All six airline names closed down Friday, from Southwest's -0.67% to United's -3.99%, on a day the oil fund (USO) rose 4.32% and the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) fell 0.52%, after five of the six had been up over seven days. Delta ($DAL) is the only name above its 200-day average, by 0.4% (+30.64% over one year, alpha +17.51); Southwest ($LUV) is the only one with a positive month and sits 3.9% under its line; American ($AAL) and Alaska ($ALK) both reported fuel-driven profit pressure this week and sit 11.0% and 22.4% under theirs. RSIs rose for all six on the week and none is under 30 now. Friday's drop is a one-day reversal inside a rebound week; whether it holds depends on the 200-day lines and on oil.

Data as of the 2026-10-23 close for all six tickers, from the desk's airlines summary (Polygon bars). Comparison: the October 16, 2026 scan.

The tape change is a one-day reversal inside a rebound week. As of the October 23 close the seven-day changes are Southwest +5.7%, American +1.94%, United +1.9%, Delta +1.87%, the sector fund ($JETS) +0.97% and Alaska -2.08%, a week after all six were negative, and Friday's drops (United -3.99%, American -3.89%, Delta -3.13%, Alaska -2.77%, $JETS -2.5%, Southwest -0.67%) came out of gains built Monday through Thursday. Volume was ordinary: Southwest traded at 1.27 times its average and $JETS at 1.25, American at 1.0, Alaska 0.93, United 0.81 and Delta 0.73. Over thirty days only Southwest is positive (+1.73%); the rest run from Delta's -6.08% to Alaska's -13.35%, and three-month losses run from -7.39% (Southwest) to -25.43% (Alaska).

Why Friday: oil is the backdrop, and the files support it only at the market level. The oil fund (USO) rose 4.32% and the Brent fund (BNO) 3.02% in the desk's market summaries; Bloomberg's market-close wrap on October 23 says a resurgence in oil dragged down stocks and bonds, with Brent settling near $117 on a flare-up in Middle East violence, the Dow down 1.2% and most S&P 500 stocks lower. That wrap does not name airlines. The fuel-cost reading is therefore the press's reasoning on the earnings, not a measured attribution for the day. For American, a MarketBeat item and a BestStocks note (both model-synthesized summaries, dated October 23) say the shares fell on a worsening profit outlook and fuel costs after the quarter. The company's release shows revenue of $16.3B (+19.3%) with a $1.9B increase in fuel expense; MarketBeat reports guidance for a fourth-quarter loss of $0.50 to $1.10 per share and a full-year loss of $1.00 to $1.60, against a consensus full-year loss of $0.97. For Delta, United and Alaska the pull holds no item explaining Friday: news for all five single-name tickers was pulled after the close on October 23 (successful, not stale) and stock-events were checked; it returned price pages, earnings items and analyst target notes, so Friday's move for those three is cause unknown beyond the market backdrop.

Earnings week supplies the company-level context. Delta (early October) reported EPS of $1.72 against a $1.76 consensus (yfinance) and its own release says fuel ran more than $500M above guidance; it guided fourth-quarter EPS to $1.15–$1.65 on about $4.25 a gallon. United reported adjusted EPS of $2.54 against $2.57 (yfinance, a miss) on record revenue of $17.90B (+17.4%, per MarketBeat). Southwest reported EPS of $0.66 against $0.58 (yfinance, a beat) on a record $8.4B (+21.2%), with unit revenue +21.6% (the company's release); MarketBeat notes weaker profit guidance and higher fuel costs tempering the reaction. Alaska's figures conflict by basis: the company reported a GAAP loss of $1.32 per share and adjusted EPS of $0.36 (Zacks has that beating a $0.35 consensus, with revenue slightly short), while the desk's yfinance row shows -$0.31 against $0.28; the company figures are used here, and WSJ's headline reads the quarter as a swing to a loss on fuel. Revenue growth was double-digit at all four; fuel costs are named in the Delta, Southwest, American and Alaska items on file, while the United items do not mention fuel.

Long-horizon structure separates the names, with the 200-day as the line. Delta: +30.64% over one year, +40.49% over two, alpha +17.51, golden cross intact, 0.4% over its 200-day ($76.45), 19.75% off its 52-week high, below its 20- and 50-day ($80.47 and $80.96) — a pullback in an intact trend that has just recovered its line. Southwest: +31.91% over one year, +35.86% over two, alpha +18.78, over its 20- and 50-day averages but 3.9% under its 200-day ($43.46) with a death cross. United: +2.35% over one year, +33.33% over two, alpha -10.78, 9.6% under its 200-day ($108.33) with a down tag; its long trend is under test. $JETS: +4.65% over one year, 8.1% under ($28.42), strong-down tag. American: -5.17% over one year, -5.61% over two, alpha -18.3, 11.0% under ($13.60) with a collapse regime label: a long flat-to-down stretch, with the 200-day as the line that would end the base. Alaska: -26.23% over one year, -24.94% over two, alpha -39.36, 22.4% under ($44.34), collapse label, 43.26% off its high, the deepest drawdown and furthest from its line. The caution on American and Alaska rests on their earnings (American's loss guidance per MarketBeat, Alaska's GAAP loss per its own release), not on the one-year return.

