If you are wondering why your favorite stock (and hey, today it doesn’t even need to be an airline stock) is glowing red and not green this afternoon as you check your online portfolio, there’s one big reason.

The Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) report which was released this morning, was worse than bad. It was dreadful.

The ISM reported today that its index of service sector business activity declined to 44.6 in January from a revised reading of 54.4 in December.

Economists surveyed by Thomson Financial had expected a slight slowdown but had still forecast growth, with a median estimate for the index of 53.

As with a number of economic indexes, a reading above 50 usually indicates expansion of the economy, while a number below 50 indicates contraction.

As if the drop was not newsworthy enough just because of its sheer amount, this also marked the first time the service sector reading has contracted below 50 since March 2003.

“This is an absolute collapse of this index,” Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at Global Insight told CNBC.

So now that we know the big story, how about the things with wings? How did they fare specifically?

Not so good.

Of all the airline stocks we track, only five posted a gain for the day. And the extent of those gains were nothing to get excited over. Those stocks were: Continental, American Airlines, Alaska, Allegiant and Ryanair.

And oil prices? Crude closed today at $88.41 — down about $1.61.