CSX and Other Transportation Stocks Making Big Moves on October 17, 2012

After the morning's trading, the Nasdaq remains relatively unchanged, the S&P 500 is up 0.3% and the Dow has moved little. The transportation sector is a category of stocks relating to the transportation of goods or customers. It is made up of airlines, railroads and trucking companies. The performance of the transportation sector is sensitive to the price of oil. Because operations revolve around the use of vehicles, fuel prices represent a significant cost to transportation companies. As the price of oil rises, transportation companies will be expected to earn less. Inversely, these companies do well when the cost of fuel decreases.

These are the biggest movers in the Transportation sector (IYT) (+0.1%):

Company	Market Cap	Percentage Change
SkyWest (Nasdaq:SKYW)	$551 million	+7%
Star Bulk (Nasdaq:SBLK)	$691 million	-3%
Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico (NYSE:PAC)	$2.61 billion	+2.9%
CSX (NYSE:CSX)	$22.49 billion	-2.5%
American Railcar Industries (Nasdaq:ARII)	$638.9 million	+2.2%
Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE:HII)	$2.03 billion	+2.1%
GATX (NYSE:GMT)	$2.06 billion	+1.9%

Forex Broker Summary: UFXMarkets

SkyWest (Nasdaq:SKYW) has risen 7% and is currently trading at $11.50 per share. So far today, the company's volume is 344,370 shares, 0.8 times the current three-month average.

After a decline of 3%, Star Bulk (Nasdaq:SBLK) has hit a share price of $8.27. The company's volume for the day so far is 2,070 shares.

Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico (NYSE:PAC) is at $47.93 per share after an increase of 2.9%. At 16,166 shares, the company's volume so far today is 0.1 times the average daily volume.

CSX (NYSE:CSX) is trading at $21.10 per share, down 2.5%. So far today, 11.4 million shares of the company's stock have changed hands. Yesterday, volume was only 9.4 million shares.

American Railcar Industries (Nasdaq:ARII) has risen 2.2% to hit a current price of $30.57 per share. At 10,901 shares, the company's volume so far today is 0.2 times the average volume over the last three months.

Rising 2.1%, Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE:HII) is currently trading at $41.85 per share. The company is currently trading a volume of 38,755 shares.

GATX (NYSE:GMT) has increased to a share price of $44.80, a 1.9% rise. At 70,864 shares, the company's volume so far today is 0.4 times its current daily average.

The Bottom Line The nature of the market is such that stocks will have good days and bad days. Paying close attention to the previous ratios will help you identify key times to adjust your strategy. Keep in mind that all these ratios should be compared against historical numbers and industry information in order to get a more complete picture.