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From Briefing.com: Weekly Recap - Week ending 20-Nov-09The major indices kicked off the week on a strong note, with the S&P 500 hitting fresh highs for 2009. But selling pressure eventually emerged, resulting in a mixed finish. Overall it was a relatively slow week, with earnings season winding down and a small amount of corporate news.

For the week, the S&P 500 fell 0.2% in mixed trade as six of the 10 sectors posted a loss. Tech (-1.4%) and consumer discretionary (-1.1%) underperformed, while healthcare (+1.9%) and materials (+1.4%) outperformed.

Retailers made up the bulk of the major companies to report earnings this week, a clear sign that third quarter earnings season is coming to end.

Of the 17 S&P 500 companies that reported earnings this week, 11 topped EPS estimates, two reported in-line results and four missed the consensus.

Among retailers, Target (TGT 47.46) posted upside EPS results ($0.58 versus the $0.50 consensus), while revenue came in-line with expectations.

TJX Cos (TJX 38.80), Limited Brands (LTD 17.25), Sears Holdings (SHLD 72.64) and Gap (GPS 21.95) all posted upside EPS results, while Lowe?s (LOW 21.35) posted in-line earnings.

In other notable earnings news, Dell (DELL 14.29) disappointed investors after its earnings ($0.23 versus $0.28 consensus) and revenue came up short of the consensus. Shares of Dell dropped 7.2% on the week despite the company saying that it is seeing improvement in overall underlying IT demand.

In economic news, initial claims met consensus expectations at 505,000, but was unable to drop below the 500,000 barrier. The labor market remains weak, with claims holding to a range between 500,000 and 515,000 since July.

The talk that housing starts were stabilizing hit a snag in October as new housing starts plummeted 10.6% to 529,000 units from 592,000. The consensus forecasted an increase in starts to 600,000.

October retail sales surged 1.4%, topping the +0.9% consensus on higher auto demand.

In currency trading, the dollar saw some substantial swings throughout the week, settling with a 0.4% gain, helped by supportive comments from Fed Chairman Bernanke that drove some buying interest.

 
 Index      Started Week  Ended Week  Change % Change  YTD % 
 DJIA	     10270.47	  10318.16   47.69     0.5   17.6 
 Nasdaq	      2167.88	  2146.04   -21.84    -1.0   36.1 
 S&P 500     1093.48     1091.38    -2.10    -0.2   20.8 
 Russell 2000   586.28      584.68    -1.60    -0.3   17.1

09:38 am Advanced Micro upgraded to Buy at Broadpoint AmTech Research; tgt raised to $10: . Broadpoint AmTech Research upgrades AMD to Buy from Neutral and raises their tgt to $10 from $5.80 as the recent positive events (Analyst Day/INTC settlement/capital structure) lead the firm to believe that AMD's risk/reward is now compelling. The firm notes that AMD's capital structure improved as a result of INTC's $1.25 bln settlement and yesterday's announcement of debt restructuring actions. The firm believes that AMD's debt of ~$3.7 bln will be reduced by ~25%, while also lowering interest expense slightly less, ~20%. Should Global Foundries and ATIC's chartered purchase be consolidated, the firm believes that they could see deconsolidation in the following 3-6 months. Furthermore, the firm feels that revenue growth in the coming quarters will prove to be stronger than the Street is modeling, driven by: a healthy Win7 cycle; leadership in the Evergreen GPU platform; more focused marketing; and possible tailwind from INTC settlement headlines entering the selling season.

09:00 am Dell (DELL)

Dell (DELL 15.87) reported disappointing third quarter numbers Thursday evening, missing both earnings and revenue estimates, but the company said it is seeing improvement in overall underlying IT demand.

Dell reported third quarter earnings of $0.23 per share, excluding nonrecurring items, $0.05 worse than the First Call consensus of $0.28.

Revenues fell 14.9% year-over-year to $12.9 billion, short of the $13.18 billion consensus. Sales in China, India, Brazil and Russia were up 18% sequentially and 5% from the prior year. Dell said that sales in China, its second-largest country in terms of revenue, were up 20% sequentially and 8% year-over-year.

"We are seeing improvement in overall underlying IT demand that is continuing into the fourth quarter. The same is true with momentum in Dell's business, specifically in our Large Enterprise and SMB segments," said CEO Michael Dell. "The launch of Windows 7 is being very well received by SMBs and consumers, and we'll see the benefits of that more fully in our fiscal Q4."

For the fourth quarter, Dell said it expects seasonal demand improvement in its consumer business and revenue to improve over the third quarter.

Shares of DELL are down 6.8% in premarket trading 30 minutes ahead of Friday's opening bell.