7 Stocks you need to know for Friday

Soaring third quarter profits sent shares of Amgen (AMGN | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) soaring as well. Although off its intraday highs, the stock gained more than 11% on the day.

Fellow biotech Celegene (CELG | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) also beat estimates on Thursday, climbing by nearly 9%.

Goldman Sachs (GS | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) announced that it would be cutting approximately 10% of its workforce, the decision was reportedly due to a pessimistic outlook on future revenue.

Leading nuclear power provider Exelon (EXC | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) reports quarterly earnings Friday morning before the market opens. Analysts are expecting EPS of 1.13.

The impact of the financial crisis on insurance companies has led both Prudential Financial (PRU | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) and Allstate Corporation (ALL | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) to suspend their share buyback programs. Shares of Prudential were down more than 3%. Shares of Allstate lost just over 5%.

Pricing power in plastic and latex helped Dow Chemical (DOW | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) beat earnings estimates on Thursday.