Airline sector in midst of worst streak in seven months

• Airline stocks stretched their losing streak to six sessions today, the longest such stretch since last October and the worst cumulative showing (-8.8%) since shedding 10.9%, also in October.
• Analysts cite pressure from concerns over capacity growth and the resulting lack of pricing power, as well as a May spike in west coast jet fuel prices due to several unscheduled refinery outages; "jet fuel assumptions at airlines may have to be raised due to the high cost of refining jet fuel on the west coast," Cowen's Helane Becker says.
• Even as he remains somewhat bullish on the stocks, UBS analyst Darryl Genovesi today cut his earnings estimates this year and next for American (NASDAQ:AAL), Delta (NYSE:DAL) and Alaska Air (NYSE:ALK), and lowered his estimate for Southwest (NYSE:LUV) earnings this year and United (NASDAQ:UAL) in 2016.
• Among some of the more active airline stocks, DAL has fallen 11%, JetBlue (NASDAQ:JBLU) has shed 8.7%, AAL has plunged 15%, and LUV has sunk 14% over the past six sessions.
• ETFs: IYT, JETS