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From Briefing.com: Weekly Recap - Week ending 24-May-13

Dow +8.60 at 15303.1, Nasdaq -0.27 at 3459.14, S&P -0.91 at 1649.6

Stocks entered the weekend on a mixed note as the S&P 500 shed 0.1% while the Dow ended with a gain of 0.1%.

The major averages began the day on a lower note as nine of ten sectors saw losses of more than 0.5%.

The consumer staples sector was the lone exception as the group spent the entire day in positive territory thanks to the relative strength of Dow component Procter & Gamble (PG 81.89, +3.19). The second-largest staple stock advanced 4.1% after the company reaffirmed its fourth quarter guidance and named Alan Lafley President, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Lafley had previously served as company President and CEO from 2000 to 2009.

With light volume ahead of the holiday weekend, the broader market drifted back towards yesterday's closing levels. However, the S&P was kept from turning positive by the underperformance of influential sectors.

The energy space lost 0.4% as crude oil shed 0.4% to end at $93.92. Meanwhile, the other commodity-related sector, materials, slipped 0.3% as steelmakers lagged. The Market Vectors Steel ETF (SLX 41.67, -0.42) ended lower by 1.0%.

Industrials also pressured the broader market as transportation-related names sold off. Relative weakness in truckers, delivery services, and shippers caused the Dow Jones Transportation Average to lose 0.5%. However, another industrial subgroup, defense stocks, fared relatively well as the PHLX Defense Index rose 0.1%.

Cyclical groups saw comparable losses in early action. However, the financial sector displayed some afternoon strength as major banks registered gains. As a result, the sector ended with a slim gain of 0.1%.

Today's biggest laggards could be found in the high-yielding utilities sector as the group continued its recent weakness. Including today's 1.0% decline, the sector lost 3.7% this week, and is down 6.7% in May.

The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX 14.11, +0.04) spiked to 14.79% amid the early weakness before the near-term volatility measure surrendered the bulk of its gains.

As mentioned earlier, volume was well below average with only 591 million shares changing hands on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Today's economic data was limited to durable goods orders. For April, orders rose 3.3% after declining an upwardly revised 5.9% (from -6.9%) in March. The Briefing.com consensus expected durable goods orders to rise 1.6%. The sawtooth pattern in transportation held up despite Boeing (BA 100.00, +0.25) announcing lower aircraft orders in April. Transportation orders rose 8.1% in April as defense and nondefense aircraft orders increased 25.7%.

Excluding transportation, durable goods demand was solid all-around and increased 1.3% in April after declining 1.7% in March.

Note that equity and bond markets will be closed on Monday for Memorial Day. On Tuesday, the March Case-Shiller 20-city Index will be reported at 9:00 ET while May consumer confidence will cross the wires at 10:00 ET.

Week in Review: S&P 500 Registers First Weekly Loss of the Month

On Monday, the major averages registered slim losses after intraday action saw the Russell 2000 cross above the 1,000 level for the first time. The lack of conviction was owed in part to a lack of stirring catalysts. M&A activity was among the notable developments as Yahoo! (YHOO 26.33, +0.31) acquired Tumblr for $1.1 billion in cash. Stocks ended Tuesday's session modestly higher as the S&P 500 climbed 0.2% and the Dow added 0.4% to register its 19th consecutive Tuesday of gains. Equity indices saw little change during morning action, but afternoon buying interest helped lift the three averages to session highs. Most cyclical sectors (with the exception of materials and technology) finished among the leaders, but the defensively-geared health care sector settled atop the leaderboard as biotechnology continued its strong run with the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 180.74, -0.53) advancing 1.0%.

Wednesday saw the S&P 500 settle lower by 0.8% after early strength turned into afternoon weakness. From highs to lows, the S&P fell 1.9% as investors focused on Ben Bernanke's testimony before the Joint Economic Committee. During his remarks, Chairman Bernanke said premature tightening of monetary policy could stall the pace of recovery. Equities spiked at the start of the testimony, but sellers made their presence known this afternoon as the major averages slumped to session lows. The utilities and telecom sectors led to the downside as traders continued to dump income-oriented names. Elsewhere, the energy space lost 1.2% as crude oil declined 2.1%. The energy component ended at $94.18 per barrel, and weighed on the growth-sensitive sector.

On Thursday, the major averages ended modestly lower with the S&P 500 shedding 0.3%. The benchmark average saw an opening loss of 1.2% after Japan's Nikkei tumbled 7.3%. Japanese stocks sold off amid continued volatility in Japanese Government Bond futures as the 10-yr yield spiked to 1.002 before the Bank of Japan's JPY2 trillion liquidity injection caused yields to slide back to session lows. Adding insult to injury was news out of China where the HSBC Flash Manufacturing PMI (49.6 actual, 50.5 consensus, 50.4 prior) fell below 50 for the first time in seven months. The utilities sector was the weakest performer, ending lower by 0.8% after a morning flash crash in American Electric Power (AEP 47.71, -0.57) and NextEra Energy (NEE 77.30, -0.92) briefly wiped out more than $33 billion in combined market capitalization.

 
 Index	   Started Week	  Ended Week  Change  % Change	YTD % 
 DJIA	     15354.40	   15303.10   -51.30    -0.3	16.8 
 Nasdaq	      3498.97	    3459.14   -39.83	-1.1	14.6 
 S&P 500	1667.47	    1649.60   -17.87	-1.1	15.7 
 Russell 2000   996.28	     984.28   -12.00	-1.2	15.9

:31PM This week's biggest % gainers/losers (SCANX) : The following are this week's top 20 percentage gainers and top 20 percentage losers, categorized by sectors (over $300 mln market cap and 100K average daily volume).

