Stock Markets Stay Choppy as American, Southwest Fall on Airline Earnings

Wall Street has been steadily gaining ground in recent months, but the moves haven't been straight up. Investors got a chance to see an example of that Thursday morning. Major indexes opened near the unchanged level and saw periods of gains and losses before settling in for minimal declines. Just before 11 a.m. EDT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI) was down 95 points to 26,911. The S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) fell 1 point to 3,275, and the Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC) lost 11 points to 10,695.

Airlines have been among the industries that have suffered the most during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, there's no real end in sight to the pain that airline stocks are seeing, and that showed up in the second-quarter earnings reports that Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) and American Airlines Holdings (NASDAQ: AAL) released Thursday morning.

Southwest's stock took the bigger hit on Thursday morning, falling 3%. The airline's operational numbers showed the full extent of the challenge from the coronavirus crisis, and although Southwest has the capacity to endure a lot more pain, it nevertheless anticipates needing to do so well into the future.

Source Fool.com