Every airline in the cohort closed higher on the day (+1.2% to +2.5%) even as a well-documented US-Iran military escalation pushed oil to a six-week high this week (MarketWatch, September 1) and diesel to a record (CNBC, September 4) — but that one-day bounce sits on top of a 30-day slide of -13.9% to -20.8% across all six names, far worse than the broad market's roughly flat September (the S&P 500 tracking ETF is +0.05% over 30 days and just 1.2% off its all-time high). The cohort splits cleanly once the multi-year check runs: Delta ($DAL) is the one clean intact uptrend, 8.1% above its 200-day average with a 32.4% one-year gain and alpha of +13.75 — genuinely beating the market, not just technically positive. Southwest ($LUV) is the more complicated case: its one-year gain (+27.31%) and alpha (+8.66) are also strongly positive, but price now sits 8.0% below its own 200-day average ($43.07) — a trend genuinely being tested despite the good longer-run numbers. American ($AAL) and Alaska ($ALK) are the cohort's real breakdowns, both below their 200-days with negative alpha even after this week's bounce, Alaska worst of all at -33.07% over the year and -51.72 alpha.

Dated analysis as-of the 2026-09-04 close for all six tickers; the Current Price Table below refreshes at publication. Analysis numbers from the pre-computed airlines summary. Comparison scan: the August 28, 2026 close — a normal one-week gap.

Every name in the cohort turned up on the day — Delta +1.8%, United +2.5%, Southwest +2.3%, JETS +1.34%, American +1.23%, Alaska +1.55% — the first uniformly positive daily print across the sector in this scan series. RSI improved for five of six names versus the August 28 close (Delta 35.4→41.6, United 37.0→43.2, Southwest 30.4→38.0, JETS 37.5→40.0, Alaska 40.9→42.8), while American eased slightly (37.9→36.2). None of the six short-term trend tags upgraded, though: Delta, United, and JETS stay weak-down; Southwest and American stay down; Alaska stays down despite its RSI recovery. No airline in the cohort carries a death cross this scan, and none showed unusual volume (relative volume ranged 0.86-1.30, nothing that stands out as a single-day catalyst spike).

The 30-day window tells a rougher story than the daily bounce suggests: every name's monthly return worsened materially from the prior scan — Delta -7.17%→-13.93%, United -7.39%→-16.10%, Southwest -10.68%→-18.79%, JETS -5.78%→-14.11%, American -8.09%→-20.81%, Alaska -7.68%→-19.23%. That's a much sharper monthly decline than the broad market managed over the same window — the S&P 500 tracking ETF is roughly flat over 30 days (+0.05%) and sitting just 1.2% below its all-time high, per the pre-computed market-pulse summary, while long-duration Treasuries (a proxy for the rate backdrop) are down on the month and a volatility-tracking ETF is down 14% over 30 days — signs the broader market isn't pricing much fear even as oil and diesel prices spike. Airlines, an oil-input-sensitive lane by definition (jet fuel is a direct cost line), are the one part of the tape visibly diverging from that calm.

Splitting the cohort on the multi-year check draws a real line. Delta is unambiguous: 8.1% above its 200-day, up 32.4% over the year, +13.75 alpha — a deep pullback inside an intact, market-beating trend, no matter how the week looked. Southwest is the harder case: its one-year gain (+27.31%) and alpha (+8.66) both stayed strongly positive, but price is now 8.0% below its 200-day average of $43.07, a level it wasn't testing as severely two scans ago — a trend genuinely under test even with good longer-run numbers behind it. United (+2.9% above its 200-day, +5.03% over the year) and JETS (+1.5% above, +10.9% over the year) sit barely on the right side of their 200-days but both carry negative alpha (-13.63, -7.75), meaning each is lagging the market even while nominally intact. American (-5.7% below its 200-day, +2.1% over the year, -16.55 alpha) and Alaska (-8.4% below, -33.07% over the year, -51.72 alpha) are the cohort's genuine breakdowns — Alaska remains the sector's worst name on every long-horizon measure, its alpha having worsened slightly from -52.89 two scans ago.

This week's pattern lines up with the other two oil-input-sensitive lanes covered in the same sweep: chemicals' Dow confirmed a death cross and its worst RSI reading of this scan series, and travel-leisure's cruise-line trio kept deteriorating, while Expedia posted the sharpest single-week decline anywhere across all three lanes despite an intact long-term trend. Cause discipline: the multi-source Iran-Hormuz oil spike is well documented across this week's capture corpus (MarketWatch, Sept 1, oil settling at a six-week high after US strikes on Iranian targets in the Strait of Hormuz; CNBC, Sept 2, Iran claiming two tankers struck naval mines in Hormuz; Bloomberg, Sept 2, "US, Iran Escalate Attacks; Global Bond Selloff Deepens"; CNBC, Sept 4, diesel hitting a record high), and jet fuel is a direct cost pass-through for this sector — but no ticker-specific news receipt in this corpus covers the Aug 28–Sep 4 window for any of the six names. Alaska's is the freshest at Aug 28 (predates this move); United's latest pull failed on a rate limit; the rest range from June to mid-July. No stock-events entry falls in this window either. So the oil/fuel-cost backdrop is the documented macro context for the sector's underperformance, but neither the daily bounce nor any single name's monthly decline can be pinned to it from this data — cause unknown at the ticker level.

