Delta Air Lines advances 6.1% in the past week, outperforming 98.2% of its global peers

STOCKS

Delta Air Lines (DAL.N), the world's largest Airlines company by market capitalisation, advanced 52.0c (or 6.1%) to US$9.02 in the week ending Friday, December 16. In the top 5000 by MCap of global stocks of 4,721 stocks & 43 units traded today, the stock has a trailing week relative strength of 98.2 indicating it has outperformed 98.2% of its global peers. The stock rose for a third week on Friday. Compared with the Dow Jones Industrials index which fell 317.9 points (or 2.6%) in the week, this represented a relative price change of 8.7%.

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

Price Change % 3-week 3-month DAL 6.12% 7.38% Airlines -1.63% -11.97% DJIA -2.61% 3.1%

Uptrend

Breakout: the stock traded at high of US$9.13. The bulls are maintaining control with price open, high, low and close exceeding yesterday's levels.

Support: the support price is hovering at the US$7.08 level. Volume traded at the fragile support price zone was 0.1 times average during the five occasions when the support price was breached. In the last one month the first low was at US$7.08 on Nov 21, the second at US$7.08 on Nov 25. The third decline halted at US$7.12 on Nov 23, the 4th at US$7.15 on Nov 17 and the 5th at US$7.18 on Nov 22

Resistance: resistance is apparent at US$9.13. However, selling pressure at that level has been weak; volume was 0.3 times average during the single occasion when the resistance price was breached in the last one month. In the last one month the high was at US$9.13 on Dec 16.

Volatility: the stock traded between a two-week low of US$7.93 and high of US$9.13.

Volume and turnover period: there were 85,816,269 shares worth US$731.9 million traded. The volume was 1.1 times average trading per week of 81,243,225 shares. The turnover rate in the 12 months to date was 482.9% (or a turnover period of 2 months).

% Discount to high: the last price is at a discount of 31.7% to the 12-month high of US$13.21 a year ago on 05 Jan, 2011.

% Premium to low: the last price is at a premium of 40.7% to the 12-month low of US$6.41.

Volume weighted price (VWP): the price is at a premium of 11.7% to the 3-month volume weighted average price of US$8.073. In the past year the premium has been greater than 11.7% just four times, suggesting a topish level and cautious buying at the current price.

THIS WEEK'S PRICE PERFORMANCE RANK IN SECTORS

The stock is in 2 sectors.

The stock's rise of 6.1% for the week went against the trend set by the following index and sectors (rank by percentage price change of stock for 1 week;12 months in sector/index in brackets):

Top 5000 Market (rank 142;3650 out of 5947) which was down 302.2 points or 3.7% to 7,908.5,

Dow Jones Industrials index which was down 317.9 points or 2.6% to 11,866.4,

Airlines sector (rank 3;15 out of 34) which was down 92.7 points or 1.6% to 5,591.0

The Airlines company sector is the 64th largest by market capitalisation out of world's 97 sectors. It is made up of 34 publicly listed companies with a combined market capitalisation of US$125.5 billion. In 2011 earnings for the sector grew 91.4% compared with those of 2010. The main players in the sector include Lan Airlines, Korean Air Lines, Asiana Airlines and All Nippon Airways.

Percentile Rank 1-week 3-month 1-year DAL 98.2 83 30 Airlines 52 31 29 DJIA 41 74 78

RELATIVE VALUATION INDICATORS [RVI] FUNDAMENTAL ANALYSIS

The stock meets the following value criteria set by Benjamin Graham:

-"An earnings-to-price yield of at least twice the triple-A bond"; the stock's earning yield of 7.8% is 4.18 times the triple-A bond yield of 1.9%.

Other Bullish Signals:

- Price/Sales of 0.24 versus sector average of 0.4 and market average of 0.9. We estimate the shares are trading at a current year Price/Sales of 0.2 and a forward year Price/Sales of 0.2.

Bearish Signals:

- Price/Earnings of 12.9 versus sector average of 10.3 and market average of 13.1.

- Total Liabilities/ EBITDA of 12.7 is more than or equal to 5, this compares unfavourably with Joseph Piotroski benchmark of 5.

- Return on Assets of 1.4% versus sector average of 2.6% and market average of 1.8%.

- Return on Capital Employed of 5.1% versus sector average of 6.6% and market average of 11.4%.

The stock has a score of merely 3 out of 9 set by Joseph Piotroski [pass mark >=5 ]:

Positive net income; Positive operating cashflow; Good quality of earnings [operating cashflow exceeds net income].

RELATIVE VALUATION INDICATORS [RVI] TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

Bullish Signals:- The price advanced 6.1% in the last week.

- This was on volume of 1.1 times average for week.

- The price to 50-day EMAP ratio is 1.1, a bullish indicator. The 50-day EMAP has increased to US$8.125. An increase is another bullish indicator.

Bearish Signals:

- In the world's market of 4,721 stocks & 43 units traded today, the stock has a 6-month relative strength of 63 which means it has outperformed 63% of the market.

