Saturday, July 19, 2008

The Week In Review - Market Up, Commodities Down

The week finished with a mixed bag on Friday with gains by the Dow (+0.44%) and S&P 500 (+0.03%), but a loss by the NASDAQ (-1.28%) on earnings reports by Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), and AMD (AMD).

For the week, the market was impressive with all three indices moving higher after earnings reports from Wells Fargo (WFC), JP Morgan Chase (JPM), and Citigroup (C) beat expectations - Merrill Lynch (MER) missed. The Dow led the charge with a gain of 3.57% for the week, the NASDAQ with 1.95%, and the S&P 500 with 1.71%. The financial heavy Dow and S&P 500 needed the boost after a lackluster first two weeks of the quarter. Thankfully, oil dropped $16 over the last three days, and that helped to feed the market rally.

You cannot forget about the testimony of Bernanke, Paulson, and Cox on Capitol Hill this week as well. They helped to to calm some nerves, and it definitely appears that they are ready to step in at a moment's notice to help boost the economy, save the mortgage industry - Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE), and overall just do whatever is necessary.

On deck for earnings early next week -
  • Monday - Apple (AAPL), Bank of America (BAC), American Express (AXP), Merck (MRK), Schering-Plough (SGP), Texas Instruments (TXN)
  • Tuesday - Caterpillar (CAT), Dupont (DD), Haliburton (HAL), SunTrust (STI), Wachovia Bank (WB), Yahoo (YHOO)
Continue to watch as earnings season stays in full swing.

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