Crude Oil Lower - Airlines Lower: SKYW, ALK, JBLU

Published on Friday, 19 March 2010 17:02 Written by Christian Paolinetti

New York, March 19th (TradersHuddle.com) - The NYSE Airline index ended the session lower by closing at $36.412, which represents -3.11% versus previous day close. The airline index saw a broad decline with 1 out of 13 airlines trading higher.

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) was the top performer of the sector today closing at $14.69 representing 0.69%. versus the previous trading session. SkyWest, the regional airline servicing major airlines like Delta and United, shares have defined support at $14.39 and resistance at $15.27.

Alaska Air (NYSE:ALK) was also among the top performers, closed the trading session at $40.17 representing -0.59% from its previous close. Alaska Air , the Airline serving destinations within the state of Alaska and the West Coast of the United States has calculated support and resistance levels at $34.04 and $41.16 respectively. The other top performer was JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ:JBLU), which closed the trading session at $5.34 representing -0.93% from the previous trading session.

The sector's worst performers include AMR (NYSE:AMR) that closed the trading session at $9.01 or -5.56% from the previous close. AMR, the owner and operator of the 2nd largest U.S. based airline and founder member of the Oneworld airline alliance shares have defined support at $9.43 and resistance at $10.5. Also among the worst performers was US Airways (NYSE:LCC), which closed the trading session at $7.1 representing -5.33% from the previous trading session.

Benchmark crude for April delivery was lower closing the trading session at $80.59 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange lower by $-1.61 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.