Afternoon Market Update (LCC, SKYW, AMR, DAL, ALK, CI)

US Airline stocks are in the negative territory, as the wider market declined following the release of a report showing a rise in first-time jobless claims for the week ended July 31. The NYSE Arca Airline Index (XAL) fell about 0.5%. The top losers in the list were US Airways LCC, SkyWest Inc SKYW and American parent AMR Corp AMR. Some stocks that moved up were Delta Air Lines DAL and Alaska Air Group ALK. Shares of Cigna Corp CI rose more than 4% after the company reported a year-over-year rise in its Q2 revenue. However, CI’s Q2 net earnings moved down to $1.06 per share, from $1.58 per share in the year-ago period. Cigna has issued its EPS projections for the full year at $4.10-$4.40 on an adjusted income from operations basis. Gold futures have shifted into the negative territory, after a positive start in the earlier session. Gold for December delivery moved down 0.1% to $1,194.10 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). Apart from gold, the stocks, oil and the dollar are also moving down. Read more from Benzinga's Markets.