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From Briefing.com: Weekly Recap - Week ending 23-Mar-12Dow +34.59 at 13080.73, Nasdaq +4.60 at 3067.92, S&P +4.33 at 1397.11

The stock market ended the week with a modest gain, but it still booked a weekly loss of 0.5%, which marks the first weekly decline for the S&P 500 in more than a month, and only the second in 12 weeks.

That hot streak took the S&P 500 to its highest level since mid-2008 earlier this week, but many opted to take profits in response to renewed concerns about global economic conditions. Questions about the health of China were stirred when leaders in the metals industry suggested that the country’s steel production is leveling off. Worries were further stoked later in the week by news that China’s PMI reading fell to a four-month low and indicated that activity is tightening.

PMI data from Europe indicated the same when it fell short of expectations. Both Fed Chairman Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Geithner testified on Europe's economic crisis this week, but neither made any riveting remark. As such, their comments did nothing to swing stocks or prompt a shift in sentiment.

Cyclical stocks encountered some concerted selling amid macro concerns. During the course of only three days the Energy sector fell more than 4%, although it advanced 1.0% on Friday. It shed 3.0% for the week. The action in the Energy sector was closely correlated with crude oil trade.

By settling at $106.86 per barrel oil prices gained 1.4% on Friday, but fell 0.2% for the week. Along the way the energy component probed a monthly low near $104.50 per barrel. Action early in the week took into account plans for China to implement another fuel price increase. Later in the week it was learned that a review of permit applications for the southern leg of the Keystone Pipeline will likely be expedited. On Friday headlines suggested that Iran could curtail its oil exports, but Saudi Arabia had already pledged to increase oil exports to the U.S.

Financial plays and bank stocks provided leadership at the start of this week, but the sector later wavered. On Friday the Financial sector advanced 0.9% so that it was flat for the week. Up 21% year to date, Financials are still the top performers into the first three months of 2012.

Tech is still close behind in terms of its first quarter performance; it is up 20% year to date. The largest sector by market weight has been led by the largest stock by market cap – Apple (AAPL 596.05, -3.29). Narrowly off of a record high north of $600, shares of AAPL are up nearly 50% this year. The company made headlines at the start of the week with news that it will pay a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share starting in its fiscal fourth quarter of 2012, and also begin a $10 billion share repurchase program in fiscal 2013. Apple’s cash hoard currently stands at close to $100 billion.

Other notable corporate announcements this week include better-than-expected earnings and upside guidance from Accenture (ACN 64.88, +1.36). Nike (NKE 107.42, -3.57) announced an upside earnings surprise of its own, along with a double-digit annual percentage increase in futures orders. FedEx (FDX 92.38, -0.12), Discover Financial (DFS 33.83, +1.34), and Oracle (ORCL 28.55, -0.08) all announced upside earnings surprises this week. Tiffany & Co. (TIF 71.45, -1.03) reported earnings that came short of the consensus estimate, but the company made up for that failure by offering strong guidance.

Domestic economic data released this week was limited in scope.

Indicative of an improving jobs picture, the latest weekly initial jobless claims tally fell to a multi-year low of 348,000, which is less than the 355,000 initial jobless claims that had been expected, on average, among economists polled by Briefing.com.

Existing home sales hit an annualized pace of 4.59 million units in February, down from a rate of 4.63 million in the prior month. The slower pace came as little surprise since the consensus among economists polled by Briefing.com had called for a clip of 4.60 million units.

New home sales declined in February by 1.6% to an annualized rate of 313,000 units, which is less than the pace 323,000 units that had been broadly expected. Inventory levels remained at 150,000 for the second straight month, but months-of-supply increased to 5.8 from 5.7.

Housing starts hit an annualized rate of 698,000 units in February. That's down from the prior month's upwardly revised rate of 706,000 units. Economists had generally expected starts to remain near that rate. However, building permits improved in February to a rate of 717,000 from 682,000 in the prior month, besting the rate of 695,000 that had been generally anticipated.

Last week the dollar traded up to a near one-month high, but selling this week caused it to suffer a 0.6% weekly loss against a basket of major foreign currencies and settle narrowly beneath its 50-day moving average. The euro advanced 0.5% on Friday to $1.327. That helped feed a weekly gain of 0.7% against the greenback. The yen had perhaps the strongest finish to the week; it rallied roughly 1% on Thursday and again on Friday to reach its best level of the week. As of the close of trade on Friday the currency traded at 82.42 yen per dollar.

Treasuries experienced some whippy action this week. Early on the yield of the benchmark 10-year Note had flirted with 2.40% for a multi-month high, but by Friday it was down as low as 2.21%, which stands as its worst level in more than a week, before easing up to about 2.24% by the end of the trading day. ..Nasdaq 100 -0.1%. ..S&P Midcap 400 +0.6%. ..Russell 2000 +1.0%.

 
 Index	   Started Week  Ended Week  Change  % Change   YTD % 
 DJIA	     13232.62	  13080.73  -151.89    -1.1	7.1 
 Nasdaq	      3055.26	   3067.92    12.66	0.4	17.8 
 S&P 500	      1404.17	   1397.11    -7.06    -0.5	11.1 
 Russell 2000   830.18	    830.03    -0.15    -0.0	12.0

Apple (AAPL 599.51 -2.98) target raised to $660 from $575 at Hilliard Lyons. The firm raised its target following dividend initiation and buyback.

Western Digital (WDC $40.40 +0.95) was upgraded to Strong Buy from Buy at Needham and the firm raised their target to $66 from $50. They believe that the acquisition of HGST by WD, despite regulatory hurdles worldwide, will prove to be a pivotal point in HDD history and drive record profitability for both WDC and STX. As they have also argued in our STX thesis, with no need to price aggressively to maintain market share, they expect the group to operate rationally and within profitability metrics consistent with WD historically.