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Stocks Gain 2.3% for Week as Gold Soars

Published: Friday, 18 Jun 2010 | 6:02 PM ET

Text Size

By: Cindy Perman, JeeYeon Park

Stocks eked out a gain Friday amid "quadruple witching" volatility but ended the week up 2.3 percent as investors scooped up beaten-down shares. Gold soared to another record high.

Major U.S. Indexes

	Last	Change	Today's % Change	1 Week % Change	YTD % Change
Dow	10450.64	16.47	0.16%	2.35%	0.22%
NASDAQ	2309.80	2.64	0.11%	2.95%	1.79%
S&P 500	1117.51	1.47	0.13%	2.37%	0.22%
Russell 2000	666.92	1.07	0.16%	2.76%	6.64%
CBOE VIX	23.88	-1.17	-4.67%	-17.05%	10.15%
FTSE CNBC Global 300	4225.41	10.62	0.25%	3.08%	-6.93%

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 16.47, or 0.2 percent to close at 10,450.64.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq each gained about 0.1 percent.

For the week, the gains were much more robust: The Dow gained over 200 points, or 2.3 percent. All three major indexes managed to pull out of correction territory by week's end, down less than 10 percent from their recent highs, and into positive territory for the year.

Energy, financials and materials and industrials were the leaders for the day. For the week, utilities and techs were at the front of the pack, while consumer discretionary and telecoms were weak.

"Quadruple witching" is the simultaneous expiration of stock index futures, single stock futures, stock options and stock index options, an event that notoriously stirs a lot of volatility in the market.

The CBOE volatility index, widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, was below 24 at the closing bell, down 17 percent from where it ended last week.

“Traders tend to stay aside [during quadruple witching] and as a result, there’s not a lot of liquidity,” said Doug Roberts, chief investment strategist at Channel Capital Research. “I wouldn’t really get aggressive right now, but I prefer the small-cap area.”

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Large-cap techs were mostly higher, with Cisco [CSCO Loading... () ] near the top of the Dow. And Apple [AAPL Loading... () ] rose near the top of the Nasdaq pack after Susquehanna raised their price target on the iPhone maker to $335 from $325.

Investors juggled between the risk trade and playing it safe this week as utilities, technology and industrials are the week's winning sectors, while consumer discretionary and telecom were the laggards.

Caterpillar [CAT Loading... () ] rose 1.4 percent after the company reported dealer sales of heavy machinery rose 11 percent in the three months ending in May, snapping a nearly two-year decline, amid strong demand from Asia.

Citigroup [C Loading... () ] shares rose 1.3 percent as the bank is mulling a plan to raise $3 billion in private equity and hedge funds this year.

Gold soared to a new closing high, settling at a record above $1,258 an ounce, while oil rose more than $3, settling at $77.18 a barrel.

Energy stocks were one of the day's best performers after Bernstein raised their price targets on oil giants Chevron [CVX Loading... () ], ConocoPhillips [COP Loading... () ] and Hess [HES Loading... () ].

BP [BP Loading... () ] shares rose amid some relief after Congress grilled CEO Tony Hayward and there was some buzz about Hawyard being ousted and who might succeed him.

During the dramatic hearing on Thursday, lawmakers lambasted CEO Tony Hayward’s “lack of candor.” Hayward infuriated representatives with his evasive explanations regarding the spill, referring to multiple variations on the same them: That he had no direct involvement or knowledge of problems on the Deepwater Horizon, even though engineers lower down in BP's hierarchy had spoken about a "nightmare well."

Meanwhile, shares of Transocean [RIG Loading... () ] jumped more than 10 percent, but the bump was mainly attributed to the deepwater driller being added to the Swiss stock index at the close of trading in Europe today.

Meanwhile, shares of most homebuilders fell after Lennar [LEN Loading... () ], Pulte [PHM Loading... () ] and D.R. Horton's [DHI Loading... () ] price targets were cut by Credit Suisse.

US-traded shares of Toyota [TM Loading... () ] skidded after a senior executive said the company plans to slash car prices by 30 percent in the next three years. However, a corporate spokesperson denied the initiative.

Motorola [MOT Loading... () ] shares rose 1 percent after the handset maker said it will buy back most of its debt and pump its remaining cash into its struggling mobile-devices unit, which it plans to spin off.

Amylin Pharmaceuticals [AMLN Loading... () ] jumped 20 percent as rival Roche said it would be delayed with its competing diabetes drug. JPMorgan upgraded its rating on Amylin to "overweight" from "neutral."

CVS Caremark [CVS Loading... () ] and Walgreen [WAG Loading... () ] rose after the companies settled a dispute over prescription-drug reimbursements.

Campbell Soup shares [CPB Loading... () ] fell after the canned food manufacturer announced it is recalling 15 million pounds of SpaghettiOs with meatballs after a cooker malfunctioned at one of the company's plants, leaving the meat undercooked.

The euro logged its best week since 2009 after European leaders vowed to make public details about the health of European banks.

All 27 EU members will publish detailed results of bank stress tests by July, and all of the bloc's members will also levy a tax on banks to pay for future financial crises and a financial transaction tax.

Volume was heavy, with over 1.7 billion shares changing hands on the New York Stock Exchange. Advancers outpaced decliners, roughly 5 to 4.

Next week, investors will be closely monitoring the two-day policy meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, the rate decision-making body of the Fed, which starts Tuesday. The FOMC is set to release its rate decision Wednesday afternoon with an accompanying statement on their latest assessments on the economy and inflation.

The Fed is expected to keep its key policy rate—the federal-funds target rate, at record low near zero to revitalize the economy, a decision the central bank has maintained for more than a year.

On Tap For Next Week:

MONDAY: Feinberg speaks on executive compensation
TUESDAY: Existing-home sales; 2-yr note auction; Flash Crash hearing; 2-day FOMC meeting starts; primary runoff elections; Earnings from Walgreen and Adobe
WEDNESDAY: Weekly mortgage apps; new home sales; weekly oil inventories; 5-yr note auction; FOMC interest rate decision; Galleon hearing; Earnings from Nike and Bed Bath & Beyond
THURSDAY: Durable goods orders; weekly jobless claims; 7-yr note auction; iPhone 4 on sale; Yahoo shareholders meeting; Earnings from Lennar, Oracle and Research In Motion
FRIDAY: Final read on Q1 GDP; corporate profits; consumer sentiment; XTO shareholders meeting on Exxon buyout

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