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Oil futures settled higher on Friday, as traders held onto hope for a crude production cut and the market digested a sixth straight weekly fall in the number of active U.S. oil drilling rigs. March West Texas Intermediate crude settled at $33.62 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 40 cents, or 1.2% for the session. Tracking the most-active contracts, prices fell 9.2% for the month. For the week, they gained 4.4%.

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Gold futures edged higher on Friday to end the month with a gain of more than 5%. Prices for the metal scored their biggest monthly climb in a year as losses in global stock markets lifted the investment appeal of the precious metal. April gold rose 30 cents to settle at $1,116.40 an ounce on Comex for a monthly climb of roughly 5.3%.

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J.C. Penney’s Co.’s stock shot up 5.2% in afternoon trade Friday, after Credit Suisse said it was no longer bearish on the department store chain, given its new priority to pay down debt. Analyst Michael Exstein raised his rating to neutral, after being at underperform since at least February 2013. Exstein said the upgrade is not based on any significant change in business expectations, but on the company’s shift in focus to what it can control–reducing debt. “This focus on debt reduction could allow [J.C. Penney] to maintain its current share price despite multiple decay by shifting its enterprise value from debt to equity,” Exstein wrote in a note to clients. The stock has now run up 14% since it closed last Wednesday at the lowest level ($6.31) since Jan. 2, 2015. Still, it has tumbled 21% over the past three months, while the SPDR S&P Retail ETF has lost 11% and the S&P 500 has shed 7.8%.

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – The Federal Reserve’s message to markets this week was that it will be patient about hiking rates and needs more time to assess market turmoil, said Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan on Friday. In an interview with Reuters, Kaplan said it was significant the central bank removed the description of “balanced” risks from its January statement. Removing this language “should be saying to people (that) we are going to take some time here to understand what is going on,” he said. Kaplan is not a voting member of the Fed policy committee this year.

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Oil prices continued to trade higher after data from Baker Hughes showed that the number of active U.S. oil-drilling rigs edged down for a sixth week in a row. They fell by 12 to 498 as of Friday. The total active U.S. rig count, which includes natural-gas rigs, was down 18 at 619. Compared with last year, the total U.S. rig count has fallen by 924, with oil rigs down by 725. March crude was at $33.35 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 13 cents, or 0.3%. It was at $33.57 before the data.

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Bank of America Corp.’s stock climbed 2.2% in active trade Friday, after analyst Mike Mayo at CLSA did an about face on the banking giant, turning to bullish from bearish, citing attractive valuation and limited downside risk. With volume of of about 60 million shares, it was the most-active stock on the NYSE. Mayo raised his rating to outperform, after being at sell since at least February 2013, and lifted his stock price target to $16, or about 16% above current levels, from $15. Mayo said BofA’s stock was trading at recession prices, even without a recession. “BAC stock trades below tangible book value, which is worse than the recessions in the early 1990s and early 2000s,” Mayo wrote in a note to clients, despite a much strong balance sheet. He said BofA and the banking industry has become much more resilient–the Federal Reserve’s stress tests have helped–which means BofA could grow book value even in a recession. The stock has tumbled 18% so far this year, while the S&P 500 has lost 5.9%.

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Guess Inc. said it will no longer use angora fiber in any of its merchandise, effective immediately. The company said the decision came while it was developing its sustainability practices in 2015 and publishing its first sustainability report. Angora use became controversial after undercover video shot by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in 2013 showed cruelty against angora rabbits. Since then, other retailers including Gap Inc. and Zara, an Inditex company, have stopped selling items with angora fur, according to the Daily Mail. Guess shares are up 3.7% in Friday trading, but down 7.8% for the past year. The S&P 500 is down 5.3% for the past 12 months.

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From:: Stock Market News