TradingMarkets 7 Stocks You Need to Know for Friday

Stocks were sold aggressively going into the close on Thursday, with financial stocks among those hardest hit.

The Dow finished lower by 678.91. The Nasdaq Composite closed down 95.21. And the S&P 500 lost 75.02.

Here are 7 Stocks You Need to Know for Friday.

The end of the short-selling ban was blamed for some of the disproportionate selling in stocks such as KeyCorp (KEY | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating), which lost more than 24% on Thursday, and Comerica (CMA | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating), which lost more than 14%.

Also dramatically lower were insurance company shares. Prudential (PRU | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) fell by more than 21%

Closing below its 200-day moving average for the second consecutive day, shares of Wal-Mart (WMT | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) slid more than 5% on the day.

General Electric (GE | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) reports earnings Friday morning before the market opens. Analysts are expecting EPS of 0.45.

Even gold stocks could not resist the selling on Thursday as traders took profits in Newmont Mining Corporation (NEM | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating), taking the stock down by more than 8%.

Better than expected quarterly profits for Eastman Chemical (EMN | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) left the stock virtually unchanged during Thursday's historic sell-off.

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