Stock Market Today: American Airlines Rises Despite Raymond James Downgrade

American Airlines Group (NASDAQ: AAL), an airline company, closed at $13.25, up $0.12 (0.91%). Trading volume reached 66.47 million shares versus a 3-month average of 62.1 million. The stock remains within its 52-week range of $8.50 to $19.10.

Broader equities advanced. The S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) finished at 6,501.86, up 20.46 points (0.32%), while the Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC) ended at 21,705.16, gaining 115.02 points (0.53%).

Airline peers outperformed. Delta Air Lines Inc (NYSE: DAL) closed at $61.97, up $0.71 (1.16%). Alaska Air Group Inc (NYSE: ALK) ended at $63.18, rising $1.35 (2.17%).

Today's move came on the heels of a recent downgrade by Raymond James Financial (NYSE: RJF) to "Market Perform" from "Outperform." The firm cited valuation, reiterated a $14 price target, and highlighted a relatively stronger view of Alaska Air.

American Airlines is rolling out its most extensive winter schedule to Mexico, expanding flights to resorts such as Cancún and Los Cabos—a strategy aimed at boosting international traffic. Meanwhile, the broader sector awaits a forthcoming ICAO decision on raising the pilot retirement age from 65 to 67, a proposal backed by IATA to address pilot shortages—though it faces union resistance.

Investors will be watching traffic trends, international route execution, and next quarter’s earnings for fresh momentum.

Market data sourced from Google Finance and Yahoo! Finance on Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025.

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Daily Stock News has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. This article was generated with GPT-5, OpenAI's large-scale language generation model and has been reviewed by The Motley Fool's AI quality control systems. The Motley Fool recommends Alaska Air Group and Delta Air Lines. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.