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The Dow Jones Industrial Average was struggling to take flight on Friday, with shares of Microsoft Corp. rallying to a record high after better-than-expected earnings, providing a boost to the average. Shares of Microsoft , up $6.79, or 8.5%, were contributing about 47 points to the price-weighted Dow , which has been combating headwinds from a tumble in shares of Chevron Corp. , Merck & Co. Inc. and Walt Disney Co. . Late Thursday, Microsoft reported its fiscal first-quarter earnings rose to $6.58 billion, or 84 cents a share, from $5.67 billion, or 72 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue grew 12% to $24.5 billion. Shares of the tech giant and Dow component hit an all-time high at $86.20 a share. A $1 move in any one of the Dow’s components equates to a swing of 6.89 points.

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President Donald Trump is leaning toward appointing Fed Governor Jerome Powell to be the next chairman of the central bank, according to a report by Bloomberg quoting three people familiar with the matter. After Trump’s public comments on the race for Fed chair, Powell and Stanford economist John Taylor have been seen as the two front-runners for the top Fed job. Powell has been a Fed governor since 2012. While Powell has been a supporter of Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen’s interest-rate policy, he is seen as more sympathetic to White House’s stance on bank deregulation. U.S. Treasury yields, notably the benchmark 10-year Treasury note , saw yields dip lower after the report.

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Treasury yields fell Friday after Bloomberg News reported President Donald Trump is leaning towards Federal Reserve Gov. Jerome Powell as the next chairman of the Fed. Fed Gov. Powell is viewed as similar to Chairwoman Janet Yellen on monetary policy. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was at 2.433%, compared with 2.452% late Thursday in New York. The 2-year Treasury yield [S: tmubmsud02y] stood at 1.584%, versus 1.618% in the previous session, while the 30-year Treasury bond yield traded at 2.945%, compared with 2.959% late Thursday. Bond prices move inversely to yields.

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Twitter Inc.’s stock surged 3.3% in morning trade Friday, putting it on course for a the highest close in about 13 months, after the social media company’s third-quarter results prompted UBS to abandon its bearish stance. Analyst Eric Sheridan raised his rating to neutral, after being at sell since Feb. 9, and lifted his stock price target to $21 from $14. He said he now sees Twitter’s risks as more balanced versus potential reward for investors, after results reported Thursday daily engagement metrics continued to grow at a fast pace. “Going forward, we see Twitter’s sustained engagement performance–clearly the output of improved user interface/experience on video and curation–takes a front/center view for investors as key to a healthy debate over whether such trends will act as a leading indicator for forward…ad revenue trends in the business,” Sheridan wrote in a note to clients. The stock has now run up 24.6% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 has gained 4.0% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has climbed 7.4%.

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Spanish stocks tumbled even further Friday after Catalan’s parliament voted to declare independence from Spain. The IBEX 35 sank 2% to 10,139.80 in afternoon trade. The yield on 10-year Spanish government bonds rose 4 basis points to 1.591%, according to Tradeweb. Yields rise as prices fall. Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in a Friday afternoon tweet asked for peace for Spain and vowed the rule of law will be restored in Catalonia. The euro was little changed after news of the Catalan vote, remaining below $1.1600 against the U.S. dollar at $1.1590.

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U.S. stock benchmarks opened mostly higher on Friday, supported by data showing the U.S. economy expanded at a solid 3% annual pace for a second straight quarter despite damages from two hurricanes. A strong spate of quarterly results from technology giants, Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. , also helped lead the way higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average , however, lagged behind the other equity gauges, down 29 points, or 0.1%, at 23,370, as shares of Chevron Corp. and Merck & Co. Inc. weighed on the price-weighted average. The Nasdaq Composite Index surged 72 points, or 1.1% at 6,632, while the S&P 500 index added 7 points, or 0.3%, at 2,567.

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Shares of Planet Payment Inc. rocketed 17% on heavy volume in premarket trade Friday, after the multi-currency payment processing company agreed to be acquired by Fintrax Group in a deal that values Planet Payment at about $224 million. Volume topped 7.7 million shares, compared with the full-day average of about 220,000 shares, and enough to make it the most actively traded stock ahead of the open. Under terms of the buyout deal, announced late Thursday, Fintrax will pay $4.50 in cash for each Planet Payment share outstanding, which represents an 18% premium to Thursday’s closing price. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year. The per-share bid is 7.4% below the July 26, 2016 closing high of $4.86, and 9.9% below the Aug. 3, 2011 record close of $4.95. Planet Payment’s stock had lost 6.4% year to date through Thursday, while the S&P 500 had climbed 14%.

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Shares of Apple Inc. rallied 1.4% in premarket trade Friday, as reports that the iPhone X has already sold out helped assuage demand concerns. Pre-orders for the highest-priced iPhone X began at 12:01 a.m. ET. Cascend Securities said it manually conducted a survey of iPhone X availability in the 100 most populous markets in the U.S. “In every case, iPhone X was sold out for pre-order online home delivery by 5 a.m., when we started the survey,” Chief investment strategist Eric Ross wrote in a note to clients. He said there were still some supply available in stores for buying online and store pick up, but based on how quickly the supply was diminishing, he expected most of the supply would be gone by noon, if not sooner. He said the silver model, in both 64 gigabit and 256 GB memory, were in far lower supply compared with the gray model at all the carriers surveyed. The stock had gained 4.6% over the past three months through Thursday, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 has tacked on 2.0% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has advanced 7.4%.

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Chevron Corp. shares slid 1.2% premarket after the company reported third-quarter earnings. Chevron said it had net income of $1.952 billion, or $1.03 a share, in the quarter, up from $1.283 billion, or 68 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Revenue rose to $36.2 billion from $30.1 billion. The FactSet consensus was for EPS of 98 cents and revenue of $34.5 billion. “Cash flow is at a positive inflection point, with oil and gas production increasing and capital spending falling,” Chief Executive John Watson said in a statement. “We’re completing projects that have been under construction and ramping up production, notably at our Gorgon LNG Project in Australia. And our shale and tight rock drilling activity in the Permian Basin is exceeding expectations.” Shares have gained 0.6% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 14%.

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Merchants Bancorp. on Friday priced its initial public offering at $16 a share, below its price range of $17 to $19. The bank sold 6.25 million shares to raise $100 million. The stock will start trading today on the Nasdaq, under the ticker symbol “MBIN.” Proceeds will be partly contributed to the bank’s subsidiary, Merchants Bank of Indiana, to be used for general corporate purposes, including acquisitions and other growth initiatives. Sandler O’Neill, Stephens Inc. and Raymond James were lead managers on the deal with SunTrust Robinson Humphrey acting as co-bookrunner.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

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