Late on Thursday, Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) registered fourth-quarter net loss of $16.3 million, or 5 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $17.9 million, or 5 cents a share, in the same quarter a year earlier. The results include a $14 million impairment charge related to the company's auction-rate securities. Excluding one time items, the company earned $20 million or 6 cents a share. Revenue declined slightly to $244.7 million from $244.9 million. Consensus estimates were for earning of 4 cents a share, excluding items on revenue of $247.8 million. Shares of the company finished at $4.05, up 23 cents or 6.02%.

Guess Inc. (NYSE: GES) yesterday announced that its fiscal third-quarter 2009 net income rose to $64 million, or 69 cents a share from $58.3 million, or 62 cents in the corresponding quarter of 2007. Quarterly revenue rose 12.5% to $527.9 million. Guess Inc. climbed 6.38% on Friday.

Earlier, stocks fell in morning session after gloomy monthly jobs data spurred fears of a deepening recession.

A Labor Department release on Friday showed the economy lost 533,000 jobs in November, worse than 325,000 job losses expected by economists. It is the biggest loss since December 1974. In October, non-farm payrolls dropped 240,000. The unemployment rate rose to 15 year high of 6.7% in November from 6.5%.Economists had predicted the jobless rate to rise to 6.8%.

A release by Germany's Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology on Friday showed factory Orders fell 6.1% in October from the previous month.

On Friday, German Bundesbank's lowered its forecast for nation’s economic growth. The bank said Europe's biggest economy will shrink 0.8% in 2009. "The outlook for the German economy has shown a marked deterioration since the beginning of the fourth quarter. A considerably decline in real economic activity may be expected for the winter half-year of 2008-2009. The German economy is unlikely to pick up again until the expected global economic upturn in 2010," the central bank said in a statement.

European stocks finished deep in red. The U.K. FTSE fell 114.24 points or 2.74% to 4,049.37. The German DAX and French CAC shed 4% and 5.49% respectively.

Asian stocks finished with losses. The Nikkei fell 79.86 points or 1% to close at 7,924.24. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index decreased 78.88 points or 0.58% to 13,509.78.

NYMEX Crude oil for January delivery declined $2.86, or 6.5%, to settle at $40.81 a barrel.

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