• Seven-day direction: five of six positive, from zero of six. Alaska is the one still negative.
• Names above the 200-day: one of six (Delta), from none. Delta moved from 1.2% under its line to 0.4% over it.
• 200-day gaps narrowed for United (-11.6% to -9.6%), Southwest (-9.2% to -3.9%), $JETS (-9.2% to -8.1%) and American (-13.2% to -11.0%); Alaska's widened (-21.5% to -22.4%).
• RSI: all six rose. Alaska 29.8 to 35.1, United 30.4 to 37.9, $JETS 31.2 to 38.6, Delta 33 to 41.5, American 33.7 to 41.7, Southwest 41.3 to 54.2. The 25–40 band holds three names, from five, and none is under 30.
• Southwest's strong-down tag turned weak-up; it is back over its 20- and 50-day averages.
• Regime labels unchanged for American and Alaska (collapse). The earnings season ran through the week: United and Alaska reported October 20, Southwest October 21, American October 22.
• Thirty-day direction is unchanged: Southwest alone is positive.

RSI measures recent buying versus selling pressure on a 0–100 scale; under 30 is oversold and 25–40 is the watch band used below. The short trend tag (up, down, strong-down) reads only the last few weeks. The longer-horizon checks are the gap to the 200-day average, the one- and two-year changes, and one-year alpha (return versus the market); a flat or negative year with negative alpha is what a base looks like before it forms, so the 200-day line decides whether a base is holding. None of these names carries a desk thesis rating, so everything here is raw price evidence, not a setup. Entry-zone levels are screen output from each name's own averages and support shelf, not calls. Table values show each row's data date; prose figures are as of the October 23 close.

Capitulation, RSI under 25: None.

Oversold, RSI 25–40: Alaska (35.1), United (37.9) and $JETS (38.6) as of October 23. Alaska's reading comes with the deepest 200-day gap and negative returns over one and two years; United's with a negative alpha and a 9.6% gap; neither is a dip in a healthy trend.

Neutral to strong, RSI 40+: Delta (41.5), American (41.7) and Southwest (54.2). Southwest is the only mid-range reading; Delta and American sit just over 40. Nothing is overbought.

• Oil over the weekend and Monday: MarketWatch (October 23) says oil sits at an Iran-war high and could rise further if U.S. or Israeli strikes follow upcoming elections, and Bloomberg's wrap notes the Federal Reserve decision is days away. Whether any airline's own statement ties its guidance to the fuel curve again is the test of the reading above.
• Delta at its 200-day: a close under $76.45 would hand the line back; the shelf at $71.12 is the floor to hold for the pullback reading.
• United's shelf near $94.79 and $JETS' near $25.50, both just under the last close (October 23 summary levels).
• Southwest's 50-day near $40.66 with its shelf at $40.57, and the 200-day at $43.46 as the reclaim.
• American and Alaska: no shelf on file under either price, so the 20-day averages ($12.63 and $37.49) and the 200-days ($13.60 and $44.34) are the only levels the summary names.
• All four airlines' September-quarter reports are in; the next report dates are not on file. News for $JETS has not been refreshed since June.

• Tape: the desk's airlines summary as of the 2026-10-23 close (airlines); oil and market context from the desk's market summaries (macro-commodities, market-pulse.json).
• Comparison: the October 16, 2026 airlines scan (2026-10-16-airlines).
• Lane context: the October 23, 2026 lane tape in the day's market brief (airlines median -3.0%, 0 of 6 up).
• Market wrap: Bloomberg, October 23, 2026, Chipmakers Post Longest Weekly Drop Since November (2026-10-23-bloomberg-chipmakers-post-longest-weekly-drop-since-november-tndhldn3n09900); MarketWatch, October 23, 2026, Oil markets are on edge ahead of the weekend; CNBC, October 23, 2026, Brent crude tops $116, a six-month high.
• Company results: American Airlines newsroom, American sets new revenue records amid historic fuel cost pressure; Southwest, third quarter 2026 results; Alaska Air Group, third quarter 2026 results; Delta, September quarter 2026 results.
• Press items: WSJ, October 20, 2026, Alaska Air Group swings to loss as higher fuel costs offset revenue growth; Zacks via Yahoo Finance, October 20, 2026, Alaska Air Group Q3 earnings top estimates; MarketBeat, American Airlines issues Q4 2026 guidance and United Q3 2026 results; BestStocks, October 23, 2026, Why AAL stock moved today (model-synthesized summaries via the stock news files).
• News receipts: stocks{DAL,UAL,LUV,AAL,ALK}/news/latest.json` (all fetched 2026-10-23 after the close, ok, not stale); latest (fetched 2026-06-21, empty).
• Earnings rows (yfinance actual versus consensus): 2026-10-09-dal-earnings, 2026-10-20-ual-earnings.md, 2026-10-20-alk-earnings.md, 2026-10-21-luv-earnings.md, 2026-10-22-aal-earnings.md.
• Filings on file (raw captures, not read): 2026-10-20-ual-8-k-0000100517-26-000184, 2026-10-20-alk-8-k-0000766421-26-000046.md, 2026-10-21-luv-8-k-0000092380-26-000104.md, 2026-10-22-aal-8-k-0000006201-26-000064.md.
• Captures for October 20–23 searched for all six company names: no article or social item names them on Friday.