Transportation Stocks, Including FedEx, Making Big Moves on November 16, 2012

The Nasdaq has slipped 1%, the S&P 500 has decreased 0.6% and the Dow is trading down 0.8% on a bad morning for the market. 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.

The Transportation sector (IYT) is currently ahead of the overall market, down only 1%, and its biggest movers are currently:

Company	Market Cap	Percentage Change
GulfMark Offshore (NYSE:GLF)	$768 million	-3.9%
Capital Product Partners (Nasdaq:CPLP)	$527.4 million	+2.1%
Navios Maritime Partners (NYSE:NMM)	$786.8 million	+1.9%
Air (Nasdaq:AIRM)	$1.4 billion	-1.7%
China Eastern Airlines Corp. Ltd (NYSE:CEA)	$3.77 billion	+1.6%
FedEx (NYSE:FDX)	$27.18 billion	-1.5%
Landstar System (Nasdaq:LSTR)	$2.32 billion	-1.4%

Broker Summary: TD Ameritrade Thinkorswim

Currently trading at $27.40 per share, GulfMark Offshore (NYSE:GLF) has fallen 3.9%. The company's volume is currently 77,110 shares for the day, 0.3 times the current daily average.

Capital Product Partners (Nasdaq:CPLP) is at $6.34 per share after an increase of 2.1%. So far today, 110,133 shares have changed hands.

Navios Maritime Partners (NYSE:NMM) is currently trading at $13.34 per share, a 1.9% increase. At 205,243 shares, the company's volume so far today is on pace to finish the day below yesterday's volume of 1.2 million shares.

Air (Nasdaq:AIRM) has decreased to $106.54 per share, a 1.7% fall. The company is currently trading a volume of 28,342 shares. This is 0.3 times the current three-month average.

Increasing 1.6%, China Eastern Airlines Corp. Ltd (NYSE:CEA) is trading at $17 per share. At 5,002 shares, the company's volume so far today is 0.3 times the average daily volume.

Falling 1.5%, FedEx (NYSE:FDX) is currently at a share price of $85.21. The company's volume for the day so far is 729,988 shares.

After a decline of 1.4%, Landstar System (Nasdaq:LSTR) has hit a share price of $49.20. So far today, the company's volume is 102,973 shares, lighter than yesterday's volume of 653,482 shares.

The Bottom Line No matter the economic climate, Wall Street will always have stocks that make major moves each week. Paying close attention to the previous ratios will help you identify key times to adjust your strategy. However, these fundamental metrics must be analyzed with historic data, industry information in addition to firm specific financial statements.