Stocks Gain for Week, Led by Tech, Energy

Stocks finished flat as a new record for oil prices overshadowed a better-than-expected report on housing.

Still, for the week, all three major indexes managed decent gains. The Nasdaq led the pack, jumping 3.4 percent, as investors, increasing their appetite for risk, snapped up tech stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.9 percent and the S&P 500 index advanced 2.7 percent.

Major U.S. Indexes

	Last	Change	% Change	1 Week % Change	YTD % Change
Dow	12,986.80	-5.86	-0.05%	1.89%	-2.10%
S&P 500	1,425.35	1.78	0.13%	2.67%	-2.93%
NASDAQ	2,528.85	-4.88	-0.19%	3.41%	-4.65%
Russell 2000	741.17	-2.21	-0.30%	2.93%	-3.25%
CBOE VIX	16.52	0.22	1.35%	-14.89%	-26.58%

Accounting for most of the Nasdaq's gains were Intel , up 7 percent this week, and Cisco , up 4 percent.

The S&P's gains this week were fueled by oil and tech, including ExxonMobil , Intel, AT&T , Chevron and Cisco.

The CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX, skidded nearly 15 percent, on top of last week's 14 percent slide, as market fears have noticably eased.

US light-sweet crude closed at a record $126.29 Friday but was well off its intraday record $127.82 after the Bush Administration agreed to suspend buying oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for six months.

Crude oil has continued to quickly blast through the top of any new range it sets, gaining 24 percent in the past eight weeks.

Goldman Sachs, the most active brokerage in energy markets, on Friday raised its forecast for oil to hit $141 a barrel in the second half of this year. Goldman rattled the market less than two weeks ago, when it projected oil prices between $150 and $200 a barrel in the next two years.

In Friday's market action, Exxon and Chevron were the top two Dow gainers, followed by Hewlett-Packard , which recovered some ground after taking a beating earlier in the week over its proposed acquistion of IT-services firm EDS .

General Motors led Dow decliners, after leading advancers on Thursday, as the auto maker grapples with labor negotiations. A monthlong strike at a Michigan plant appeared to be nearing an end; one that began May 5 continued at a Kansas plant that makes the popular Chevy Malibu.

Financial stocks were some of the day's biggest decliners after Merrill Lynch downgraded regional banks KeyCorp and Regions Financial .

American Express and Citigroup dragged on the Dow.

 

Lehman Brothers tumbled amid news that long-anticpated layoffs at the brokerage are set to begin next week. The company is expected pare its workforce by 5 percent.

Some news swirling around Internet target Yahoo : Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is launching a proxy fight for Yahoo that could bring Microsoft back to the table. On Thursday, Icahn's move was backed by hedge fund Paulson & Co., which owns 50 million Yahoo shares. Meanwhile, reports suggested that Yahoo is still hoping to secure a search-advertising deal with Google