On The Fly: Top stock stories for Friday

Stocks began the session in negative territory, putting the Dow's seven-day winning streak in immediate jeopardy. Much of the Dow's losses were due to shares of UnitedHealth (UNH) which fell more than 4% following reports it was the subject of an investigation by the DoJ for Medicare fraud. The Nasdaq and S&P remained close to the flat line with hopes of seeing a gain by the end of the day, which they both managed. There was little in the way of news flow in the later part of the day as investors began to look to the holiday weekend, as the market will be closed on Monday in observance of President's Day. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., the leading economic indicators rose 0.6% to 125.5 in January, a little better than forecast. Baker Hughes reported that the U.S. rig count was up 10 from last week to 751 rigs. COMPANY NEWS: Shares of Kraft Heinz (KHC) gained 10.74% after the company confirmed that it has made a proposal to Unilever (UN, UL) about combining the two groups. However, the latter has rejected the $143B offer saying that it "fundamentally undervalues" the company. Unilever shares trading in New York advanced 14%, while Mondelez (MDLZ), which has been speculated in the past as a potential target for Kraft, ended the day down 1.62%... In other possible M&A news, Reuters said SoftBank (SFTBF) is prepared to relinquish control of Sprint (S) to Deutsche Telekom's (DTEGY) T-Mobile US (TMUS) to clinch a tie-up of the two U.S. wireless carriers. The Japanese company has not yet approached Deutsche Telekom to talk about any deal because the U.S. Federal Communications Commission has established strict anti-collusion rules that prohibit talks between rivals during the ongoing auction of airwaves, the report added... Farm equipment maker Deere (DE) reported a higher than expected quarterly profit and said it expects equipment sales to rise, helped by improving economic conditions in Brazil and Argentina. The shares rose 1% following the news... President Donald Trump flew to Charleston, South Carolina to participate in the unveiling of Boeing's (BA) new 787-10 Dreamliner, a long-haul airplane that can accommodate more than 300 passengers. Additionally, the President said on Twitter that he would "talk jobs" with the company's management. This comes just two days after an attempt to unionize the plant fell far short. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the notable gainers was TrueCar (TRUE), which advanced 8.53% after the company posted a smaller than expected loss for the quarter. Also higher was Arista Networks (ANET), which gained 18.86% after the cloud-networking software company's quarterly results and outlook beat consensus estimates. Among the noteworthy losers was J M Smucker (SJM), which slipped 1.37% after the maker of its namesake jams, Pillsbury baking mixes, Folgers coffee and Jif peanut butter said third quarter revenue fell more than expected as shifting consumer tastes continue to weigh on the food maker's results. Additionally, Campbell Soup (CPB) dropped 6.51% after the soup and packaged foods maker announced lower than expected quarterly sales and profit for the quarter. INDEXES: The Dow rose 4.28, or 0.02%, to 20,624.05, the Nasdaq gained 23.68, or 0.41%, to 5,838.58, and the S&P 500 added 3.94, or 0.17%, to 2,351.16.