Bulls Charge Ahead

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The markets moved sharply higher, extending a two-day winning streak that has sent major market averages climbing more than 1%.

Today's Markets

As of 3:40 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 63.9 points, or 0.52%, to 12,233, the S&P 500 climbed 6 points, or 0.46%, to 1,316 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 10.6 points, or 0.37%, to 2,747.  The FOX 50 was up 3.6 points to 925.

Optimistic corporate news, coupled with fresh data suggesting the labor market continued improve, lifted stocks.

Enterprise-software-giant Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) and consulting-firm Accenture (NASDAQ:ACN) reported better-than-expected earnings after the bell Thursday.

The broad markets shrugged off disappointing results from Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) that sent shares of the maker of the BlackBerry smartphone plunging more than 11%.

The U.S. economy expanded at an annualized rate of 3.1% in the fourth quarter of 2011, a faster pace than the Commerce Department initially estimated. Wall Street had been expecting a gain of 3%.

The report on Gross Domestic Product is a lagging indicator that doesn't take into account the effects of soaring energy prices in the first quarter of 2011.

"While consumer and business spending were both strong in the last quarter of 2010, they have already shown some signs of weakness," wrote Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Global Insight, in a research note.

"This weakness may persist for a while, due to the 'double shock' of higher gasoline prices and supply-chain interruptions caused by" the disaster in Japan.

Also on the economic front, consumer sentiment dropped to its lowest level in a year, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters and the University of Michigan.  Surging food and energy prices led to most of the weakness, according to the report.

Consumers' one-year inflation expectations were steady at an elevated 4.6%. Economists have been keeping a close eye on inflation expectations after the Federal Reserve has embarked on a highly expansionary, but potentially inflationary, monetary policy regime.

If expectations for future prices, and therefore the price of living, dramatically increase there is a possibility that consumers will request higher wages. Oftentimes when inflation finds its way into the wage rate, it becomes difficult to fight.

Energy prices have gyrated in recent sessions as traders eye the situation in North Africa and the Middle East.

A combination of NATO and American forces continued slamming Muammar al-Qaddafi's military in Libya.  The coalition started bombing Qaddafi's forces over the weekend after the U.N. Security Council gave the go-ahead to protect civilians from violence.

Unrest continued in several oil-producing Middle Eastern countries on Friday. Syrian security forces cracked down on protests, killing at least twenty, according to a report by Al Jazeera, citing witnesses on the ground.

In Yemen, President, Ali Abdullah Saleh, agreed to step down as long as power could be transferred to "clean hands," sources told FOX News. However, thousands still marched in rallies opposing Saleh.

Sporadic protests in Bahrain's "Day of Rage" were quickly quashed by an enormous presence of pro-government forces.

Light, sweet crude edged lower by 20 cents, or 0.19%, to $105.40, but surged 3.5% as traders mulled increased risk of supply disruptions in the Mideast and North Africa.  Consumers paid $3.56 for a gallon of regular gas on average nationwide, up from $3.19 last month and $2.81 last year.

In the foreign exchange markets, the euro edged 0.64% lower against the U.S. dollar and the greenback gained 0.34% against a basket of world currencies.  Currencies have been particularly volatile in recent sessions as traders mull the impact of sovereign debt fears across the Eurozone, particularly in Portugal, where a bailout seems likely, according to analysts.

Gold traded lower $8.70, or 0.61%, at $1426 a troy ounce.

Corporate News

Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) garnered approval for Yervoy, which was found to extend the life of patients with melanoma, a deadly type of skin cancer.

Ford (NYSE:F) told dealers to halt orders of cars in "tuxedo black" and three shades of red amid shortages of pigment from Japan.

Eastman Kodak (NYSE:EK) soared more than 10% after the company's Chief Executive Officer said the company could stand to gain $1 billion if it wins a patent claim against Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM).

Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPad 2 goes on sale in 25 global markets today.

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) pushed back the release of the source code of its Android Honeycomb operating system, as it works to optimize the software.

Foreign Markets

Global shares drifted between positive and negative territory Friday.

The English FTSE 100 rose 0.34% to 5,900, the French CAC 40 climbed 0.09% to 3,972 and the German DAX was higher by 0.18% to 6,946.

In Asia, the Japanese Nikkei soared 1% to 9,536 and the Chinese Hang Seng jumped 1.1% to 23,159.