Airlines, Brokerages Finally Buck Downard Trend

A few sectors were able to buck the downward trend on Friday, most notably airlines and brokerages, although few others were spared selling.

Airlines

US Airways

(U) - Get Report

was up 2.3% to $4.55.

Continental

(CAL) - Get Report

rose 5% to $14.66, and

Delta Air Lines

(DAL) - Get Report

gained 3% to $22.47.

UAL

(UAL) - Get Report

, the holding company for

United Airlines

, traded fell 0.6% to $17.13, and

Southwest

(LUV) - Get Report

rose 6% to $13.60.

But the news wasn't all good.

Northwest

(NWAC)

was falling 5% to $10.45 following news that the carrier would cut 10,000 jobs, or 25% of its workforce, and reduce service by 20%.

AMR

(AMR)

, the parent of

American Airlines

and

TWA

, was down 3% to $17.90. The company, which earlier this week set plans to cut jobs, detailed that among those let go would be 386 pilots from American Airlines and 120 from TWA. The entire sector has been pounded this week as concerns mount about cash burn rates and evaporating demand.

Technology

Technology stocks, which have generally sold off this week, were still reeling. Computer maker

Dell

(DELL) - Get Report

dropped 4.8% to $16.63, while

Oracle

(ORCL) - Get Report

shed 5.8% to $10.76.

Sun Microsystems

(SUNW) - Get Report

was down 6% to $7.96, and

Cisco

(CSCO) - Get Report

sank 6.1% to $12.09.

Microsoft

(MSFT) - Get Report

slipped 2%, and

JDS Uniphase

(JDSU)

, fell 6.3%.

Intel

(INTC) - Get Report

was off 6.6%, while

Texas Instruments

(TXN) - Get Report

gained 1.3%.

Brokerages

Brokerage stocks were mostly up Friday after a brutal week.

Morgan Stanley

(MWD)

rose 6.5% to $40.08, and

Merrill Lynch

(MER)

was up 4.5% to $37.65.

Lehman Brothers

(LEH)

gained 1.8%, and

Goldman Sachs

(GS) - Get Report

rose 3%.

Charles Schwab

(SCH)

gained 6.3% to $9.50.

Energy

Energy companies were mixed, with most hovering around the flatline. However,

Royal Dutch Petroleum

(RD)

was off 1.8% to $44, while

Halliburton

(HAL) - Get Report

gained 4.7% to $22.58.

Basic Materials

Basic materials stocks were generally off between 1% and 2%, but chemical company

Hercules

(HPC)

shed 5.6% to $6.95, and

Allegheny Technologies

(ATI) - Get Report

lost 9% to $13.20. Steelmaker

Nucor

(NUE) - Get Report

was up 3% to $35.54.