Sector movers: Airlines surge, but stronger dollar knocks commodity stocks lower

The outlook for the world's major economies may be diverging, but at least on Friday the price action at the sector level was very similar, over on Wall Street, across the Channel and in the UK.The upside was led by travel-related stocks on the top flight index, while mining, precious metals or basic resource companies led on the downside. That came as the latest spate of macroeconomic data Stateside led to further gyrations in FX and commodity markets (although copper futures held up well) - but there was also quite a bit of company-specific news out for investors to chew on.Over on Wall Street Airlines were the best performer as a group, rising by 4.63%, while out on the DJ Stoxx 600 Basic resource companies proved the biggest drag, although they did only fall by 0.33%.Thus, easyJet was to be found at the top of the leaderboard on the Footsie at the end of the week, with its stock up by 6.42% on the day, to end the day right atop its 200-day moving average. Shares in the budget airline took off after it increased its outlook for the half year ended 30 September from between £545m and £570m to between £575m and £580m, thanks to a strong finish to the summer season, which saw increased revenue per seat.Stock in IAG was close behind after announcing an 8.5% increase in revenue passenger kilometres for September.Cruise operator Carnival, meanwhile, cheered shareholders with its third quarter results. The company posted a rise in both quarterly and three-quarterly revenue. The FTSE 100 group said third quarter turnover climbed from $4.73bn to $4.95m year-on-year and from $11.8bn to $12.2m for the nine-month period.Acting as a backdrop, the Bloomberg US dollar spot index notched a seventh consecutive week of gains, its longest stretch for four years, as the latest jobs data fuelled optimism that the recovery on the other side of the Atlantic has sufficient staying power to withstand some policy tightening by the Fed.In parallel, cable dropped below the 1.60 mark for the first time this year and Brent crude futures for November settlement slipped 1.2% on the day, to end at $92.31 on London's ICE, on stronger than average trading volumes.As analysts at Credit Suisse explained to their own clients in a research note released on Friday morning, the fall in the oil price needs to be factored into the shares of the likes of Tullow Oil. Stock in the oil explorer dropped 1.6% to 600p.The Swiss broker lowered its price target on the shares to 800p from 885p previously. Gold futures for december delivery on COMEX also took a hit from the latest monthly US employment report, ending the day off by 1.98% to $1,191per ounce - in effect erasing their year-to-date gains. Not surprisingly, the likes of Fresnillo and Randgold Resources were also to be seen at the bottom of the pile.