Friday's Financial Winners & Losers

Updated from 2:22 p.m. EST with new stock prices

Financial stocks generally hopped around the flat line Friday amid a better-than-expected jobs report from the Labor Department, as well as a mixed bag of news from individual companies.

Among the modest gainers was embattled brokerage Bear Stearns (BSC Quote). Shares added 2.8% to $100.94 after billionaire investor Joseph Lewis picked up about another 1.2 million Bear shares as of Dec. 5. That raises his stake to 9.3 million shares, or 8%, from the 7% figure reported as of Aug. 30. Consistent with the prior filing, Lewis turned in a Schedule 13D to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which signifies an intent to exert control.

NYSE Euronext (NYX Quote) was also trading higher after the exchange announced that it had inked an agreement to buy Powernext Carbon, the CO2 emissions-permit division of French energy exchange Powernext, while selling off its 34% stake in the parent company. Terms weren't disclosed. NYSE shares were tacking on 49 cents, or 0.6%, to $89.00.

Axis Capital (AXS Quote) rose 0.2% to $41.84 after the Bermuda-based insurer upped its dividend by 2 cents to 18.5 cents a share and authorized another $400 million shares for repurchase over the next two years. That's in addition to the $95 million worth left under its current authorization.

And fellow insurer Sun Life (SLF Quote) said it will, before year-end, buy back up to 2.55 million of its shares through private contracts with an "arm's-length third-party seller" under the 28.6 million-share program it established in January. Shares of the Canada-based company were recently up 59 cents, or 1.1%, to $54.54.