Every name in the cohort closed lower today, the mirror image of the September 18 scan where every name closed green — but the week underneath today's red session is a genuine improvement: United ($UAL) reclaimed its 200-day average and Delta ($DAL) widened its lead above its own, leaving two of six airlines above that line for the first time in this series. Alaska ($ALK) is the exception in both directions — the cohort's worst day today at -5.27% and the only name whose 200-day gap kept deepening, now 13.4% below versus 11.6% a week ago. Southwest ($LUV) is still 5.5% below its 200-day, unchanged from last scan, even after another positive week. The move comes a day after the desk's own crude proxy fell 2.8% on a Hormuz-reopening headline and then rose 3.3% today — but no news receipt on any of the six ties today's across-the-board decline to that reversal, or to anything else.

Data as-of the 2026-09-23 close for all six tickers, including the sector ETF ($JETS). All numbers from the pre-computed airlines summary. Comparison scan: the September 18, 2026 close.

Today's tape ran opposite to the September 18 close it is being compared against: that Friday every one of the six names finished green, and today every one finished red — Delta -2.59%, United -3.9%, Southwest -2.47%, the sector ETF -2.99%, American -1.91% and Alaska -5.27%, the cohort's worst single day. The desk's own oil proxy moved in the same direction as the airlines today: the U.S. oil fund closed up 3.3% today after CNBC reported September 22 that Iran says it can reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days if the U.S. eases military pressure, and after oil fell 2.8% on that same Tuesday per the broad-market summary. A reversal in fuel costs the same day the whole cohort sells off is a plausible read, but it is not a confirmed one — none of the six has a news pull covering today's session, and no entry exists in the stock-events record for any of them in this window. Call it context, not a stated cause.

The week underneath today's red print is where the real change sits. United crossed from 0.1% below its 200-day average to 1.6% above it — a structural reclaim — while Delta widened its own cushion from 6.1% to 8.6%, still the cohort's cleanest trend with a one-year return of 39.15% and alpha of 23.38, both improved from last scan. That is two of six names now above their 200-day, up from one a week ago. Southwest's breach held exactly where it was, 5.5% below its 200-day, even though its week was again the strongest by percentage terms tied with American's; the RSI reading (50.6) is unchanged from last scan and the price gain has not yet translated into ground regained on the long-horizon line.

Alaska is the one name moving the wrong way on every measure that matters. Its 200-day breach deepened from 11.6% to 13.4% this week, its one-year alpha of -42.44 remains by far the cohort's worst, and today's 5.27% decline was the sector's largest single-day move. The pre-computed data labels Alaska's regime a collapse, the same tag it carried last scan — this is not a new development, it is the same broken trend continuing to widen even as its RSI (40.0) sits at a level that looks unremarkable on its own.

Every RSI reading in the cohort is now 40 or higher — Alaska sits exactly on that line, the rest are all above it — which means the deep-oversold names from earlier scans (American at 39.4 two scans ago) have cleared that threshold entirely. Nothing here is oversold by the screen's own definition; what remains unresolved is the gap between five names' improving structure and Alaska's still-widening one.

