Transportation Stocks, Including Kansas City, Making Big Moves on October 16, 2012

It's been a good morning for the market. The Nasdaq has increased 1.1%; the S&P 500 has moved up 1%; and the Dow is trading up 1%. 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.

Underperforming the market overall, the Transportation sector (IYT) is up 0.7%, and these are its current biggest movers:

Company	Market Cap	Percentage Change
Costamare (NYSE:CMRE)	$1.03 billion	-10.9%
American Railcar Industries (Nasdaq:ARII)	$616.4 million	+4.1%
Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico (NYSE:PAC)	$2.55 billion	+3.3%
Kansas City (NYSE:KSU)	$8.22 billion	+2.9%
AMERCO (Nasdaq:UHAL)	$2.21 billion	+2.8%
UTi Worldwide (Nasdaq:UTIW)	$1.44 billion	-2%
GATX (NYSE:GMT)	$2.03 billion	+1.9%

Broker Summary: TD Ameritrade Thinkorswim

Shares of Costamare (NYSE:CMRE) are currently trading at $13.57, a steep decline of 10.9%. The company's volume is currently 3.2 million shares for the day, 20.6 times the current three-month average.

American Railcar Industries (Nasdaq:ARII) is currently trading at $30.05 per share, a 4.1% increase. The company's volume is currently 29,008 shares.

Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico (NYSE:PAC) has moved up 3.3% and is currently trading at $46.95 per share. So far today, the company's volume is 24,243 shares, 0.2 times the average daily volume.

Kansas City (NYSE:KSU) has risen 2.9% and is currently trading at $76.90 per share. So far today, 315,848 shares have changed hands.

Rising 2.8%, AMERCO (Nasdaq:UHAL) is currently trading at $115.82 per share. The company's volume for the day so far is 16,458 shares, consistent with its current three-month average.

After a decline of 2%, UTi Worldwide (Nasdaq:UTIW) has hit a share price of $13.58. The company is trading at a volume of 347,119 shares. This is on pace to reach yesterday's trading volume of 602,887 shares.

GATX (NYSE:GMT) is at $44.06 per share after an increase of 1.9%. So far today, the company's volume is 34,754 shares, 0.2 times the average daily volume.

The Bottom Line No matter the economic climate, Wall Street will always have stocks that make major moves each week. Daily stock performance should be weighed against historical performance and put in context of the market overall. However, these fundamental metrics must be analyzed with historic data, industry information in addition to firm specific financial statements.