Afternoon Market Update (UAL, LUV, DAL, JBLU, SNDK, HUM)

US airline stocks dropped along with wider equity market. Shares of United Continental Holdings UAL and Southwest Airlines Co LUV traded slightly up. However, Delta Air Lines DAL and JetBlue Airways Corp JBLU traded slightly lower. The NYSE Arca Airline Index (XAL) lost about 0.49%. Shares of SanDisk Corp SNDK gained about 5.6% after RW Baird analyst Tristan Gerra lifted his rating on SNDK from “neutral” to “outperform.” Gerra also raised his price target on the stock from $42 to $56 per share. Shares of Humana Inc HUM rose about 4.1% after the company announced its plans to purchase a privately-held health-care company, Concentra Inc for about $790 million in cash. Michael B. McCallister, Humana's chairman of the board and chief executive officer said, “Concentra brings solid experience across a number of fronts that fit well with our consumer-focused strategy and will allow both organizations to provide a wide array of services to individuals needing access to convenient and affordable high-quality health care.” Read more from Benzinga's Markets.