Weekly Roundup: MarketWatch top 10 stories, Sept. 19 - 23

Weekly Roundup SEPTEMBER 23, 2011 MarketWatch top 10 stories, Sept. 19 - 23 By MarketWatch NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stocks ended higher Friday but tumbled for the week, sending the Dow average to its worst weekly loss since 2008, with investors alert to any sign of policy makers acting further to bolster the global economy. The blue-chip benchmark index (DJIA), however, took home a weekly loss of 6.4% — its worst weekly performance in both point and percentage terms since the week ended Oct. 10, 2008, near the peak of the U.S. financial crisis. The Nasdaq Composite Index (COMP) ended off 5.3% from the week-ago close and off 6.5% from last Friday's close, the S&P 500 Index (SPX) closed off 6.5% for the week. Crude futures(CL1X) finished at $79.85 a barrel, down 9.2% for the week. Gold futures (GC1Z) ended Friday's session at $1,639.80 an ounce — down $101.90 an ounce, or 5.9%, for its worst one-day percentage drop since June 2006. Also please be sure to watch our MarketWatch Week Ahead videos for Europe and the United States.  U.S. Week Ahead: All eyes on Greece  Europe Week Ahead: H&M and euro zone in Focus — Greg Morcroft, assistant managing editor Is Netflix doomed? Remember Krispy Kreme? As recently as July 25, the online video-rental company (NFLX) was expecting to have 25 million customers by the end of this month. Now it expects 24 million. That will actually be about 600,000 fewer than it had in June. Netflix stock crashed last week to just $155. As recently as July it had hit $299. Late Sunday, Chief Executive Reed Hastings, while unveiling a more formal separation of streaming from DVD-by-mail subscriptions, issued an apology and explanation to Netflix's disgruntled clientele. Read MarketWatch coverage and commentary on Netflix. UBS increases rogue-trading loss figure to $2.3 billion UBS AG (UBS) on Sunday raised its estimate of losses from unauthorized "rogue" trades to $2.3 billion, a $300 million increase from its earlier figure. The Swiss banking giant UBS said it had conducted a more thorough examination of the trades that could push third-quarter results into the red and has prompted an investigation by European authorities.The original estimate said the rogue trades amounted to $2 billion in losses. Read MarketWatch coverage on UBS rogue trader. TSA's bid to speed you through airport security The Transportation Security Administration is rolling out changes to airport-security procedures aimed at helping passengers, especially frequent flyers, get through the screening process easily and more quickly. Under the so-called "known traveler" program, some 6,000 to 8,000 frequent flyers at select airports daily will be directed toward dedicated lines that will zip them through security faster than you can get your shoes, coat and watch off and into the bins. Read MarketWatch's latest on TSA plans. Grantham: 'No market for young men' Hey, young Turks on trading desks, up-and-coming money managers and Wall Street stock jockeys: You want the truth about the global markets today? Listen to Jeremy Grantham, chairman of Boston-based investment manager GMO LLC: You can't handle the truth. "This is no market for young men," Grantham said. "At least us old men remember what a real bear market is like, and the young men haven't got a clue." Read Jonathan Burton's Life Savings column on MarketWatch. Is stock market replaying decade of the 1930s? Playing a script from the 1930s? If we only could be so lucky. Some in the investment arena have been drawing analogies to the 1930s for several years now, of course. While such speculation died down somewhat when the market was behaving well in 2010 and early this year, it has returned with a gusto in recent weeks, owing to the stock market's extraordinary weakness — including another 3.5% decline on Thursday of this week alone for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Read Mark Hulbert's column, on MarketWatch. Copper, coal: Crystal balls for the global economy Copper, coal and other industrial commodities can be great tools for predicting economic prospects and right now they're offering a gloomy outlook, but a closer analysis shows a glimmer of hope as the world struggles to avoid recession."People are looking at commodities and trying to figure out if a slight adjustment in the price of oil, copper, aluminum, etc. means that the world will prosper," or the global economy will fall off a cliff, said Byron King, editor of investment newsletter Outstanding Investments. But while some commodities can be leading indicators, making their moves ahead of the broader market, others may only offer a "coincident" indicator for the economy — one that by definition shows the current state of the economy, analysts said. Read Commodities Corner column, on MarketWatch. Solyndra execs stay silent before House panel Two top executives from solar-panel manufacturer Solyndra invoked their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination Friday and refused to answer lawmakers' questions about the bankrupt company's $535 million U.S. loan guarantee. Their silence since the company's filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, after suspending operations at the end of last month, did nothing to quell the political rhetoric swirling around a federal program to award loan guarantees to energy companies. Chief Executive Brian Harrison and Chief Financial Officer W.G. Stover Jr. repeatedly declined to answer questions from members of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, which is part of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Read about Solyndra executives' testimony before Congress on MarketWatch. 5 stock-market trends you don't want to miss Information flows so freely and fast these days, it's easy to get sucked into the notion that we have at our fingertips all the facts we need to make smart investment decisions. The problem for investors, however, is that we sometimes overlook or choose to ignore facts that could help us make more money, or avoid losing it. What is the single most important fact that investors seem to be overlooking in their analyses of the capital markets today, and what should they do given that insight? Here's how investment professionals answered those questions. Read MarketWatch's Bob Powell on retirement-planning issues. China manufacturing data paint weak picture HSBC's preliminary China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index, or "flash" PMI, fell to a two-month low in September, indicating a broadening slowdown in the Chinese economy, with industrial output swinging from a modest expansion to a deterioration. The weak data were a factor in the broad equities selloff in Hong Kong Thursday. The headline preliminary PMI for the month was 49.4, down from 49.9 in August, HSBC said in a statement Thursday. The PMI's output index fell to 49.2 in September, down from 50.2 in August and below the 50 level dividing expansion from contraction. Read MarketWatch coverage of Chines economic conditions. How birth order can affect your job, salary Not only did your big brother steal your Halloween candy throughout childhood, but as an adult he probably makes more money than you too, say recently released survey findings. As if years of retribution-free noogies weren't sweet enough, it turns out that first-born kids are the most likely to earn six figures and hold a top executive position among workers with siblings, according to findings from jobs website CareerBuilder.com. Meanwhile, middle kids are the most likely to report holding an entry-level spot and earning less than $35,000, while siblings born last are the most likely to work in middle management. Read MarketWatch's 'On The Job' column Get the latest news on our mobile site: http://www.marketwatch.com/m MarketWatch has sent you this newsletter because you signed up to receive it. To ensure you receive this newsletter in the future, please add marketwatchmail.com to your list of approved senders. Sent to: kumaresan.selva.blogger@gmail.com Unsubscribe | Subscribe Copyright 2011 MarketWatch, Inc. All rights reserved. MarketWatch, the MarketWatch logo, and BigCharts are registered trademarks of MarketWatch, Inc. 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