Stocks End Lower; Oil Rallies 5%, Apache Soars 14% In Two Sessions

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Sellers dictated the action Friday, but the selling wasn't intense after the European Central Bank, as expected, opted to leave interest rates unchanged. The U.S. dollar reversed higher after a soft start and the euro faded from its early gains after Mario Draghi acknowledged the ECB did not discuss an extension of the bank's current bond-buying program.

Apple (AAPL) and Nike (NKE) lagged in the Dow, hurt by downgrades. Shares of Apple slumped nearly 3% after Wells Fargo downgraded shares to market perform. Nike also gave up close to 3% on a Piper Jaffray downgrade to neutral.

The Nasdaq composite fell 0.5%; the Dow and S&P 500 each eased 0.2%. Preliminary data showed volume on the NYSE coming in higher than Wednesday's levels. Nasdaq volume was too close to call. Breadth wasn't too bad, with declining stocks having a slight edge over advancers.

Retailers, miners, automakers and steel stocks lagged. Coal and oil/gas names outperformed.

Oil prices soared after the Energy Information Administration reported that U.S. crude inventories fell by a huge 14.5 million barrels. October WTI crude oil futures jumped $2.12, or 4.7%, to $47.60 a barrel.

In related news, after rising nearly 7% Wednesday, oil and gas producer Apache (APA) tacked on another 7% after the company announced a significant discovery in a Texas shale formation that could hold up to three billion barrels of oil and 75 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Houston-based Apache is trying to clear a consolidation that started in late May with a conventional entry at 59.69.

In M&A news, Liberty Media (LMCA) added 1% after announcing a cash and stock deal to acquire Delta Topco, the parent company of London-based Formula One Group, for around $4.4 billion. Following the acquisition, Liberty Media will change its name to Formula One Group and trade under the ticker FWON.

Elsewhere, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) gave up 3%, closing near its session low, as Wall Street mulled its latest earnings report. Adjusted earnings per share topped expectations, but sales fell 6% to just over $12.2 billion. The company also announced plans to sell its software business to U.K.-based Micro Focus for $8.8 billion.

IBD'S TAKE: HPE's tech service industry group is home to plenty of leading growth stocks. Read up on why it's important to focus on leaders, rather than laggards, at IBD University.

Shutterstock (SSTK) gained 2% in the stock market today on news its photos will be available in Adobe's (ADBE) Photoshop software. Shutterstock is an IBD 50 name.

Other outperformers in the IBD 50 included NetEase (NTES) and Leaderboard name Veeva Systems (VEEV).

Top-rated new issues SiteOne Landscape (SITE), Twilio (TWLO), TPI Composites (TPIC) and Impinj (PI) also did well with gains ranging from 1% to 3%.