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From Briefing.com: Weekly Recap - Week ending 06-May-11The stock market gave up some of the past weeks' gains as commodities got clobbered and the dollar rallied on fears of slower global growth. On the upside, U.S. private companies added the most jobs since February 2006 and the drop in oil prices will be a positive for consumers.

Commodities took a beating this week, with the CRB Index shedding 9.0%, crude tumbling 14.1% and silver plummeting 27%. The decline in silver was largest weekly percentage fall on records dating back to 1984. After this week's sell off, the 1.4% year-to-date gain of the CRB Index is less than the 6.6% gain of the S&P 500.

The dollar rallied as commodities fell, advancing 2.5% in its best weekly gain since August. The euro showed the most weakness. ECB President Trichet made more dovish than expected comments and there were reports that Greece may be leaving the euro currency.

The selling interest in U.S. equities was focused on the energy and materials sectors. Energy plunged 7.0% and materials gave up 3.4%. Defensive sectors outperformed on a relative basis with healthcare up 0.6% and Utilities advancing 0.3%. Healthcare is now the best performing sector year-to-date, up 12.4%.

In economic news, the April employment report showed solid job growth as private employers created more than enough jobs to offset the decline in government payrolls. Overall payrolls increased 244,000, well above the Briefing.com consensus of 175,000. Private payrolls were up 268,000, topping the Briefing.com consensus of 200,000 and the highest level since February 2006.

There was a discrepancy between the payroll numbers and the unemployment rate, however. The unemployment rate, which is based off a household survey, showed an uptick to 9.0% from 8.8%.

 
 Index	  Started Week	Ended Week  Change  % Change  YTD % 
 DJIA	    12810.50	 12638.70  -171.80    -1.3    9.2 
 Nasdaq	     2873.54	  2827.56   -45.98    -1.6    6.6 
 S&P 500	     1363.61	  1340.20   -23.41    -1.7    6.6 
 Russell 2000  865.29	   833.34   -31.95    -3.7    6.3

8:45AM Lam Research prices $750 million of convertible notes (LRCX) 47.56 : Co announces that it has priced its private offering of $750 million in aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes, an increase from the $700 million in aggregate principal amount previously announced. The notes will be issued in two tranches of $375 million each due in May 2016 and May 2018, respectively, and will be sold to qualified institutional buyers. The 2016 Notes will bear interest at a rate of 0.50% per year, and the 2018 Notes will bear interest at a rate of 1.25% per year, in each case, payable semi-annually.