MSN Money Central Article
"Delta Airlines DAL is tumbling lower today after word from the airline's pilots' union, who said that optimism is fading amid contract negotiations. Following this news, Credit Suisse First Boston downgraded its rating on the stock to an "underperform" from a "neutral," on concerns that the contract talks might not conclude until next year, leaving DAL with higher costs than some of its competitors. CSFB also reduced its 12-month target price on the shares to $6 from $16. DAL has lost about nine percent of its value today and is approaching the 10 level. Not only is this the threshold between single- and double-digit territory, but it is a site that contained previous pullbacks in DAL in both August and November. Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) for the stock has slowly been declining since October and now weighs in at 1.51, in the top 32 percent of the past year's worth of data. Today, speculative players have taken interest in the February 10 call and the July 12.50 call. On the short-interest front, there are currently 18.1 million DAL shares sold short, which equals a short-interest ratio of more than eight times the stock's average daily volume."
Ouch!!!
[This message has been edited by Spiff (edited Jan 30, 2004).]