• Delta: RSI 44.5→50.6 (rose), trend weak-down unchanged, price $79.62→$81.75, 7D -0.36%→+4.98% (swung strongly positive), 30D -4.41%→-0.89% (improved), vs 200-day +6.1%→+8.6% (widened further — still the cohort's strongest cushion), 1Y +33.88%→+39.15% (improved), alpha +18.87→+23.38 (improved) — fell 2.59% today, but remains the cohort's cleanest intact trend.
• United: RSI 43.9→47.6 (rose), trend down→weak-down (upgraded), price $108.71→$110.72, 7D -1.01%→+4.16% (swung positive), 30D -6.11%→-2.51% (improved), vs 200-day -0.1%→+1.6% (reclaimed the line this scan — the week's clearest structural win), 1Y +3.16%→+6.33% (improved), alpha -11.85→-9.44 (improved) — but fell 3.9% today, the cohort's second-worst single day.
• Southwest: RSI 51.3→50.6 (roughly flat), trend down→strong-down (downgraded — and a death cross newly confirmed this week, which last scan's data did not carry), price $40.98→$41.04, 7D +4.43%→+4.83% (still among the cohort's best weeks), 30D -1.06%→+0.81% (turned positive), vs 200-day -5.5% (unchanged — the prior week's narrowing stalled), 1Y +26.99%→+23.1% (eased), alpha +11.98→+7.32 (eased).
• JETS: RSI 40.7→42.7 (rose), trend down unchanged, price $28.22→$28.25, 7D +0.18%→+1.62% (improved), 30D -5.65%→-4.79% (roughly flat), vs 200-day -1.0% (unchanged, still just below), 1Y +8.92%→+10.05% (improved), alpha -6.1→-5.72 (roughly flat).
• American: RSI 39.4→46.9 (rose, cleared the oversold band it sat in last scan), trend down unchanged, price $12.96→$13.35, 7D -0.38%→+5.12% (swung positive, tied for the cohort's best week), 30D -6.49%→-2.05% (improved), vs 200-day -6.9%→-4.0% (narrowed), 1Y +3.02%→+9.52% (improved), alpha -11.99→-6.26 (improved) — though its 3-month return (-23.45%) is still the cohort's worst.
• Alaska: RSI 42.0→40.0 (eased, now the cohort's lowest reading), trend strong-down unchanged, death cross still confirmed, price $40.54→$39.70, 7D -1.51%→+0.05% (barely positive, the cohort's weakest week by far), 30D -1.67%→-4.48% (worsened), vs 200-day -11.6%→-13.4% (deepened again — the cohort's only name still losing structural ground), 1Y -29.37%→-26.67% (improved from a deep base), alpha -44.39→-42.44 (improved but still by a wide margin the cohort's worst) — fell 5.27% today, the cohort's worst single day, and the pre-computed data still labels its regime a collapse.

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, which is why Delta and Southwest can both carry a downgraded short-term trend tag while sitting on very different long-horizon footing. The distance from the 200-day average, the one-year change and alpha are the honest longer-horizon check: a name above its 200-day with a strong one-year gain and positive alpha, like Delta and now United, is beating the market no matter how one session looks; a name below its 200-day with a negative year and deeply negative alpha, which is Alaska alone in this cohort, is a trend under real and ongoing test. Nothing in this table is a setup; these are screen conditions.

Capitulation, RSI under 25: None this scan.

Oversold, RSI 25-40: None this scan — the cohort cleared this band entirely; American, the lone occupant two scans ago, is now at 46.9.

Neutral to strong, RSI 40+: All six. Delta (50.6) and Southwest (50.6) are tied for the cohort's highest reading; Delta backs it with the cleanest long-horizon record, Southwest with a stalled 200-day breach and a death cross newly confirmed this week despite the strong price action. United (47.6) just reclaimed its 200-day. American (46.9) improved across every short window but still carries the worst 3-month return here. JETS (42.7) sits a hair under its own 200-day. Alaska (40.0), the cohort's lowest reading, is the clearest example in this scan of why RSI alone says nothing — a neutral two-week number on a name whose 200-day breach is still widening.

Does today's across-the-board decline extend into a second session, or was it a one-day give-back against a week that otherwise improved everywhere but Alaska? Does United's reclaimed 200-day hold, or does today's -3.9% mark the start of a retest? Does Southwest's stalled breach (still -5.5%) finally narrow on the next leg, or does its RSI cool back toward the 30s the way earlier bounces in this cohort have? And does Alaska's widening 200-day gap (-13.4% and deepening) eventually show up in a name-specific news item, or does it keep drifting with no documented cause behind it?

• Tape data (price/RSI/SMA/returns/alpha/200-day/3-month/52-week high/regime): pre-computed summaries as of the 2026-09-23 close — airlines.
• Comparison figures: 2026-09-18-airlines (2026-09-18 close).
• Broad-market and oil context (SPY, USO): market-pulse (same 2026-09-23 close); the Hormuz-reopening headline and the prior day's 2.8% oil decline are from the September 22 daily brief, 2026-09-22-market-brief.
• Oil/Hormuz corpus: 2026-09-22-cnbc-iran-reportedly-says-it-can-reopen-strait-of-hormuz-within-7-108365945, 2026-09-22-cnbc-oil-prices-fall-for-fifth-day-after-trump-says-u-s-met-with--108365980, 2026-09-22-marketwatch-jet-fuel-is-following-diesel-x2019-s-price-jump-as-the-hormu--mktw-0005246583.
• Cross-sector read: chemicals, travel-leisure (same close).
• News/event check per ticker: stocks{DAL,UAL,LUV,JETS,AAL,ALK}/news/latest.json— none covers today's session; United and Southwest last pulled September 19 (generic quote pages), Alaska August 28, Delta and JETS stale since June 21, American since July 9.research/stock-events/` has no entry for any of the six in this window. Drivers unestablished at the ticker level from this data.