trading higher.

Benchmark crude for April delivery was higher closing the trading session at $82.06 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange higher by $0.6 from the previous trading session. Crude prices are closely watched by traders as they usually correlate with the airline stocks, given that a big component of the airlines' cost structure is covered by the price of fuel.

Alaska Air (NYSE:ALK) was the top performer of the sector today closing at $40.1 representing 5.64%. versus the previous trading session. The Airline serving destinations within the state of Alaska and the West Coast of the United States has defined support at $34.04 and its resistance level at $37.72.

Continental Airlines (NYSE:CAL) was also among the top performers today closing at $22.27 representing 5.1% from its previous close. The Houston based airline that uses Newark airport as a hub has caluclated support and resistance levels at $20.14 and $21.44 respectively. The other top performer was UAL (NASDAQ:UAUA), which closed the trading session at $18.98 representing 4.52% from the previous trading session.

The sector's worst performers include JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ:JBLU) that closed the trading session at $5.27 or -0.19% from the previous close. The New York based discount airline has defined support at $5.08 and resistance at $5.41. Also among the worst performers was Ryanair (NASDAQ:RYAAY), which closed the trading session at $26.96 representing 0.75% from the previous trading session.