Apple Heads to Court and the Debt Ceiling Heads to a Vote: Market Recap

The markets started Friday with a hangover, but picked themselves up to close in mixed territory. The big news in the afternoon that turned everything around was a Republican announcement that next week, the House would vote on a short-term increase to the debt ceiling.

At close: DJIA: +0.39%, S&P 500: +0.34%, NASDAQ: -0.04%.

On the commodities front, Oil (NYSE:USO) remained flat at $95.48 per barrel. Precious metals were mixed, with Gold (NYSE:GLD) falling 0.40 percent to $1,684.00 per ounce, and Silver (NYSE:SLV) climbing 0.13 percent to $31.84 per ounce. The yield on the 10-year T-bill fell 0.041 points to 1.839 percent.

Here’s your Cheat Sheet to today’s top stock stories:

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) chief executive Tim Cook has been asked to give a court deposition in a lawsuit against the iPhone maker and several other tech companies that claims they violated antitrust laws. According to the lawsuit filed by several former employees, the companies entered into agreements to not place “cold calls” to recruit workers from each other… (Read more.)

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Increases in wealth management and investment banking pushed Morgan Stanley’s (NYSE:MS) fourth-quarter earnings above analysts’ expectations. But despite these positives, the results revealed continued problems in the firm’s business… (Read more.)

After months of deliberating with the Federal Communications Commission, Liberty Media Corp. (NASDAQ:LMCAD) has completed its bid for a majority stake in Sirius XM Radio (NASDAQ:SIRI). The media company, which recently spun off its TV and movie business Starz (NASDAQ:STRZA) into an independent entity, purchased 50 million shares of Sirius at $3.15 a piece, bringing its total stake to 50.7 percent… (Read more.)