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CNBC ON DIGG

Market Closes Lethargic Week Where it Started

Published: Friday, 28 Aug 2009 | 5:03 PM ET

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By: Jeff Cox
CNBC.com

Walll Street fell short in its late-day bid for a rally, ending a ho-hum week in ho-hum fashion as the major indexes finished almost exactly where they began Monday.

Despite some strongly positive news out of technology companies, the market couldn't hold an early rally, sending the Dow lower by about 0.4 percent and the Nasdaq near even. The indexes finished positive by 0.4 percent or less.

Major U.S. Indexes

	Last	Today's % Change	1 Week % Change	MTD % Change	YTD % Change
Dow	9544.20	-0.38%	0.40%	4.06%	8.75%
NASDAQ	2028.77	0.05%	0.39%	2.54%	28.64%
S&P 500	1028.93	-0.20%	0.27%	4.20%	13.91%
Russell 2000	579.86	-0.67%	-0.28%	4.16%	16.10%
CBOE VIX	24.68	0.00%	-1.32%	-4.78%	-38.30%
FTSE CNBC Global 300	4183.90	0.46%	0.76%	3.56%	15.98%

Light volume continued to be the story. Despite Friday's letdown, the S&P and the Nasdaq are on pace to complete a sixth straight month of gains.

"The market's kind of continuing to digest what's been going on over the last several weeks," said Richard Sparks, senior analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research in Cincinnati. "It's just the ebb and flow of the markets."

Consumer weakness brought down a raft of positive news from technology companies.

A revised outlook from Intel [INTC Loading... () ] helped had lifted tech stocks higher, as it raised its third-quarter forecast on stronger-than-expected demand for its microprocessors and chipsets.

Consumer stocks performed poorly on a set of economic data showing continued weakness in income and spending.

Merck [MRK Loading... () ] and McDonald's [MCD Loading... () ] led the losers on the Dow, which fell after posting gains approaching 0.5 percent in the first minutes of trading. Boeing [BA Loading... () ] gave back some gains as well, the day after the aerospace company surged on positive news about its Dreamliner aircraft.

Technology stocks had been the lone bright spot, helped by Dell [DELL Loading... () ]. In after-the-bell earnings Thursday, the computer maker reported a stronger than expected quarterly profit as well as signs that its business is stabilizing.

Marvell Technology [MRVL Loading... () ] also helped offset the damage, posting a revenue drop of nearly 25 percent but raising outlook.

Pharmaceutical stocks besides Merck also were faring poorly, with Bristol-Myers Squibb [BMY Loading... () ] off more than 2 percent after Morgan Stanley cut the company to "equal weight."

Elsewhere, shares of Ford [F Loading... () ] gained after the automaker said it expected monthly sales to rise for the first time in two years.

Investor Tips on CNBC.com

Whirlpool [WHR Loading... () ] shares improved after the appliance maker said it would cut 1,100 jobs and close a refrigerator factory in Evansville, Ill.

Luxury retailer Tiffany [TIF Loading... () ] reported that its profit fell 30 percent, but that was better than analyst estimates. The earnings beat followed a familiar pattern for the second quarter—strong bottom-line profit yet weak top-line revenue—but the company's shares jumped.

Commodities also were a bright spot. The UBS commodities index rose nearly 1 percent even though oil trading was choppy through the day, with crude prices finally registering a slight gain.

Investors were less enthusiastic about economic news that emphasized tough times for consumers. Government data indicated a 0.2 percent gain in spending in July, helped mostly by the "Cash for Clunkers" auto trade-in program, but no gains in personal income.