• Delta: RSI 35.4→41.6 (recovered), trend weak-down unchanged, price $80.07→$80.17, 7D -2.86%→+0.12% (turned flat-positive), 30D -7.17%→-13.93% (worsened sharply), 52-week-high gap -16.31%→-16.21% (roughly flat); still 8.1% above its 200-day.
• United: RSI 37.0→43.2 (recovered), trend weak-down unchanged, price $110.60→$111.38, 7D -2.29%→+0.73% (turned positive), 30D -7.39%→-16.10% (worsened sharply), 52-week-high gap -20.30%→-19.74% (improved slightly).
• Southwest: RSI 30.4→38.0 (recovered off the sector's lowest reading), trend down unchanged, price $39.64→$39.62 (flat), 7D -1.83%→-0.08% (roughly flat), 30D -10.68%→-18.79% (worsened sharply), 52-week-high gap -28.07%→-28.11% (flat); newly 8.0% below its 200-day, versus 7.6% two scans ago — the breach is deepening, not resolving.
• JETS: RSI 37.5→40.0 (recovered), trend weak-down unchanged, price $29.18→$28.80, 7D -1.32%→-1.23% (roughly flat), 30D -5.78%→-14.11% (worsened sharply), 52-week-high gap -14.33%→-15.44% (widened).
• American: RSI 37.9→36.2 (eased slightly), trend down unchanged, price $13.64→$13.13, 7D -1.37%→-3.67% (worsened), 30D -8.09%→-20.81% (worsened sharply, the cohort's worst), 52-week-high gap -27.41%→-30.12% (widened); now 5.7% below its 200-day, versus 2.0% two scans ago.
• Alaska: RSI 40.9→42.8 (roughly flat, holding last scan's bounce), trend down unchanged, price $42.32→$42.04, 7D +4.75%→-0.66% (gave back last week's gain), 30D -7.68%→-19.23% (worsened sharply), 52-week-high gap -35.76%→-36.19% (widened, still the sector's worst); alpha -52.89→-51.72 (marginally less bad, still the cohort's worst by a wide margin).

RSI (Relative Strength Index) gauges how aggressively a stock has been bought or sold over roughly the past two weeks, on a 0-100 scale — under 30 signals an oversold, potentially undervalued stretch; over 70 signals overbought, extended risk; readings in between are neutral. Trend reflects a stock's structural direction based on its moving averages over the past several weeks — it is a short-window read, not a verdict on the multi-year story. vs SMA shows how far price sits above or below its 20-day average. The one-year change and the distance from the 200-day average are the longer-horizon check: a stock trading above its 200-day with a strong one-year gain and positive alpha is in an intact, market-beating uptrend no matter how a single week looks; a stock below its 200-day with a flat-to-negative one-year change and negative alpha is a trend genuinely under test or already broken.

Latest available summary values at publication; the analysis and comparisons elsewhere in this scan remain dated September 4, 2026.

RSI < 25 (Oversold): None this scan.

RSI 25-40 (Approaching Oversold): Southwest (38.0) and American (36.2) sit here. Southwest's near-term picture is now genuinely mixed — strong 1Y and alpha sitting on top of a widening 200-day breach; American is weaker across the board, below its 200-day with a near-flat year and negative alpha.

RSI 40+ (Neutral-to-Strong): Delta (41.6), United (43.2), JETS (40.0), and Alaska (42.8) sit here, but the long-horizon check splits them sharply. Delta is the cohort's one clean, market-beating uptrend. United and JETS are technically above their 200-days but both lag the market on alpha. Alaska's RSI recovery doesn't change its picture — it remains broken on every long-horizon measure and carries the sector's worst alpha.

Does Southwest's 200-day breach resolve back above the line, or does it join American and Alaska as a confirmed long-horizon breakdown? Does this week's uniform one-day bounce mark a base after four weeks of oil-driven pressure, or is it noise ahead of further Iran-escalation headlines? And does the sector's 30-day underperformance against a flat, low-volatility broad market keep widening, or does the daily strength start feeding into the monthly window next scan.

• Tape data (price/RSI/SMA/returns/alpha/200-day): pre-computed summaries as of the 2026-09-04 close — airlines.
• Comparison figures: 2026-08-28-airlines (2026-08-28 close).
• Broad-market context (SPY, TLT, VIXY): market-pulse (same 2026-09-04 close).
• Cross-sector read: chemicals, travel-leisure (same close).
• Oil/Iran macro corpus: 2026-09-01-marketwatch-global-oil-prices-surge-to-a-6-week-high-after-the-u-s-strik--mktw-0005209956, 2026-09-02-cnbc-iran-says-two-tankers-have-hit-hormuz-naval-mines-u-s-disput-108357439, 2026-09-02-bloomberg-us-iran-escalate-attacks-global-bond-selloff-deepens-the-asi-tkq1r8rkv2te00, 2026-09-04-cnbc-diesel-hits-record-high-as-ukraine-and-iran-wars-knock-out-r-108358872.
• News/event check per ticker: stocks{DAL,UAL,LUV,AAL,ALK}/news/latest.json— Alaska's is freshest (fetched 2026-08-28, predates this move), United's latest pull failed on a rate limit (429), the rest range from June to mid-July 2026;research/stock-events/` has no entry in the August 28–September 4 window for any of the six tickers — driver unconfirmed at the ticker level from this data.