Weekly Roundup: MarketWatch's top 10 stories of the week

Weekly Roundup FEBRUARY 03, 2012 MarketWatch's top 10 stories of the week Jan. 30–Feb. 3: From Amazon to Facebook, politics to payrolls By MarketWatch With the Nasdaq Composite Index ending the week at an 11-year high, it's perhaps peculiar that the stock-market week was as much about a stock that has yet to trade publicly (namely, Facebook) as about the mood of stock traders this week (namely, optimistic).   Inspired by renewed optimism about a positive resolution of the long-running European fiscal crisis and upbeat U.S. economic data and urged along by social-networking company Facebook's long-anticipated IPO filing and other factors, the main U.S. stock indexes achieved long-term highs. Alongside the Nasdaq Composite's (COMP) 3.2% sprint to its highest closing level since December 2000, the Dow industrials (DJIA) marked out a 1.6% weekly rise to end Friday at their peak level since May 2008. The S&P 500 (SPX) split the difference, advancing 2.2% on the week — and is now up 7% in the new year. Stay tuned to MarketWatch this Super Bowl weekend for breaking news and developing stories. Plus a Weekend Investor feature on investing in the financial stocks. Weekend Investor: Don't write bank stocks a big check . And our weekly preview video reports for the U.S., European and Asian markets:  U.S. Week Ahead: Cisco, Disney and Greece in market view .  Plus: A big week for IPOs lies ahead .  Europe's Week Ahead: ECB and Bank of England meetings among keys .  Asia's Week Ahead: China inflation data closely watched . — Tim Rostan, managing editor Mutual funds that already own Facebook ReutersFacebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks to reporters at Harvard University, where he launched the company as an undergraduate eight years ago.As a MarketWatch Community member commented this week, whereas, once upon a time, well-connected fund managers were able to secure allocations of hot initial public offerings on their shareholders' behalf, in the case of the much-anticipated Facebook (FB) IPO, funds that long ago acquired stakes through private markets and other means may be ready to unload by Day 1, selling into the strength of what looks likely to be a retail-market frenzy. Do you own a fund that's already heavily into Facebook? Read Chuck Jaffe's First Take commentary on funds with big pre-IPO stakes in Facebook . Job market going from strength to strength, at last   This, writes commentary editor Rex Nutting, was the kind of employment report the U.S. economy needed. And we need to see many more that are just as good. U.S. payrolls expanded by 243,000 in January, after seasonal adjustments. U.S. businesses created 257,000 jobs — the most in six years. Trendwise, nearly 2 million jobs have been created in the past six months. Read Rex Nutting's analysis of Friday's jobs data . U.S. Senate shuns advantaged trading The Senate approved legislation seeking to curtail insider trading of securities by lawmakers and officials in the executive branch, responding to pressure from the White House in the wake of reports that some members of Congress have used privileged information for financial gain. See full story on the overwhelming Senate vote to bar insider trading by lawmakers . Bernanke calls for political armistice to tackle deficit Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke warned that the U.S. risks the possibility of a sudden fiscal crisis unless Washington comes to grips with the deficit. He backed a legislator's call for a bipartisan "armistice" on the matter in hopes that would lead to a negotiated peace. See full story on Bernanke's testimony and 'armistice' call . Italian and Spanish bonds bask in January gains Even at the center of the European debt crisis, investors who bought the risky bonds ended up making good money. At least some of them. Some of the time. The Tell: Italian and Spanish bonds gained in January . NYSE and Deutsche Boerse scrap merger After a regulatory rebuff in Europe, NYSE Euronext (NYX) and Deutsche Boerse (DBOEF) said they'd decided to scrap their merger plan. See Market Pulse item on the announcement that the NYSE–Deutsche Boerse deal is dead . Amazon faces music after fourth-quarter results Investors took down shares of Amazon (AMZN) after the e-commerce leader reported a surprising sales miss for the fourth quarter — leading some to wonder whether the company's breakneck growth over the past year is beginning to ebb. See full story on market's hostile reaction to Amazon's fourth-quarter financial results . Five 'almost Apple' tech stocks With Apple (AAPL) in a nearly uninterrupted ascent to a succession of all-time highs, investors concerned about joining the parade just in time for a change of direction might be forgiven for seeking alternatives with more readily visible upside. Jeff Reeves to the rescue. See Jeff Reeves's Trading Deck column naming five tech stocks that could be (almost) as good as Apple . Some 15,000 jobs on AMR block American Airlines holding company AMR (AAMRQ) may cut up to 15,000 jobs, or about 17% of its workforce, as the carrier seeks to restructure in U.S. bankruptcy court, a meeting between the carrier and labor unions revealed. See full story on AMR's plan to cut costs by cutting as many as 15,000 jobs . Glencore approaches Xstrata over tie-up The Anglo-Swiss miner Xstrata PLC and Swiss-headquartered commodities titan Glencore International are in talks to create an $80 billion–plus commodities giant after Glancore proposed an all-share merger. See full story on prospective merger between Glencore and Xstrata . 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. 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