Connie L Wyatt

Natural-gas futures were little changed early Friday after a 7.9% plunge Thursday sparked by a bigger-than-expected rise in inventories as the strong summer demand season wanes.

Brazil's Finance Ministry reinforced Friday that auto makers that benefitted from a cut in the so-called IPI tax can't reduce employment while the tax cuts are in effect--what some see as a direct message to General Motors (GM), which is considering shutting down production at one of its factories.

TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. (AMTD) and E*Trade Financial Corp. (ETFC) still aren't routing customer orders to Knight Capital Group Inc. (KCG), even as the firm obtained a line of credit and asked financial institutions to resume trading with it.

Here are stocks that gapped down today with opening prices significantly lower than the previous trading day's close: Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) opened at $22.01 after closing the previous trading session at $24.74, gapping down.

Canadian stocks rallied Friday after the U.S. jobs data beat expectations, with the S&P/TSX composite index jumping 167 points, or 1.44%, to 11,672.

Medical-device designer Globus Medical Inc. (GMED) jumped on its first day as a publicly traded company.

Health Net Inc. (HNT) posted higher second-quarter earnings after selling a business unit, but the company once again slashed its full-year guidance as high health-care costs hurt results in its core health-insurance businesses.

Brazilian equities gained Friday as commodity prices rose and U.S. equities advanced after positive jobs data.

U.S. stocks surged Friday, wiping out four days of losses, after the July nonfarm payrolls report proved much better than expected and optimism grew on Europe's ability to stem its debt crisis.

Big Board parent NYSE Euronext revealed a 19% slide in second-quarter profits amid slumping trading volumes, but the exchange operator’s results surpassed Wall Street’s expectations.