Why United Airlines Stock Popped on Monday
Ignore the O'Hare lawsuit. Focus on valuation.
A bit of litigation news is boosting share prices for United Airlines (NASDAQ: UAL) stock this morning.
Over the weekend, the Chicago Sun-Times reported American Airlines Group (NASDAQ: AAL) is suing Chicago's O'Hare Airport (more precisely, the "Chicago Department of Aviation") for "prematurely reorganizing gates," taking away four of American's slots and giving five more slots to United. American argues this breaches its seven-year-old airline use and lease agreement with the airport and will help United push American out to become the "sole hub carrier" at O'Hare.
United shareholders like the sound of that a lot, though, and United stock is up 2.1% as of 11:20 a.m. ET Monday. Curiously, American shareholders like the news as well (or, at least, the fact that American is fighting for slots), and its share price is up 2.5%.