SHAREHOLDER RETURNS

Trailing five weeks: the stock rose four times (57% of the time), fell twice (29% of the time) and was unchanged once (14% of the time). The volume was 0.9 times average trading of 129,989,160 shares. The value of US$1,000 invested five weeks ago is US$1,135 [vs US$981 for the Dow Jones Industrials index] for a capital gain of US$135.

Trailing thirteen weeks: the stock rose twelve times (60% of the time), fell six times (30% of the time) and was unchanged twice (10% of the time). The volume was 0.8 times average trading of 341,221,545 shares. The value of US$1,000 invested thirteen weeks ago is US$1,071 [vs US$1,038 for the Dow Jones Industrials index] for a capital gain of US$71.

Trailing Two Years: the value of US$1,000 invested two years ago is US$774 [vs US$1,189 for the Dow Jones Industrials index] for a capital loss of US$226.

$1000 1-week 3-month 2-year DAL $1US,103 $1US,071 $774 Airlines $984 $880 $862 DJIA $976 $1US,038 $1US,189

OPEN INTEREST TREND AND INTERPRETATION

Open interest hit a two-month high.

Same day trend: open interest rose for a third day; the stock rose for a third day. Open interest rose 1.4% from 571,150 to 579,457. Combined with the price rising 5.0% this suggests the market is strong.

Trailing one week trend: open interest rose for a third week. Open interest rose 1.1% from 573,079 a week ago while the stock advanced 6.1% from US$8.50 a week ago. Combined with the rising price this also suggests the market is strong.

Trailing one month trend: open interest soared 16.1% from 499,043 a month ago while the stock soared 19.0% from US$7.58 a month ago. Combined with the rising price this also suggests the market is strong.

Open interest as % of issued capital: 57,945,700 shares, representing 6.8% of the issued capital.

[ranked 182 out of 1603 stocks in descending order]

Put:call ratio: open interest contracts on exchange traded options included 278,088 put contracts and 301,369 call contracts.

The put:call ratio was 0.9, down 0.5% for the day, down 0.4% in the past week and down 18.1% in the past month.

Top three traded call options [volume of contracts in brackets; 1 contract is 100 shares]

Exercise US$9.0; Expires Jan 21: 57.0c up 54.1% [11656]

Exercise US$8.0; Expires Dec 17: US$1.03 up 58.5% [11606]

Exercise US$10.0; Expires Jan 21: 22.0c up 57.1% [6708]

Top three traded put options [volume of contracts in brackets; 1 contract is 100 shares]

Exercise US$7.0; Expires Mar 17: 28.0c down 6.7% [5024]

Exercise US$7.50; Expires Jan 21: 13.0c down 23.5% [2612]

Exercise US$10.0; Expires Jan 21: US$1.18 down 21.3% [1505]

Access comprehensive Stock Research on http://www.buysellsignals.net/BuySellSignals/report/Globalstocks/Stock/PDF/Weekly/Globalstocks_pdf_29686.pdf

MARKET SHARE

Delta Air Lines vs Airlines sector [Airlines sector Total in Brackets]

Net Profit of US$593 million [5.4% of Aggregate Sector Net Profit of US$11 billion; down from 22.8% in the previous year.]

EBIT of US$1.6 billion [8.7% of Aggregate Sector EBIT of US$18.5 billion; up from -37.1% in the previous year.]

MCap of US$7.6 billion[6.1% of Aggregate Sector MCap of US$125.5 billion; up from 5.6% in the previous year.]

ISSUED CAPITAL

Based on 846,062,700 issued shares the market capitalisation is US$7.6 billion.

ACTIVITIES

Delta Air Lines, Inc. (Delta) is an airline that provides scheduled air transportation for passengers and cargo throughout the United States and around the world. The Company's global route network is centered around the hub system it operate at airports in Atlanta, Cincinnati, Detroit, Memphis, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York-JFK, Salt Lake City, Amsterdam and Tokyo-Narita. Each of these hub operations includes flights that gather and distribute traffic from markets in the geographic region surrounding the hub to domestic and international cities and to other hubs. Delta also has codeshare arrangements with Aeromexico, Air France, Alitalia, China Airlines, China Southern, CSA Czech Airlines, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Korean Air and Royal Air Maroc (and some affiliated carriers operating in conjunction with these airlines). On October 29, 2008, a subsidiary of Delta merged with Northwest Airlines Corporation (Northwest).

TOP MANAGEMENT

The chairman is Daniel A. Carp, the chief financial officer is Hank Halter and the chief executive officer is Richard H. Anderson.

BUSINESS NEWS ROUND UP

The last snippet was:

December 16: Delta Unveils Schedule for New Domestic Hub at New York's LaGuardia Airport

[News Story] http://www. nasdaq. com/aspx/company-news-story. aspxstoryid=201112161130pr_news_usprx____mm22216&title=delta-unveils-schedule-for-new-domestic-hub-at-new-yorks-laguardia-airport Source: NASDAQ Stock Exchange

Source: www. BuySellSignals. com

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