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From Briefing.com: Weekly Recap - Week ending 19-Nov-10The S&P 500 ended flat as a sharp drop on Tuesday was offset by a large gain Thursday. Speculation that China will raise rates, concerns regarding the state of Ireland and a successful IPO from General Motors all influenced trade during the week.

Trading was mixed, with 5 of the 10 sectors gaining. None of the sectors posted a gain or loss in excess of 0.9%.

In corporate news, General Motors (GM +3.8%) returned to the public market with great acclaim after an IPO (post-bankruptcy) that raised more than $20 bln for the company.

The M&A market remains active. Caterpillar +3.6% is buying Bucyrus (BUCY +28.1%) for $7.6 bln, a 32% premium. EMC (EMC +0.5%) is buying Isilon Systems (ISLN +28.4%) for 2.25 bln, a 29% premium.

Several retailers reported earnings this week as third quarter earnings reporting season winds down. Target (TGT +3.9%), Lowe's (LOW +1.8%), Home Depot (HD -0.7%), TJX (TJX +0.7%), Staples (SPLS +5.7%) and Gap (GPS +1.0%) all posted upside quarterly results. Wal-Mart (WMT +0.5%) posted in-line results but provided upside guidance. Sears Holdings (SHLD -7.9%), however, missed both EPS and revenue estimates.

Separately, Dell (DELL +3.5%) reported better than expected earnings and Cisco (CSCO -2.7%) announced a $10 bln share repurchase plan.

In economic data, retail sales brought good news. Total retail sales increased 1.2% in October (Briefing.com consensus +0.7%) on top of an upwardly revised 0.7% increase in September. Excluding autos, retail sales jumped 0.4% (Briefing.com consensus +0.4%) versus a 0.5% gain in September. All in all, the Retail Sales report is another key data point that suggests the U.S. economy is on a growth path that holds potential to produce some positive surprises.

The Consumer Price Index increased 0.2% in October (Briefing.com consensus +0.3%) while core CPI, which excludes food and energy, was unchanged (Briefing.com consensus +0.1%) for the third straight month.

On a year-over-year basis, CPI is up just 1.2%. Core CPI is up only 0.6%, which is the smallest increase in the history of the index, which dates to 1957, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Housing starts dropped 11.7% to 519,000 (Briefing.com consensus 600,000) and were revised 3.6% lower for September to 588,000. Building permits were up 0.5% in October to 550,000, yet that was below the Briefing.com consensus estimate of 570,000.

Separately, the latest initial claims report might not have produced much of a surprise relative to the consensus estimate, yet it has provided surprisingly good news for the labor market as claims held below the 450,000 level for the second straight week.

Initial claims rose 2,000 to 439,000 (Briefing.com consensus 442,000) for the week ending November 13. This is still an elevated level, but the sustained move below 450,000 without any special factors contributing to it is a reminder that the labor market is growing less stressed.

In overseas news, Shanghai markets dropped 5% in one session at the end of the previous week, and had a session this week where the market lost 4% on speculation of an increase in rates. On Friday, China once again raised its banking reserve requirement.

Meanwhile, Ireland remained in focus on speculation regarding a possible bailout for the country. According to reports, Ireland is in ongoing talks with the ECB, EU and IMF about a possible aid package

The treasury market had a busy week, with the 10-year yield spiking to 2.87% from 2.79%. Just two weeks ago rates were as low as 2.49%. Several Fed officials have expressed opposition to the latest quantitative easing efforts.

The dollar rose 0.4% and commodities fell 1.6%.

 
 Index	  Started Week	Ended Week  Change  % Change  YTD % 
 DJIA	    11192.58	11203.55    10.97      0.1    7.4 
 Nasdaq	     2518.21	2518.12     -0.09     -0.0   11.0 
 S&P 500	     1199.21	1199.73	     0.52      0.0    7.6 
 Russell 2000  719.27	 724.36      5.09      0.7   15.8

8:06AM Kulicke & Soffa announced that Jonathan Chou will join K&S as Sr VP and CFO, effective Dec 13, 2010 (KLIC) 5.93 : Co announced that Jonathan Chou will join K&S as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, effective December 13, 2010. Mr. Chou will reside in Singapore. In this role he will succeed Michael Morris, who will advise the Company on transition matters until January 21, 2011.

1:41AM Cisco Systems authorizes up to $10 bln in additional stock repurchases (CSCO) 19.61 : Co announces the board authorized up to $10 bln in additional repurchases of its common stock. Co's board had previously authorized up to $72 bln in stock repurchases. There is no fixed termination date for the repurchase program. From the inception of the repurchase program in September 2001 through the close of co's first quarter fiscal year 2011 on October 30, 2010, the co had repurchased and retired 3.2 bln shares at an average price of $20.83 per share for an aggregate purchase price of ~$67.5 bln, with a remaining authorized amount of $4.5 bln.

09:36 am Sunpower downgraded to Underperform at Wedbush; tgt lowered to $7: . Wedbush downgrades SPWRA to Underperform from Neutral and lowers their tgt to $7 from $11 following disappointing 2011 guidance issued Thursday in conjunction with the company's analyst event. They remain concerned about SunPower's cost structure relative to industry peers.

09:39 am DELL Raises Operating Guidance (DELL)

Dell (DELL 13.95 +0.29) reported third quarter earnings of $0.45 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.12 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.33.

Revenues rose 19.4% year-over-year to $15.39 billion versus the $15.76 billion consensus.

The company raised its operating income guidance and reaffirmed its revenue guidance at mid-point for fiscal year 2011. The company sees operating income growing 23% to 28% to approx. $3.66 billion to $3.81 billion, above the $3.53 billion consensus, up from growth of 18% to 23% previously, sees fiscal year 2011 revs at mid-point of 14% to 19% growth to approx. $60.31 billion to $62.95 billion, in-line with the $62.38 billion Thomson Reuters consensus.

Large Enterprise rev was $4.3 billion, up 27% year-over-year. Public revenue was $4.4 billion, a 20% increase (including Perot); small and medium biz rev +24% to $3.7 billion; consumer rev +4% to $3 billion. Commercial and enterprise sectors continue to be solid. Q3 gross margin 19.5% vs. the 17.5% consensus.

The company, "With solid demand in our commercial segments, we executed well and that led to record profitability for the co and especially in our important enterprise solutions and services business."