Despite continued unrest in the Middle East and mixed news across the board, the week ending Friday, March 25, 2011, finished on a positive note, although on light volume – with the DJIA up 3.1% for the week and the S&P gaining 2.8%!  On Monday, the DJIA ran up just over 178 points to finish the day at 12,036.  The S&P showed similar strength, up 19 points to 1298.

Markets were led by increasing optimism over the post quake/post tsunami recovery in Japan.  Consensus believes that they will be able to avoid a nuclear melt-down disaster.  Continued merger and acquisition activity also bolstered the enthusiasm.  AT&T announced its intention to acquire T-Mobile in a cash and stock deal valued at $39 Billion, pending regulatory approval.  Warren Buffett also announced that he is looking for more deals, quoting “the bigger, the …

News of the disaster in Japan hit the markets with fears of a nuclear disaster at Japan’s nuclear power facilities as well as a soaring yen rattling the currency markets.  While the original affect on markets were centered around the “rebuilding trade” the prior Friday, this week brought concerns surrounding the impact globally of the destruction.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down as much as 147 points on Monday but, recovered to close at 11993.  News of General Electric’s involvement with the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which was heavily damaged in the disaster and where there were explosions, brought the Dow Jones Industrial component down 2.2% Monday.  Another large component of the Dow, Walt Disney, also announced the closure of its Tokyo Disneyland complex, which hurt shares and helped drag down the Dow.  The restructuring theme continued with Caterpillar gaining ground to support the Dow along with …

The Dow Jones Industrial Average started the week fretting over Libya and oil prices coupled with a downgrade of the semi conductor chip manufacturers.  The index closed Monday with a decline of 80 points largely due to Intel and Boeing.  Boeing fell 1.3% on news that Airbus, its main competitor from Europe, made positive statements about their role in the global commercial airline industry particularly in Asia and continued ability to compete with Boeing.  The Intel downgrade shed 1.4% off of the tech heavy NASDAQ Composite Index with some large components like JDS Uniphase pulling it lower with a loss of 6.9%. Technology shares were also hit by the rising cost of crude which closed at $105 per barrel Monday. 

Bullish statements from the CEO of Bank of America at an investor presentation on Tuesday gave a boost to the financial sector, …

The broader markets gained modest ground this past week with the Dow up 0.3%, the NASDAQ inched up 0.1% and the S&P 500 increased slightly by 0.1%.  A few notable events that caught our attention were hawkish comments from European Central Bank President, Jean-Claude Trichet, insider trading charges against former Goldman and Procter & Gamble director, Rajat Gupta, and comments from FDIC Chairman Shelia Bair about downsizing financial institutions if they cannot be dealt with a bankruptcy-like process.

On Monday, the Dow was up 0.8% to 12,226, the NASDAQ added 0.04% to 2,782; and the S&P 500 advanced 0.6% to 1,327.  The Chicago PMI continued its growth during February, reaching its highest level since July 1988, posting 71.2 up from 68.8 in January and continuing its march higher despite …