Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr. (Getty Images via @daylife)
Another positive week for the stock market is in the book, though some earnings-related headwinds Friday left out the tech-tilted Nasdaq, which lost 0.3% over five days.
The Dow Jones industrial average and S&P 500 climbed to fresh highs though, with the former posting a 0.5% gain for the week to 15,464 and the latter up 0.7% to 1,680.
The winners and losers were largely earnings driven, with names like Johnson Controls Johnson Controls and Bank of America Bank of America posting comfortable weekly gains. On the flipside Microsoft Microsoft was down 12% for the week with the bulk of its loss coming on the heels of a disappointing earnings report Thursday:
Microsoft missed profit estimates big time, with adjusted EPS coming in at 52 cents, while analysts expected $0.74 (the revenue miss was slight, coming in at $19.9 billion, compared to the $20.6 billion Wall Street expected).
via Microsoft Growing Pains In Ballmer's Shift To Devices And Cloud
While disappointment from Microsoft results is something investors have gotten used to, a top and bottom-line miss from Google Google came as more of a surprise, resulting in a dip Friday and a 3% loss for the week.
Elsewhere in tech territory, Carl Icahn and Michael Dell continued their staredown over the buyout of Dell Dell. Wednesday, Icahn told an investment conference audience he remains confident his proposal will win out, and a day later the company's delayed a shareholder vote to try to drum up more support for the bid from its founder. (See "Michael Dell Suffers Setback.")
Financial firms kept firing out results, with most topping estimates despite some turbulence late in the second quarter when interest rates rose sharply on worries over Fed tapering. Goldman Sachs Group Goldman Sachs Group was among the firms to mention the changing landscape:
Net revenue in the fixed income, currency and commodities (FICC) business was up 12% from 2012 to $2.5 billion, but after a "generally favorable environment during the first half of the quarter, market conditions across products became more challenging during the latter part of the quarter."
Goldman and its ilk have Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve to thank for that, after the chairman and his colleagues on the FOMC indicated in late May and mid-June that the central bank's bond-buying program could be slimmed down starting as soon as September.
Detroit took center stage late in the week, with the city filing the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history Thursday. Now comes the long slog to figure out who gets what from a city with dwindling cash and more than $18 billion in liabilities:
The 'exodus' of the population — down 28% since 2000 — has 'brought Detroit to the point that it cannot satisfy the promises it made in the past,' Gov. Snyder continues. With Orr unable to cut a deal with creditors, the governor agreed that 'the only feasible path to a stable and solid Detroit is to file for bankruptcy protection.'
On Friday, fireworks came from the regulators, with the SEC charging hedge fund manager Steven Cohen with "failure to supervise" a pair of traders at his hedge fund who allegedly engaged in insider trading:
According to the complaint filed by regulators, Cohen "received highly suspicious information" that should have caused him to investigate the rationale for trades conducted by Matthew Martoma and Michael Steinberg for affiliates of his hedge fund SAC Capital.
The firm scored more than $275 million in profits and skirted losses as a result of the trades, the SEC alleges in its complaint, which seeks to bar Cohen from overseeing investor assets.
via SEC Charges Steve Cohen For Failing To Stop Insider Trading At SAC Capital
The week ahead brings another round of earnings, starting with a report from McDonald's McDonald's before the open Monday and Apple Apple's latest quarterly figures after the closing bell Tuesday.
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