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End of Week Summary: Choppy, Heavy Volume Trade Concludes with Modest Gain

There weren't any major news items or economic items to act as positive trading catalysts this session, but the market's bullish bias still came through. In turn, the S&P 500 finished in higher ground for the ninth time in 11 sessions.

Despite choppy, listless action and some late pressure, stocks were able to log another solid gain, which helped give the S&P 500 a 2.5% weekly gain... There weren't any major news items or economic items to act as positive trading catalysts this session, but the market's bullish bias still came through. In turn, the S&P 500 finished in higher ground for the ninth time in 11 sessions... Telecom stocks made the best gains after lagging in each of the previous two sessions. The sector mounted a steady advance in the second half of the session to finish with a 2.1% gain... Health care (-0.1%), materials (-0.1%), financials (-0.1%), and energy (-0.1%) were the declining sectors, but each managed to limit losses... Trading volume was especially high with more than 2 billion shares exchanging hands on the NYSE. That marked the highest level of volume since June. It was largely induced by the S&P quarterly rebalancing and the quadruple witching options expiration... With little point gain this could be called churning action in a market that is extremely overbought by all internal measures

The U.S. dollar showed particular strength, which helped the Dollar Index climb nearly 0.4% after hitting fresh 2009 lows just one session before. The greenback's gains helped pressure commodities and send the CRB Commodity Index down 0.7%... Weakness among commodities was particularly pronounced in crude oil futures, which saw prices slip 0.7% to $72.95 per barrel... Gold prices eased back, but remain above $1000 per ounce; they settled fractionally lower at $1010.30 per ounce after reaching their best levels of the year earlier this week. S&P 500 +0.3%, Dow +0.4%, Nasdaq +0.3%, Nasdaq 100 +0.2%, S&P 400 -0.1%, Russell 2000 +0.4%

Next week the market has the FOMC Rate decision , Continuing Claims, Exisitng Home Sales and Durable Goods . In respect to the Federal rates the Fed Reserve is faced with dealing with inflation and the prospect of raising rates in a very sluggish job growth market . Allthough it appears the economy is improving unemployment is not and jobs could be the wildcard that could derail the whole kit and caboodle.

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