United’s stock is falling 2.6% and wiping $600 million off the airline’s market cap
Carrier continues to draw flak for having customer dragged off plane
United’s stock has been dropping Tuesday. Times shown are Eastern Time.By
VICTORREKLAITIS
MARKETS WRITERShares in United Continental Holdings Inc. were falling 2.6% in morning action on Tuesday, as the airline continued to draw flak for having a passenger forcibly dragged off a plane Sunday.
If the carrier’s stock is that much lower at the closing bell, United UAL, -2.34% will have about $600 million wiped off its market capitalization. The company’s market cap was $22.5 billion as of Monday’s close, according to FactSet data.
Check out: Passengers may hate airlines, but investors love them (even United most of the time)
Early Tuesday ahead of the market’s open, United shares had been down by as much as 6% in premarket trading.
Investors largely shrugged on Monday at the widespread criticism of United, as the airline’s stock finished yesterday’s session 0.9% higher, adding about $200 million to the company’s market cap. But now with Tuesday’s drop, the stock is on pace to be down around 1.6% for the week.
Meanwhile, the S&P 500 SPX, -0.21% —the broad U.S. stock benchmark—has lost 0.3% for the week, as it trades lower Tuesday morning.
Read: ‘Re-accommodate’ is United’s euphemism for forcibly dragging passenger off an airplane
And see: Why you, too, could get dragged off a plane if the airline overbooks your flight
Tuesday’s decline suggests that investors think the carrier’s business could suffer given the furor over the incident. Videos of the bloodied passenger being dragged off the plane by law enforcement have been widely shared on social media.
StockTwits—a social network for traders—has offered the following chart showing how sentiment around the stock has been souring:
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