In my previous search for economic complements to airlines that are experiencing a similar stock market drop, I found nothing. However, after some discussion with other folks and seeing it mentioned in stock news, I did find secondary companies being affected by the drop in airline activity. Energy companies… but not just any energy companies. Specifically, those energy companies that are involved in the business of jet fuel. This is a bit more challenging to search out because it is not as well advertised, but if you scourer for the hints you’ll find the relationship is quite striking. Not only are airline stocks heavily dependent on oil prices, vice versa is also true: decreases in the aviation industry also has a similar effect on the profitability of the companies that fuel them.
20200305/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_fuel
20200305/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_Oil_Company
20200305/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell
20200305/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NuStar_Energy
20200305/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nustar_Fire
20200305/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillips_66
20200305/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texaco
20200305/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevron_Corporation
20200305/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Oil#Successor_companies
20200305/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExxonMobil
20200305/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BP
20200305/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Fuel_Services
20200305/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathon_Petroleum
The biggest negative impact appears to go to Phillips 66 and World Fuel Services. Guessing from the few info sources I’ve read, I’d assume that’s because they have a strong presence in California and a lot of international flights terminate at California. And the news of California declaring a state of emergency in light of the Coronavirus… that’s going to have a pretty big impact on California businesses. For World Fuel Services, well that’s because they were spun off primarily as a jet fuel company, so of course they’re getting hit hard. And BP, well they’re a big company with diversification and they’ve also been selling their jet fuel business to other companies, so they’re hardly hit that much.