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From Briefing.com: Weekly Recap - Week ending 20-May-11The stock market ended the week with a loss after being unable to sustain a midweek recovery effort. Tech stocks pushed the market lower after Hewlett-Packard disappointed investors and concerns over European debt continues to hurt investor confidence. The decline this week marked the S&P 500's third consecutive loss.

Four of the 10 sectors advanced, led by energy (+0.9%) and utilities (+0.6%). The heavyweight tech sector underperformed with a loss of 1.5%.

In corporate news, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ -11.0%), Home Depot (HD 0.1%) and Wal-Mart (WMT-0.8%) all underwhelmed with their earnings reports. That's not to say they missed expectations altogether. In fact, they all topped earnings estimates for their reported quarter, but some element of their guidance -- either sales or earnings or both -- failed to lift investors' spirits.

Hewlett-Packard's shares came under pressure and played the primary role in the underperformance of the tech sector this week. Its guidance for the fiscal third quarter and full year was below current consensus estimates and was blamed in part on continued softness in sales of consumer PCs. The Dow component was forced to move up its earnings report date due to a leaked memo from the CEO who reportedly told staffers the company faces another tough quarter and that current headcount plans are unaffordable.

Dell (DELL -2.2% ) limited its losses this week despite the HP news after posting better-than-expected earnings and guidance.

Analog Devices (ADI 2.5%), Deere & Co. (DE -3.4%), Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF -0.1%), and Target (TGT -3.6%) all reported quarterly earnings that exceeded consensus estimates.

Retailers saw some selling pressure. Staples (-19.2%) had the largest percent decline in the S&P 500 followed by Gap (GAP -16.6%) after the retailers each reported disappointing earnings/guidance.

In M&A news, Barnes & Noble (BKS 31.1%) received a $17 per share buyout offer from Liberty Media.

Shares of social networking company LinkedIn (LNKD 109%) soared 109% in its public debut. Excluding ADRs, the one-day return marked the second highest IPO in the last 10 years ? Nymex Holdings rallied 125% its first day in 2006--but ranks only 157th in the last 30 years-- VA Linux tops the list with a gain of 698% in 1999. Excluding the tech bubble years, LinkedIn's one-day return ranks 18th.

In economic news, initial claims for the week ended May 14 were better than expected, falling 29,000 to 409,000 (Briefing.com consensus 420,000). Continuing claims for the week ended May 7 fell by 81,000 to 3.711 mln (Briefing.com consensus 3.713 mln).

The claims level is still on the wrong side of 400,000, yet the rapid drop from the 478,000 claims reported on April 30 suggests the poor seasonal adjustment factors in April are working their way out of the system. We expect claims to move back toward the 380,000 level in the next few weeks; however, it is possible the effects of the flooding could forestall that move.

The yield of the 10 year Treasury note fell to a fresh 2011, but bounced higher a bit following the release of the FOMC meeting minutes to eventually settle the week largely unchanged at 3.15%. The recent moves in Treasuries have been primarily driven by inflation expectations.

 
 Index	  Started Week	 Ended Week  Change  % Change	YTD % 
 DJIA        12595.70	 12512.00   -83.70     -0.7	8.1 
 Nasdaq	     2828.47	  2803.32   -25.15     -0.9	5.7 
 S&P 500	     1337.77	  1333.27    -4.50     -0.3	6.0 
 Russell 2000  835.67	   829.06    -6.61     -0.8	5.8

11:46AM LDK Solar reaffirms Q1, FY11 guidance (LDK) 7.41 -0.80 : Co reaffirms Q1, FY11 guidance; sees Q1 rev guidance of $745-755 mln vs $769.45 mln Thomson Reuters consensus; wafer shipments of 625 to 635 megawatts, module shipments of 109 MW to 114 MW, in-house polysilicon production of 2,450 MT to 2,470 MT, in-house cell production between 44 MW and 46 MW, and gross margin between 30.0% and 31.0%. Sees FY11 rev guidance $3.5-3.7 bln vs. the $3.18 bln consensus, gross margins between 24% and 29%, wafer shipments to be between 2.7 and 2.9 GW, module shipments to be between 800 and 900 MW, polysilicon production to be between 10,000 and 11,000 MT, and in-house cell production to be between 500 and 600 MW. Co will report June 7, in the afternoon.

07:11 am JinkoSolar Holding target lowered to $34.50 at Collins Stewart: . Collins Stewart lowers their JKS tgt to $34.50 from $38 recent checks indicate that module prices are eroding faster than what they had built into their previous JKS forecast. Weak demand in Italy has persisted in recent weeks, as an expected demand recovery following the announcement of the revised policy has been more muted than expected. While German demand is said to have picked up, they believe the industry is still dealing with the inventory that built up during the March-April lull and prices are now falling as a result. FY11/12 ests have been lowered, still above consensus while their Q2 EPS est has fallen to $1.23 from $1.60 (cons: $1.77), also due in part to recent convertible notes issuance.

07:10 am LDK Solar downgraded to Hold at Kaufman Bros; tgt lowered to $8: . Kaufman Bros downgrades LDK to Hold from Buy and lowers their tgt to $8 from $24 after LDK issued a press release announcing that it has decided to pull its second high-yield debt offering of the year due to poor market conditions. Firm says while the deal could probably be done, the interest rates that were required were likely untenable for the long-term prospects of the company. Firm says this highlights a risk for the company as it continues to maintain a highly leveraged balance sheet.