7 Stocks you need to know for Friday

The Dow gained 31.90. The Nasdaq Composite added 9.29. And the S&P 500 finished up 5.74.

Here are 7 Stocks You Need to Know for Friday.

Congressional leaders heard testimony on Thursday that merger between Bank of America (BAC | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) and Merrill Lynch was a shotgun wedding induced by both the Fed chairman Ben Bernanke and former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Shares of Bank of America were up more than 8% on the day.

Boeing (BA | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) lowered its long-term forecast for the airplane market. Both uncertainty surrounding fuel prices and the global economic slowdown were cited as major causes. Down 3%, the stock is increasingly oversold above its 200-day moving average.

New regulatory authority for the FDA to control tobacco products was granted by the Senate on Thursday. Meanwhile, shares of British American Tobacco (BTI | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) were up more than 2% after pulling back earlier in the week.

With retailers reporting higher sales boosted by gains in gasoline sales, online retailer Amazon (AMZN | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) - which sells no gas - continues make inroads by way of third party sales. In other retail news, the Soros Fund is reportedly unloading shares of Best Buy (BBY | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) and adding both Wal-Mart (WMT | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) and Macy's (M | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating). Shares of Macy's were up more than 4% on the day, while Best Buy pulled back more than 3%. Interestingly, Wal-Mart is the only stock among this four that is trading below its 200-day moving average.