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From Briefing.com: Weekly Recap - Week ending 08-Jun-12

Dow +0.8%, S&P 500 +0.8%, Nasdaq +1.0%, Nasdaq 100 +0.9%, S&P 400 +0.9%, Russell 2000 +1.1%

On Friday stocks fought to reclaim the gains surrendered in the prior session. The broad market not only overcame an early loss, but managed to book a strong gain.

Financials proved to be a source of strength. The sector ascended from an early loss to a 1.2% gain with help from bank stocks, which collectively climbed 1.6%, based on the KBW Bank Index. Tech contributed to the effort by trading up to a 0.9% gain. For the week Financials advanced almost 5%, while Tech advanced little more than 4%.

Telecom scored the strongest gain after some mixed performances earlier in the week. The sector’s 1.5% gain contributed to a weekly advance of nearly 3%, which is less than what the broad market achieved.

Of the major sectors, only Energy failed to find positive territory. For the week it was up almost 4%, but on Friday it finished flat amid lower oil prices. Oil prices were down more than 2% in early pit trade, but managed to improve their position by the close. The energy component ended the day at $84.09 per barrel for a 0.8% loss. Earlier this week oil prices set a new 2012 low beneath $82 per barrel.

Shares of McDonald’s (MCD 87.75, -0.63) also sat out of the stock market’s advance. The stock was pressured because of disappointment surrounding the company’s less-than-impressive 3.3% increase in global sales during May.

Data had hardly any sway, if any at all, with market participants. Releases featured a slightly narrower trade deficit of about $50 billion, along with an in-line 0.6% increase in wholesale inventories.

The euro endured selling for the entire session, but was able to halve an early loss so that it ended the day about 0.5% lower at $1.25. In contrast to recent weeks, action among stocks was less correlated to the euro’s movements this week.

Reports suggest that Europe’s leaders will convene this weekend to address Spain’s struggling banking system. The weekend also brings some price data from China.

 
 Index     Started Week  Ended Week  Change  % Change  YTD % 
 DJIA	    12118.57	 12554.20   435.63     3.6    2.8 
 Nasdaq	     2747.48	  2858.42   110.94     4.0    9.7 
 S&P 500     1278.04       1325.6    47.62     3.7    5.4 
 Russell 2000  737.42	   769.19    31.77     4.3    3.8

8:00AM SMTC Corp announced successful buyout of Chinese jv partner, Alco Electronics, and expansion at Dongguan China manufacturing facility (SMTX) 3.23 :

1:05AM MEMC Elec acknowledges Moody's action; limited from making additional borrowings (WFR) 1.72 : Co acknowledges today's debt rating downgrade by Moody's Investors Services. With regard to this, co states: "While we are disappointed with Moody's decision, we have been proactively planning for this potential rating action in order to minimize its impact on the company. At the present time we are comfortable with the company's cash and liquidity position. As a result of the downgrade, we will be limited from making additional borrowings under our North American non-recourse revolving construction facility, but repayment of outstanding borrowings under the facility of approximately $110 million will not be accelerated. Cash needs in the second quarter which would have been met with this facility will now instead likely result in a reduction of our cash balance of approximately $15 million to $20 million."

Altera (ALTR $33.16 +0.15) sees sequential revenue growth for the second quarter is expected to be in line with the company's previous guidance for growth of 14 percent to 18 percent from the first quarter -- equates to approximately $437.5-452.8 million versus the $445.91 million consensus. Altera's 40-nm and 28-nm products will be up strongly from first quarter levels. As previously expected, growth will be broad across most of the company's vertical markets

10:09 am Information Technology index declines with losses in overall market

The tech sector is trading lower today, roughly inline with losses in the broader market. Semiconductors are also showing relative strength, however, with the Philly Semi Index trading 0.2% higher. MU (+2.0%) is a notable leader in that chip index. Among other major indices, the SPY is trading 0.4% lower today, while the QQQ is down 0.1% and the NASDAQ is trading 0.3% lower on the session. Among tech bellwethers, FB (+3.3%) is showing notable strength, while ORCL (-1.3%) is under pressure.

In earnings last night, AGYS (-2.4%) posted a Q4 earnings miss, CMTL (+4.6%) reported a beat and raise, and PRGS (-10.0%) issued downside guidance. Among rumors, we are hearing NOK (+4.2%) takeover chatter making the rounds. Also, there is a VZ (+0.7%)-for-NFLX (+0.9%) rumor circulating.

Among notable analyst upgrades this morning, YHOO (+0.5%) was upgraded to Outperform at Bernstein and FTR (+0.6%) was upgraded to Neutral from Underperform at BofA/Merrill . While in downgrades, NTAP (-2.3%) was downgraded to Equal Weight at Barclays.

There are no notable names in tech scheduled to report quarterly results today after the close.