TradingMarkets 7 Stocks You Need to Know for Friday

A widespread market rally had a number of stocks, especially those with exposure to the consumer, broke out to new short-term highs on Thursday.

The Dow soared by 216.48. The Nasdaq Composite gained 51.03. And the S&P 500 ended the day higher by 23.30.

Here are 7 Stocks You Need to Know for Friday.

Research in Motion
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reported quarterly earnings of 90 cents after the market closed on Thursday, beating analyst estimates by six cents. The company also forecast a greater than expected gross margin for the first quarter.

Breaking out to new monthly highs was FedEx
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, which gained more than 9%. The rally in FedEx was typical of the aggressive buying in the transportation sector, as railroad and airline stocks also advanced to new short term highs.

Despite the rally in technology stocks, IBM
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has lowered the price it is willing to pay for Sun Microsystems
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from a range of $10-11 per share to a range of $9-10 per share.

U.S. Steel
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soared by more than 11% on Thursday. The company announced that it was delaying “indefinitely” a $1 billion renovation of a plant near Pittsburgh.

The broad based rally on Thursday was characterized by especially strong performance from consumer discretionary stocks. Shares of Disney
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were up over 7%, and shares of retailer Abercrombie & Fitch
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were up more than 8%. Both stocks still trade below their 200-day moving averages.

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