Shares for biotech firms fell late in Friday’s trading session, throwing a damper on the strong buying that had characterized the day’s activity prior to 2pm. Stocks held on to stay in the positive by the time of the closing bell, however, as earlier comments made by Chinese government officials, who indicated their readiness to intervene in order to stimulate an increasingly anemic economy provided momentum enough spare stocks from a more severe collapse.

Results for Friday, March 28

?     Standard & Poor’s 500: +046 percent to 1,857.61 points

?     Dow Jones Industrial Average: +0.36 percent to 16,323.06 points

?     NASDAQ: +0.11 percent to 4,155.76 points

Our Top Stories

?     John Mauldin elaborates on his recent preoccupation with Hyman Minsky and the Financial Instability Hypothesis.

?     Facebook’s (FB) 2 billion purchase of virtual reality-maker Oculus Media as explained by our veteran expert Andy Klips.

?     In our weekly interview, Equities.com Executive Editor Henry Truc sits down S&P Capital IQ Chief Equity strategist Sam Stovall for a conversation about where investors should be putting their money when interest rates begin to climb back up from historic lows.

?     TrendStar Trading Group’s Toni Turner checks in for her weekly, in which she suggests that the bears appear to finally be gaining a foothold in this market after all.

?     The Gold Report spoke with CIBC World Markets’ Jeff Killeen about being a selective stock picker in today’s mining market.

?     Dennis Miller checks in with another insightful retirement strategy piece on using covered calls to protect your fixed income assets.

?     With all the recent troubles for Bitcoin, Senior Editor Jacob Harper chimes in with the update on the latest crypto-clone, DogeCoin.

?     The Mining Report had a very informative conversation with Mark Lackey about what exactly happens when a mine is deferred.

Stocks

?     Shares for oil giant ExxonMobil (XOM) were trading up on volume for the second session after Thursday’s upgrade-driven gains. The company’s 2014 is a truly impressive one in terms of the number and distribution of the projects it will be working on

?     Canadian Solar (CSIQ) was leading the industry higher throughout Friday’s session after a week that had been characterized by widespread losses.

?     A pair of analyst upgrades sent online-banking stock BofI Holding (BOFI) up on double digit gains.

?     Coal companies had a rough day, prompting Meng Meng to muse on the continually worsening outlook for the industry.

?     Idera Pharmaceuticals (IDRA) got a nice reprieve from a week of losses when top-line data from a clinical study for its lead therapy came back positive.

?     Renewed buyout rumors involving major drug manufacturer Jazz Pharmaceuticals (JAZZ) sent small-cap pharmaceutical firm Ariad Pharmaceuticals (ARIA) higher again by Friday’s closing bell.