US stocks advanced in afternoon session after swinging wildly between gains and losses in the morning session. Shares of fiinancials plummeted while those of raw material producers soared.

At 1:11 pm ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 72.16 points, (+0.96%), to close at 7,580.16. The S&P 500 added 7.29 points (+0.97%) to finish at 753.85. The Nasdaq Composite rose 9.06 points (+0.69%) to 1,317.99.

Citigroup (NYSE: C) fell 82 cents or 17.41% $3.89. The stock hit an intraday low of $3.57, down $1.14 or over 24%.Though there was no official word, Wall Street was rife with speculation that the Citigroup board may consider selling parts or whole of the bank in its meeting. According to reports, CEO Vikram Pandit had expressed that the bank is not much keen on changing its business model and plans to keep its Smith Barney brokerage.

Among other financials, J.P Morgan (NYSE: JPM) subtracted over 10% while Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) was down 5.85%.

Shares of raw material producers climbed. Alcoa (NYSE: AA) surged 97 cents or 14.09% to $7.82. Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) jumped $2.80 or 4.09% to $71.31. Chevron ((NYSE: CVX) advanced $1.94 or 3.01%  to $66.34.

Dell (NASDAQ: DELL), which earlier rose 10% fell 46 cents or 4.69% to $9.35.Late on Thursday, the second largest personal computer maker, Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) announced that its third quarter profit fell 5% to $727 million, or 37 cents a share, from $766 million, or 34 cents a share in corresponding quarter in 2007. Revenue dropped 5% to $15.16 billion from $15.65 billion. Analysts on an average were looking for earnings of 33 cents a share on revenue of $16.4 billion.

Software maker Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) increased $1.42 or 8.10% to $18.95.

Shares of Gap (NYSE: GPS) soared $1.71 or 17.98% to $11.22.Clothing retailer Gap Inc. said that its third-quarter net income climbed 3.4% to $246 million, or 35 cents a share from $238 million, or 30 cents a share in the same quarter a year ago. Sales fell more than 7% to $3.56 billion from $3.85 billion.

Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) decreased $1.38 or 6.04% to $21.45. Late on Thursday, the company announced a third-quarter net income of $10.1 million, or 8 cents a share, up from $6.5 million, or 5 cents a share, in the same quarter last year. Revenue surged 43% to $276.5 million from $192.8 million. Analysts were looking for earnings of 8 cents a share on revenue of $273.6 million.

Shares of processed-food product company HJ Heinz Co. (NYSE: HNZ) 2 cents or 0.05%. The shares hit 52 week low of $36.87.Early on Friday, the company announced that its second quarter profit rose 22% to $276.7 million, or 87 cents per share, from $227 million, or 71 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago. Revenue increased 4% to $2.61 billion from $2.52 billion. Analysts on an average expected the company to earn 76 cents a share on revenue of $2.7 billion.

European stocks settled in red on Friday. The U.K. FTSE fell 94.03 points or 2.43% to 3,780.96. The German DAX and French CAC dropped 2.20% and 3.33% respectively.

Disclosure: Author does not own any of the stocks discussed here.