On The Fly: Top stock stories for Friday

Stocks opened higher and held onto their gains during a quiet session, as the "buy the election, sell the inauguration" scenario that some market watchers had feared failed to materialize. The market weakened a bit as incoming President Donald Trump made his inauguration speech, but managed to gather itself and remain in positive territory as investors looked to next week with a new president in place and a heavy dose of corporate earnings on the way. ECONOMIC NEWS: In the U.S., Baker Hughes said the domestic rig count was up 35 rigs from last week to 694, with oil rigs up 29 to 551, gas rigs up 6 to 142, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 1. In Asia, China's GDP grew 6.8% on-year in the fourth quarter, beating expectations, while industrial production grew 6% in December, below expectations. COMPANY NEWS: Shares of General Electric (GE) dropped 2.18% after the company reported in-line earnings per share, while revenue for the quarter fell short of expectations... Conversely, Procter & Gamble (PG) advanced 3.25% as the consumer-products giants reported quarterly organic sales growth across its segments after it shed the bulk of its beauty business... Also higher after earnings was IBM (IBM), advancing 2.24% after the enterprise technology company posted quarterly earnings and revenues above analyst estimates... Meanwhile, shares of American Express (AXP) ended the day lower following its report of quarterly earnings that fell short of Street estimates. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the notable gainers was Skyworks Solutions (SWKS), which advanced 13% after posting better than expected first quarter results. Also higher was Noble Corporation (NE), which gained 5.4% after Bank of American Merrill Lynch upgraded the stock to Neutral, following the updated fleet status report highlighting five-year contract extensions on two jackups with Saudi Aramco. Among the noteworthy losers was Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), which slid 11.28% after the company announced that it will not pursue an accelerated regulatory path for the Opdivo/Yervoy combination, with research firm Cowen downgrading the stock to Market Perform following the news. Also lower was Rite Aid (RAD), which slipped 16.05% after a report by Bloomberg said the Federal Trade Commission is not satisfied with Walgreens Boots Alliance's (WBA) plan to win approval for its acquisition of the company. Additionally, TransDigm Group (TDG) dropped 9.87% after Andrew Left's Citron Research published a report claiming the aircraft components supplier "stands out when it comes to egregious price increases foisted on government." INDEXES: The Dow rose 94.85, or 0.48%, to 19,827.25, the Nasdaq gained 15.25, or 0.28%, to 5,555.33, and the S&P 500 advanced 7.62, or 0.34%, to 2,271.31.