TradingMarkets 7 Stocks You Need to Know for Friday

Stocks finished off their highs on Thursday as stronger than expected retail sales inspired traders early, but failed to sustain stocks by mid-day as oil prices continued higher.

The Dow industrials finished up 57.81. The Nasdaq closed ahead by 10.34. And the S&P 500 ended the day higher by 4.38.

Here are 7 Stocks You Need to Know for Friday.

Anheuser-Busch (BUD | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) received a $46.3 billion unsolicited bid from Belgian brewer InBev on Thursday. The deal as proposed would be the largest cash takeover ever.

Lehman Brothers Holdings (LEH | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) announced the replacement of both its CFO and President on Thursday, as the company's stock fell another 4%.

Palm (PALM | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) rallied more than 10% on news that Verizon Wireless would sell Palm's latest smartphone, Centro.

Microsoft (MSFT | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) announced a willingness to complete an "alternative transaction" with Yahoo! (YHOO | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) instead of returning to its original bid for the Internet company.

Strong retail sales due to tax rebates and the increased cost of food and fuel helped boost retailers such as Wal-Mart (WMT | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) early in Thursday's trading, though retailers in general finished off their highs.

Dell (DELL | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) is among a number of companies losing money on its share buyback program. In spite of spending $4 billion on its own stock, DELL is down 11% over the past year.

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