Red Letter day today on Wall Street. For two reasons.

One, the price of gold topped $1000/ounce earlier today.

But more importantly — at least to those of us who like to fly the those things with wings that consume great quantities of jet fuel — the price of a barrel of crude oil broke the $110 mark today.

Crude closed at $110.33.

How does that story begin…..”It was a dark and stormy night….”

A recession and $110/barrel oil prices. A perfect dark and stormy night for our friends —  the airlines.

In other news, shares of Mesa Air Group hit a new 17 year low today. (Adjusted for splits.) The last time shares were this low in the airline were in 1991. Shares in the airline closed today down 3%, to 2.24.

Shares of US Airways have also been hit hard this week. Today shares of LCC were down another 3%, closing at 8.76. Yes, you read that correctly.

Shares of Northwest are not having a good week either. Shares here were down 4% today, closing at an anemic 9.86 while shares of its hoped-for running buddy, Delta Air Lines, were up 4% today, closing at 10.52.

Meanwhile ExpressJet shares managed to pick up 2% today. But the shares here continue to struggle. Really struggle. Shares closed here today at 1.77.

Ticker: (Nadsaq:MESA), (NYSE:XJT), (NYSE:NWA), (NYSE:DAL), (NYSE:LCC).

Technorati Tags: airline stocks, airlines, Delta Air Lines, ExpressJet, Mesa Air Group, Northwest Airlines, US Airways