Airline shares dropped Tuesday as the broader stock market declined sharply after a private research group said consumer confidence unexpectedly fell in June.
Benchmark crude for August delivery dipped $1.60 to settle at $69.89 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after swinging between $68.90 and $73.38 in early trading.
By afternoon on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrials lost about 100 points. The S&P 500 index fell to 917.38, while the Nasdaq composite index was around 1,835.20.
The AMEX Airline Index fell 3 percent, with all 13 component stocks lower.
American Airlines plans to sell $520.1 million in debt to acquire notes secured by 20 aircraft that it owns or plans to buy in the next year.
American, a unit of Fort Worth-based AMR Corp., disclosed the plans in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.
Airlines are raising cash to hedge against a downturn in travel demand. American expects its revenue per seat mile, a key financial measure in the airline industry, to fall about 17 percent for the April-to-June quarter compared with a year ago.
In afternoon trading, shares of Delta Air Lines Inc. fell 20 cents, or 3.5 percent, to $5.59, while AMR fell 25 cents, or 5.9 percent, to $4 and UAL Corp., parent of United Airlines, lost 28 cents, or 8.1 percent, at $3.19. Continental Airlines Inc. fell 22 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $8.64, while shares of US Airways Group Inc. lost 2 cents to $2.24.
Southwest Airlines Co. fell 1 cent to $6.66. Shares of JetBlue Airways Corp. lost 14 cents, or 3.2 percent, to $4.18 and AirTran Holdings Inc., parent of AirTran Airways, declined 11 cents to $6.14.
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