This week's top 20 % gainers

Utilities: EBR (2.97 +16.14%)
Technology: JASO (8.03 +45.69%), SCTY (48.78 +31.1%), YGE (3.19 +23.17%), VSAT (71.57 +19.78%), GAME (3.59 +19.54%), FLTX (29.74 +18.06%), WFR (7.45 +16.86%), HPQ (24.21 +16.39%)
Services: WBSN (24.8 +32.08%), SKS (15.49 +30.06%), RUE (42.03 +24.77%), DANG (6.11 +16.37%)
Industrial Goods: XONE (45 +16.6%)
Healthcare: MNKD (6.55 +32.75%), ARIA (19.57 +18.03%), INSM (12.93 +17.8%), GTXI (5.89 +16.76%)
Basic Materials: CENX (9.86 +18.41%), PEIX (4.63 +17.58%)

Thsi week's top 20 % losers

Technology: ARUN (13.3 -24.7%), CRUS (17.36 -20.22%), IGTE (14.23 -12.46%), SWI (41.01 -12.14%), SAAS (7.36 -11.67%), RHT (48.49 -9.78%), CAVM (31.85 -9.76%), ADNC (14.77 -9.42%)
Services: HGG (13.91 -10.55%), SSI (23.26 -10.43%)
Industrial Goods: ICA (8.04 -22.68%), PGTI (8.03 -11.68%), OSIS (57.85 -11.33%), RAVN (31.26 -11.3%), NCS (15.06 -9.94%)
Healthcare: IRWD (12.83 -14.25%)
Financial: BSMX (14.92 -11.47%), APO (25.04 -10.34%)
Basic Materials: HK (5.54 -11.11%), CHKR (14.32 -10.9%)

9:01AM DSP Group: Starboard issues open letter to DSP shareholders; urges all shareholders to vote the white proxy card (DSPG) 8.17 : Letter stated "Starboard Value LP, together with its affiliates, currently beneficially owns approximately 10.1% of the outstanding common shares of DSP Group, making us one of the Company's largest shareholders. We have nominated three highly qualified and independent director candidates -- Michael Bornak, Norman J. Rice, III, and Norman P. Taffe for election to DSP's Board of Directors as Class I directors at the upcoming 2013 Annual Meeting. Our Nominees are running against the Company's Class I director nominees, Eliyahu Ayalon, Zvi Limon, and Reuven Regev. The Company recently proposed to elect Gabi Seligsohn as a Class II director at the Annual Meeting as well. We are not nominating any individual to oppose Mr. Seligsohn....We are seeking your support to elect our Nominees because we believe that the Board has failed to represent the best interests of DSP's shareholders. Our Nominees are highly qualified, capable and ready to serve shareholders and to help make DSP a stronger, more profitable, and ultimately, more valuable company....Just as revealing, Messrs. Traub and Lacey, who are experienced veterans of numerous boards of directors, believed it was necessary for them to resort to the unusual step of refusing to sign the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012 due to the Company's insistence on including FALSE and misleading statements about Messrs. Traub and Lacey in its disclosure despite their specific objections."

10:38 am Technology sector -0.6% trading lower along with the overall market today
The tech sector is trading lower today, along with losses in the broader market. Semiconductors are showing weakness as well with the SOX trading 0.7% lower on the session. Within the chip index, SPRD (-2.3%) is a notable laggard. Among other major indices, the SPY is trading 0.7% lower today, while the QQQ and the NASDAQ are both trading 0.6% higher on the session. Among tech bellwethers, AAPL (+0.4%) is showing notable strength, while ORCL (-1.9%) is under pressure.

In tech earnings last night: CRM (-7.8%) posted an inline qtr and offered inline guidance MRVL (-0.2%) reported a slight beat but guided slightly below consensus MENT (+0.7%) posted a beat and raise. In rumors, GOOG (-1.1%) is considering purchase of mapping company Waze for more than $1 bln; according to reports. FB (-1.4%) was previously speculated as a potential buyer. In notable analyst upgrades this morning in the tech space, ADS (+0.6%) was upgraded to Outperform at William Blair. Among notable downgrades in tech, CRM (-7.8%) was downgraded to Neutral at Wedbush, MRVL (-0.2%) was downgraded to Mkt Underperform at JMP, CRUS (-1.2%) was downgraded to Hold at Canaccord, and CHL (-0.6%) was downgraded to Neutral at Goldman.

Marvell (MRVL) reported first quarter adjusted earnings of $0.19 per share, $0.05 better than the Capital IQ consensus of $0.14, while revenues fell 5.3% year/year to $734.4 million versus the $721.55 million consensus. Non-GAAP gross margin for the first quarter of fiscal 2014 was 54.6 percent, compared to 53.2 percent for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013 and 54.5 percent for the first quarter of fiscal 2013. The company issued guidance for the second quarter EPS of $0.17-0.21, excluding non-recurring items, versus the $0.18 Capital IQ consensus and revenues of $770-810 million versus the $762.96 million Capital IQ consensus. Under the share repurchase program, Marvell repurchased ~20 million shares for a total of $200 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2014. Over the past eleven quarters, Marvell has repurchased and retired ~204 million shares, or about 29 percent, of its outstanding shares. "Our results in the first quarter were at the high-end of our guidance mainly due to better than normal seasonal demand and share gains in our storage and networking end markets. Starting in the second quarter of fiscal 2014, we expect many of our investments and key initiatives across all of our end markets to produce tangible results. More specifically, we expect growth to be driven by increased traction in areas such as mobile handsets, tablets, connectivity and SSDs.