Market Recap: Stocks ROCKET, LinkedIn POPS 15%, Activision DISAPPOINTS

On Friday, Markets closed up: Dow +1.69%, S&P +1.90%, Nasdaq +2.00%, Oil +4.89%, Gold +1.02%.

On the commodities front, Oil (NYSE:USO) rose to $91.39 a barrel. Precious metals also increased, with Gold (NYSE:GLD) rising to $1,607.00 an ounce while Silver (NYSE:SLV) rose 0.73% to settle at $27.73.

Here’s your Cheat Sheet to Friday’s stock stories:

Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) has chosen its home country of Canada to launch a new PlayBook tablet with built-in support for cellular networks, a feature that is becoming an industry standard and yet was absent from its earlier tablets. The BlackBerry maker said on Thursday it would launch the new PlayBooks in Canada next week and roll them out in the United States, Europe, South Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean in the coming months.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is working on a Smart Cover for its iPad with a flexible secondary display, according to a patent application first filed in August of last year with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The flexible display technology, Apple says, can be integrated into the flexible cover without changing the overall form factor of the device. And adding the flexible display into the cover “greatly enhances the overall functionality of the tablet device.”

LinkedIn Corp.’s (NYSE:LNKD) shares jumped almost 15 percent after the company announced a strong second quarter earnings report after the bell on Thursday. It announced better than expected revenue numbers and increased its full-year outlook.

On the down side, Activision Blizzard’s (NASDAQ:ATVI) shares dropped nearly 6 percent as its second quarter results included decreases in its top and bottom line results. The company did beat revenue and earnings per share expectations.

ComScore’s (NASDAQ:SCOR) shares fell 20 percent after the company announced a second quarter loss. In the short-term, things don’t look much better as it sees more red for the third quarter.