Why Virgin Galactic Stock Tanked 12% Today

Yesterday's big oil price plunge, merging into today's, has set off another panic in the market, and stocks in general are suffering additional losses as the afternoon wears on. As of 1:35 p.m. EDT, the S&P 500 index of companies is down more than 2.5% ... and Virgin Galactic (NYSE: SPCE) stock is down three times that -- 8.6%. (It was actually down more than 12% earlier today.)

Why is Virgin Galactic down so much, though? Believe it or not, it has absolutely nothing to do with the price of oil. (Actually, flying Virgin's WhiteKnightTwo mothership aircraft on space tourism missions would probably benefit from cheaper oil and cheaper jet fuel refined from it).

Instead, I suspect Virgin Galactic's decline has much more to do with the troubles of its sister company, also 51% owned by VG founder Sir Richard Branson: airline Virgin Atlantic.

Source Fool.com