On The Fly: Top stock stories for Friday

Stocks opened in positive territory and continued to extend their gains throughout the session. The advance of yesterday and today helped recouped almost all of what was lost in Wednesday's selloff, tough the averages still closed lower for the week. Oil prices managed a rebound this week as they closed above $50 a barrel after having slid below $45 intraday during last week. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In U.S. energy news, Baker Hughes (BHI) reported that the U.S. rig count is up 16 from last week to 901 rigs. COMPANY NEWS: Shares of Deere (DE) advanced 7.3% after the farm equipment maker reported better than expected quarterly profits and boosted its full-year view for earnings and sales... Salesforce (CRM) shares were slightly lower after earnings, slipping 0.4% despite better than expected Q1 results... Meanwhile, Target (TGT) was in focus after Recode reported that the retail giant held serious acquisition talks with mattress startup Casper Sleep over the past few months, but instead intends to take a minority stake in the company. Multiple sources told Recode that Target offered to buy the startup for $1B, but the two parties could not reach a deal. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the notable gainers was Dynegy (DYN), which rose 25.6% after The Wall Street Journal reported Vistra Energy (VST) has made a takeover approach to the company. Vistra Energy shares gained 1.8% after the news. Also higher following their earnings reports were Autodesk (ADSK), which rose 14.7%, and Lumber Liquidators (LL), which jumped 11.1%. Among the noteworthy losers was Foot Locker (FL), which dropped 16.65% and was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at BofA Merrill Lynch after its Q1 sales and earnings missed estimates. Also lower following downgrades were The Buckle (BKE), which fell 3.16% after the stock was cut to Sell at Deutsche Bank a day after its earnings report, and Chuy's (CHUY), which slid 3.06% after being downgraded to Market Perform at Wells Fargo. Additionally, GrubHub (GRUB) fell 1.6% after TechCrunch reported that Facebook (FB) is rolling out a mobile food delivery option called "Order Food" that is available within the social media giant's own app. INDEXES: The Dow rose 141.82, or 0.69%, to 20,804.84, the Nasdaq gained 28.57, or 0.47%, to 6,083.70, and the S&P 500 advanced 16.01, or 0.68%, to 2,381.73.