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Airline Stocks & TXN Report Earnings, Jobless Claims Reach Historic Lows

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On today’s episode of Free Lunch, Ryan McQueeney recaps earnings results from Texas Instruments and airline giants American, Southwest, and JetBlue. The host also discusses the labor market on the back of historically-low jobless claims data.

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Free Lunch is presented by Zacks Investment Research. It is streamed live, four times per week, and features breaking news and analysis from Zacks strategists. Free Lunch is available on YouTube, Twitter, and other major streaming platforms.

Wall Street had another pile of fresh earnings reports to dig through this morning, including some from key industry bellwethers.

Notably, chip giant Texas Instruments (TXN - Free Report) filed its latest quarterly results yesterday afternoon. The semiconductor manufacturer managed to surpass EPS estimates, but its revenue fell short of expectations, and management’s comments did not make chip bulls feel great about cyclical headwinds.

On the other hand, airline earnings have been relatively strong. Southwest (LUV - Free Report) reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue, with net sales increasing 8.5% from the year-ago period and outpacing slightly higher unit costs. The budget airline did warn, however, that the partial government shutdown has cost it up to $15 million in new revenue.

Industry giant American Airlines (AAL - Free Report) also beat estimates on the bottom line, although revenue lagged expectations a bit. Still, the company was confident that its business will grow faster than its rivals in 2019, citing an expansion of its network and new premium offerings as likely catalysts for sales growth.

Meanwhile, low-fare airline JetBlue (JBLU - Free Report) did a good job of controlling non-fuel costs en route to a solid earnings beat for the quarter. JetBlue said it hopes to expand capacity by 7.5% to 8.5% in the ongoing quarter, which could help stimulate revenue growth going forward.

All of this news was being digest on Thursday morning, when investors also had another historic read on initial jobless claims to consider. The number of people filing for unemployment benefits in the U.S. last week fell below 200,000. That marked a 49-year low, providing more evidence on the strength of the domestic labor market.

Join Ryan on today’s episode of Free Lunch for more information about each of these stories!

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