Market Currents

• Monday, December 7, 2009

• 09:25 AM Continental (CAL) to issue $200M in new debt for general corporate purposes. Shares -4.9% premarket. (PR) 2 Comments
• 09:00 AM Premarket gainers: ROY +47%. NVDA +11%. NYB +9%. TRA +9%. ASIA +9%. SNTS +6%. CTIC +6%. KERX +6%. SNV +5%. AKAM +5%. S +5%. SEED +5%. VG +4%. AMD +4%. SPWRA +4%.
  Losers: ALTH -11%. RBS -5%. CAL -5%. Comment!

• Friday, December 4, 2009

• 11:13 AM Delta Air Lines (DAL +3.3%) says November traffic sank 7.1%, to 13.57B revenue passenger miles; capacity dropped 8.4% and load factor (percentage of available seats filled) rose to 79.6% from a year-ago 78.5%. Earlier this week Continental (CAL) reported monthly traffic was up 3% on a 1.2% drop in capacity, moving its load factor to 80.2%. (more traffic data) 1 Comment

• Monday, November 30, 2009

• 14:11 PM The modest gain in air traffic, reversing earlier declines, is showing up in airline stocks this afternoon: UAL (UAUA +6.8%), US Airways (LCC +5.5%), Continental (CAL +4.6%), AMR (AMR +3.6%), Delta (DAL +2.9%), Southwest (LUV +2.8%) and JetBlue (JBLU +2%) all up over 2% today. 1 Comment

• Thursday, November 19, 2009

• 09:58 AM Airline stocks feeling the pinch of a glitch in the FAA's auto-flight-scheduling system, which went down early this morning, causing the cancellation and/or delay of thousands of flights. LCC -3.7%. AMR -3.5%. CAL -3.1%. DAL -3%. UAUA -2%. Comment!

• Wednesday, November 11, 2009

• 10:22 AM Private equity firm TPG may team up with American Airlines (AMR +3.2%) to take a a minority stake in Japan Airlines and prevent its defection to a rival consortium. AMR CFO Thomas Horton told reporters today that TPG, which helped Continental (CAL) out of bankruptcy in 1993, has agreed to help AMR against Delta Air Lines (DAL +3.4%); both are keen to gain access to JAL's Asia network. Comment!

• Tuesday, October 27, 2009

• 11:47 AM Continental Airlines (CAL +3.1%) officially joins the Star Alliance network, enabling cooperation with United (UAUA), Lufthansa and Air Canada, after antitrust exemptions were granted earlier this year. 1 Comment

• Wednesday, October 21, 2009

• 06:12 AM Continental (CAL): Q3 EPS of $0.02 beats by $0.08. Revenue of $3.32B (-20.2%) in-line. (PR) 2 Comments
• 00:05 AM Notable pre-market earnings: AAI, AMR, APD, ATI, BA, CAL, ELN, FLIR, FCX, GENZ, HCBK, KEY, LLY, MAN, MO, MS, NITE, NOC, NTRS, OMC, PENN, STJ, USB, USG, WFC Comment!

• Friday, October 2, 2009

• 07:24 AM The European Commission says British Airways, American Airlines (AMR) and Iberia's oneworld alliance may violate antitrust laws. Probes into the Star Alliance pact (Lufthansa, Continental (CAL), United (UAUA) and Air Canada) and Skyteam members (Air France/KLM and Delta/Northwest (DAL)) are still ongoing, EC says. 1 Comment

• Thursday, October 1, 2009

• 10:49 AM United parent UAL (UAUA) is down 12.3% after saying late Wednesday it would sell another 19M shares and $175M in convertible notes, not including the underwriters' take. A bad omen for an industry that "needs all the cash it can get," rivals are down in sympathy. CAL -5.1%. LCC -4.9%. AMR -4.4%. DAL -3%. 1 Comment

• Wednesday, September 16, 2009

• 09:00 AM Premarket gainers: OMTR +25%. CVM +18%. HEB +8%. HL +6%. APC +6%. KAD +5%. NXG +5%. HMY +5%. HBC +4%. LVS +4%. LCC +4%. CAL +4%. AIG +4%. AUY +4%.
  Losers: IRE -4%. Comment!

• Tuesday, July 21, 2009

• 12:03 PM UAL Corp. (UAUA +4.3%) and Continental Airlines (CAL -9%) both plan cost-cutting measures for the second half after posting losses early today (UAL earnings; Continental earnings), and rival Southwest (LUV -8.6%) expects it will turn back to a loss in Q3 (earnings). UAL says it will cut international flights 7% in the fall; Continental plans to cut workforce by 4%. Comment!
• 06:44 AM Continental Airlines (CAL): Q2 EPS of -$1.36 misses by $0.01. Revenue of $3.1B (-22.7%) in-line. (PR) Comment!
• 00:05 AM Notable earnings before Tuesday's open: AKS, ALV, AMTD, BJS, BTU, CAL, CAT, CMA, DD, DGX, ELN, FCX, FRX, HCBK, JEF, KO, LMT, LUV, LXK, MRK, PCP, RF, SGP, SHW, STT, UAUA, UNH, UTX, WU Comment!

• Thursday, July 16, 2009

• 11:25 AM IATA says a fresh drop in passenger numbers in May raises doubts that the travel slump is bottoming. Many of the group's member airlines are more pessimistic than ever about future profitability. Airlines are under pressure today. CAL -3.8%. AMR -2.5%. LUV -2.4%. DAL -1.8%. UAUA -0.9%. Comment!