US Airways continues climb; JetBlue upgraded; Southwest Airlines downgraded
US Airways (+7.1%) made the biggest gain of the day on Monday (25-Oct-2010). According to SmarTrend, the carrier has returned 11.5% over the past two months.
The carrier is presently above its 50-day moving average of USD9.33 and 200-day moving average of USD8.16. It ended trading at USD11.58.
JetBlue (+3.4%) rose after JP Morgan upgraded its rating of the LCC's stock from "neutral" to "overweight", maintaining a target price of USD9. The analysts stated the upgrade was due to a recent sell-off in the stock. The carrier ended trading at USD7.07.
Southwest Airlines (+0.5%) made a marginal gain, despite JP Morgan downgrading its rating of the carrier from "overweight" to "neutral", also reducing its price target from USD16 to USD15.50. The analyst attributed the downgrade to the stock's price appreciation and integration risk, as it moves closer to merging with AirTran Holdings. Over the past 52 weeks, Southwest's stock has traded from a low of USD8.10 to a high of USD14.16. It ended trading at USD13.54.
JP Morgan also raised United Continental Holdings price target from USD34 to USD37. The group ended trading flat at USD27.71.
GOL (-1.2%) and TAM (-0.2%) slipped again for the day, as the Bovespa (+0.1%) made only a marginal gain for the day. The declines came after Morgan Stanley cut Latin America's rating to "underweight". Within the region, Morgan Stanley lowered its recommended weighting for Brazil from "overweight" to "equal-weight" and Mexico from "equal-weight" to "underweight" while Chile was upgraded to "equal-weight".
Air Canada (-1.3%) and UPS (-0.7%) were also down for the day.
North & South America selected airlines daily share price movements (% change): 25-Oct-2010
Source: Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation & Yahoo! Finance