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From Briefing.com: Weekly Recap - Week ending 13-Jul-12Dow +203.82 at 12777.09, Nasdaq +42.28 at 2908.47, S&P +22.02 at 1356.78

Today's 1.7% rally in stocks took the S&P 500 back to flat on the week, after a somewhat disappointing start to earnings season. Today's earnings from financial heavyweights J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM 36.07, +2.03) and Wells Fargo (WFC 33.91, +1.06) provided a boost to the financial sector, which was the strongest sector in the market. While today's results were taken as a positive, there have been several warnings in the tech sector and lackluster results from the majority of other companies that have reported thus far.

Looking more closely at today's earnings, J.P. Morgan reported its highly anticipated second quarter results, and gave additional details on the highly-publicized 'London Whale' trade. The loss from the trade is approximately $5.8 billion year-to-date, and statements that the trade has been largely unwound soothed some fears. Overall results would be viewed as 'noisy' given the number of one-time items that included the CIO loss, DVAs, reserve builds, and litigation expense. The underlying performance of the Investment Bank unit and Housing was a positive for the firm, and has helped shares recover. Wells Fargo posted numbers that were slightly better than consensus as housing helped provide a solid quarter for the bank in a difficult environment.

Aside from the big bank earnings, this morning's data showed PPI run at a hotter than expected 0.1% month over month clip and a Michigan Sentiment number that fell short of estimates with a 72.0 print. The equity market saw no reaction to the negative sentiment reading.

The euro hit multi-year year lows this week, but gained sharply vs. the dollar shortly after today's U.S. equity market open. The euro finished the week at $1.2240. Treasuries have witnessed some light selling on today's return to risk with the 10-yr yield climbing two basis points to 1.50%.

Looking back on the week, Alcoa (AA 8.42, +0.12) kicked off earnings season reporting in-line EPS and better than expected revenue. AA also reaffirmed its forecast for 2012. The S&P finished nearly unchanged on Monday.

On Tuesday, markets closed lower for a fourth consecutive session as a drop of 1.0% saw the Nasdaq pace the decline. Losses accelerated mid-day after Cummins (CMI 88.63, +2.86) announced it expects its full-year revenue outlook for 2012 to match 2011 despite prior guidance suggesting an increase of 10%.

On Wednesday, a late-day rally lifted the S&P 500 into positive territory moments ahead of the close, but the index finished with fractional losses to close lower for a fifth straight session. The FOMC Minutes failed to mention more quantitative easing by the Fed, but suggested ‘further policy stimulus likely would be necessary to promote satisfactory growth,' and that the Fed should study ‘new tools' for easing. The minutes were taken as a disappointment for stocks.

On Thursday, things were quiet ahead of the bank earnings and Chinese GDP data overnight as the S&P fell 0.5% on the day.

Next week, earnings season will dominate the headlines and have a bigger influence on the market. Over 200 companies will report Q2 results, including many Dow components; most of the large cap financials and some major technology bellwethers. Citigroup (C 20.02, -0.02) will kick things off on Monday morning.

 
 Index     Started Week  Ended Week   Change % Change  YTD % 
 DJIA	    12772.47	 12777.09     4.62     0.0    4.6 
 Nasdaq	     2937.33	  2908.47   -28.86    -1.0   11.6 
 S&P 500	     1354.68	  1356.78     2.10     0.2    7.9 
 Russell 2000  807.14	    800.99   -6.15    -0.8    8.1

7:31AM NVIDIA suspended operations today of the NVIDIA Developer Zone (NVDA) 12.40 : NVIDIA suspended operations today of the NVIDIA Developer Zone (developer.nvidia.com). "We did this in response to attacks on the site by unauthorized third parties who may have gained access to hashed passwords. We are investigating this matter and working around the clock to ensure that secure operations can be restored."

Microsemi (MSCC) announced that an independent organization providing technical and scientific research, development and advisory services to national security space programs has completed reliability testing of Microsemi's commercial-grade Axcelerator FPGAs. The tests lasted more than four years with an accumulated total of more than 26 mln device-hours of testing without a single antifuse failure.

Finisar (FNSR $12.49 +0.10) was initiated with a Hold at Needham. The firm notes continue to think Finisar is the best positioned company in the Optical components market. They think they are the strongest in the critical WSS component arena with their industry leading Liquid Crystal on Silicon technology. They also highlight, with sluggish and slowing economic conditions the telecom segment is seeing limp volumes and struggling for growth. They think the big opportunity for Finisar is to drive share gains in the WSS market through the sale of integrated line cards.

10:49 am S&P Information Technology sector trading higher as market rises

The tech sector is trading higher today, along with gains in the broader market. Yet, semiconductors are showing relative weakness with the Philly Semi Index trading only 0.6% higher. WFR (-0.9%) is a notable laggard in that chip index. Among other major indices, the SPY is trading 1.3% higher today, while the QQQ and the NASDAQ are trading 1.0% higher on the session. Among tech bellwethers, MSFT (+2.3%) and QCOM (+2.0%) are showing notable strength.

In earnings last night, LXK (-10.2%) became the latest tech company to lower Q2 guidance. This morning, IGTE (+3.9%) posted a Q2 miss. Also, IMOS (+6.6%) cut Q2 rev guidance. In news last night, APKT (+3.5%) announced a stock repurchase program of up to $200 mln. Among notable analyst upgrades this morning in the tech space, FTE (+5.0%) was upgraded to Hold at Deutsche Bank. In downgrades, FIS (+0.6%) was downgraded to Neutral at Robert W. Baird, SIGM (-2.2%) was downgraded to Sell at UBS, ASML (+1.2%) was downgraded to Neutral at Nomura, and TSS (-0.7%) was downgraded to Equal Weight at Barclays.