Market Wrap for Friday, February 22: Stocks Rally to Close Out Week

The stock market closed out the week in strong fashion on Friday after falling on Wednesday and Thursday.

It was a quiet day on the news front and volume was light. A number of earnings reports, however, triggered large moves in specific stocks such as Hewlett-Packard and Aruba Networks. Overall, the major averages all closed with solid gains just under 1 percent.

Major Averages

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 120 points, or 0.86 percent, to just above 14,000.

The S&P 500 added 13 points, or 0.88 percent, to 1,516.

The Nasdaq performed the best on Friday, notching a gain of 30 points, or 0.97 percent, to 3,162.

Commodities

Late in Friday's equity trading session, crude oil was trading moderately higher. At last check, NYMEX crude futures were up 0.46 percent to $93.29 while Brent contracts had climbed 0.55 percent to $114.17. Natural gas was last trading up 1.20 percent to $3.29.

Precious metals looked to finish the week with small losses on Friday. COMEX gold futures had shed 0.22 percent to $1,575.10. Silver futures were last down around 0.40 percent to $28.66.

The entire grain complex traded lower on Friday, with corn losing around 0.18 percent and wheat falling 0.73 percent. Soft commodities were mostly higher with coffee and sugar registering gains of around 1.40 percent.

Bonds

Late in the day, the iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (NYSE:TLT) was up around 0.16 percent to $117.14. Yields were slightly lower on the session.

While the 2-Year Note yield was flat at 0.25 percent, the yield on the 5-Year Note was down one basis point to 0.83 percent. Both the 10-Year Note yield and the 30-Year Bond yield also fell one basis point to 1.96 percent and 3.15 percent, respectively.

Currencies

The U.S. dollar was slightly stronger to end the week. Near the close of equity trading, the PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish ETF (NYSE:UUP), which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of foreign currencies, was up 0.09 percent to $22.24.

The closely watched EUR/USD pair was last trading down around 0.20 percent on Friday to $1.3165. Other notable movers included the USD/JPY, which climbed 0.37 percent and the USD/CAD, which was up 0.44 percent.

Volatility and Volume

The VIX fell on Friday as the stock market staged a strong rally to end the week. The closely watched volatility index fell 5.39 percent to 14.40.

Volume was light on the session. Around 83.5 million SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSE:SPY) shares traded hands compared to a 3-month daily average of 131 million.

Stock Movers

WebMD Health (NASDAQ:WBMD) added almost 26 percent on Friday after the company released bullish Q4 earnings results.

Aruba Networks (NADAQ:ARUN) surged around 22 percent late on Friday as the company's fiscal second-quarter results came in better than expected.

Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) released strong first-quarter financial results on Thursday after the close and raised its full-year guidance. The stock was trading up over 12 percent late on Friday.

Shares of Sourcefire (NASDAQ:FIRE) jumped around 15 percent after strong fourth-quarter earnings results from the cybersecurity company.

Retailer Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF) lost more than 4 percent after the company's Q4 earnings results failed to impress.

Cabot Oil & Gas (NYSE:COG) saw its shares surge around 11 percent after the company reported a 55 percent increase in Q4 earnings.

Shipper Frontline (NYSE:FRO) lost around 14 percent after a disappointing earnings report. The company reported a loss in its fiscal fourth-quarter.

Barnes Group (NYSE:B) climbed almost 15 percent to close out the week after the manufacturing and logistics company reported better than expected Q4 results.