Nike’s Earnings Blast and the 4 Most Influential Stocks Moving the S&P on Friday

The S&P 500 closed up 0.72 percent to close at 1556.89, still near record-highs. Here are four stocks with major moves contributing to the S&P’s trading action:

More on Nike’s (NYSE:NKE) blow out earnings report. Sales in North America grew 18 percent on top of 17 percent growth last year. Alhough management is stressing caution about China, the reality may be the market has bottomed out in the short-term and is trending higher again.

Nike’s results already show the improvement in margins due to better pricing and lower material costs. However, operating margins could get rosier if the current trend continues with sales growing faster than inventories. In fact, Nike is in that very sweet spot it last achieved in Q1 2011. Net-net, Nike is delivering on demand, gross margins, as well as capital efficiency due to lower inventories. Nike closed the day up an incredible 11.06 percent.