NEW YORK—Airline stocks mostly slipped Friday even as oil prices fell, as a drop in payrolls provided further evidence of an economic decline.
The Amex Airline Index fell 0.7 percent to 36.02 in morning trading.
Light, sweet crude for March delivery fell 23 cents to $91.52 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Airline stocks are closely tied to the price of oil, since fuel is one of the industry's biggest expenses.
Investors took profits from a recent surge in JetBlue Airways Corp. shares, sending the stock down 15 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $6.76 in morning trading.
The stock was still up 36 percent from its close of $4.94 on Monday, the day before JetBlue reported a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss. Investors gained additional confidence in the company on Friday when it reported plans to cut costs and moderate growth, which some analysts have deemed excessive in light of a slowing economy.
Goldman Sachs analyst Robert Barry kept a "Neutral" rating on JetBlue shares. In a client note Thursday evening, he wrote "meaningful free cash flow generation is still a ways off" and that he'd prefer to "remain on the sidelines" until U.S. economic headwinds clear.
JetBlue and other airline stocks sank with the overall market after the Labor Department said employers cut 17,000 jobs last month, the first payroll decline since 2003. The data suggested that employers are also coping with fallout from housing and credit problems and rising worry about the ailing economy.
Within the Amex Airline Index, shares of GOL Linhas Areas Inteligentes SA fell 30 cents to $19.28; US Airways Group Inc. dropped 11 cents to $13.95; UAL Corp. shed 21 cents to $37.74; and Delta Air Lines Inc. added a penny to $16.83.
