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From Briefing.com: Weekly Recap - Week ending 11-Mar-11The S&P 500 ended the week lower as declines in heavyweight energy and tech stocks acted as a drag. Stocks pared some of the week's losses Friday even as overseas markets declined after Japan was hit by the fifth largest earthquake on record. Headline risk continues to drive volatility in the markets, especially in the commodity sector.

Six of the 10 sectors traded lower. Energy (-3.5%), materials and technology posted the biggest declines. Defense sectors outperformed, with telecom boosted by some M&A speculation.

Energy and material stocks fell as oil and other commodities took a sharp hit. Crude oil prices fell 3.6% and the CRB Index shed 3.1%.

Tech companies as a whole fell, with notable weakness in semiconductors (-5.5%) and equipment makers (-5.5%). Heavyweight Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG) fell 2.2% and 3.8%, respectively.

Company specific news acted as the main drivers of the top performing stocks this week. Starbucks (SBUX 10.4%) surged after the company announced a strategic relationship with Green Mountain Coffee (GMCR 41.0%).

In M&A news, Western Digital (WDC 14.6%) rallied on word that it will purchase Hitachi's (HIT -3.5%) storage business. The prospect of less competition also lifted up rival Seagate (STX 8.9%). Sprint Nextel (S 15.2%) spiked on reports that it is in talks regarding a potential merger with T-Mobile USA, which is owned by Deutsche Telecom.

The week was light on economic data. Initial jobless claims were worse than expected and retail sales met the Briefing.com consensus.

 
 Index	  Started Week	Ended Week  Change % Change YTD % 
 DJIA	    12169.88	 12044.40  -125.48   -1.0   4.0 
 Nasdaq	     2784.67	  2715.61   -69.06   -2.5   2.4 
 S&P 500	     1321.15	  1304.28   -16.87   -1.3   3.7 
 Russell 2000  824.99	   802.83   -22.16   -2.7   2.4

2:43PM Agilent reports operations in Japan remain unaffected by earthquake (A) 44.92 +0.04 :

8:41AM Corning: No damage was sustained to any Corning facility as a result of the earthquake (GLW) 21.32 : No Corning employees were injured at any of their Japan facilities. All glass-melting, forming, and finishing operations are running normally at both plants in Japan (Shizuoka and Sakai City). There is NO impact to their supply as a result of the earthquake. No damage was sustained to any Corning facility as a result of the earthquake.