Weekly Roundup: MarketWatch top 10 stories May 21 - 25

	Weekly Roundup MAY 25, 2012 MarketWatch top 10 stories May 21 - 25 By MarketWatch NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stocks had their first winning week in a month by the time markets closed on Friday. It was quite a stretch for the markets, and Facebook's monumentally botched IPO owned the headlines for much of the period, overshadowing a strong tech rally that saw the Nasdaq Composite (COMP)  add 2.1% over the past five days. The S&P 500 Index (SPX) gained 1.7% this week and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) rose 0.7%. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) continued damage control this week to calm investors and regulators about its surprise trading loss earlier this month. In an effort likely to appease regulators and help retain capital, J.P. Morgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon this week said the firm was suspending share buyback plans, but it will continue to pay a dividend. Stocks managed to notch weekly gains despite a number of international economic reports that showed a good part of the world slowing down. China reported slowing demand for exports as well as internally, sparking concerns about its economic growth and keeping Asian markets volatile. In Europe, the U.K. slipped back into recession and Germany appeared headed that way after posting a quarter of negative growth. On Friday, anxiety grew about Spain as reports surfaced of further fiscal woes in Catalonia and Bankia's need for billions of euros of government support. Europe's problems have driven so many investors to look for the stability of German government bonds that the yield on the two-year maturity, called the "schatz," fell to near zero, with many expecting it to go negative soon. That created the odd, and somewhat troubling situation this week that saw yields on French government securities fall sharply as prices rose. The paper also closed the spread between it and the German securities as investors chose to reach outside Germany to juice returns. Also, please watch our U.S. Week Ahead video.  U.S. Week Ahead: Key Jobs Data, Auto Sales Greg Morcroft, assistant managing editor Facebook is nothing but embarrassment Well, that was embarrassing. What is it about Facebook (FB)? The company and its products keep making fools of us. As consumers, Facebook encourages us to overshare our lives, even though we know we'll live to regret it. As investors we are tempted to overbuy, and we are regretting that, too. It's as if Mark Zuckerberg is having the ultimate nerd's revenge: He's humiliating all of us and taking our money in the process. The worst part is that we keep coming back for more. Read MarketWatch coverage of Facebook IPO fallout Investors may be headed for a fiscal cliff Investors are reeling from Europe's deepening economic crisis, but they may soon find themselves battered closer to home as the U.S. economy closes in on another debt-ceiling debate and teeters toward the edge of a "fiscal cliff." Come 2013, tax rates are slated to skyrocket and mandated cuts will slash defense and other federal spending. Higher revenues and lower government spending might suggest good news for our grandchildren, but that cliff could represent bad news for today's investors. Indeed, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday that if the scheduled tax increases and spending cuts occur, the economy will fall back into a recession. Read MarketWatch look at problems ahead J.P. Morgan to suspend share-repurchase program J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. will suspend share buybacks in the wake of a $2 billion-plus trading loss in its chief investment office, the bank's chief executive said on Monday, as he declined to give a "running tally" on the loss.Speaking at a financial-services conference organized by Deutsche Bank in New York, Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of J.P. Morgan also said that the bank will maintain its dividend. Read more about Jamie Dimon's moves to protect J.P. Morgan Leading indicators of a market top If in fact the bull market came to an end earlier this month, it will go down in history as a particularly unusual market top. That's because only a minority of the indicators that have accompanied prior major stock market tops are present today. That, at least, is the conclusion I drew from reviewing the arguments of several of the better-performing advisers I track.Read Mark Hulbert commentary on stock market analysis, on MarketWatch Commentary: Obama spending binge never happened Of all the falsehoods told about President Barack Obama, the biggest whopper is the one about his reckless spending spree. As would-be president Mitt Romney tells it: "I will lead us out of this debt and spending inferno." Almost everyone believes that Obama has presided over a massive increase in federal spending, an "inferno" of spending that threatens our jobs, our businesses and our children's future. Even Democrats seem to think it's true. But it didn't happen. Read Rex Nutting commentary on budget deficit, on MarketWatch Stocks are severely oversold, but buy signals are lacking One thing that all traders figure out sooner or later is that an oversold market can continue to decline — sometimes at an ever-increasing pace. Eventually, of course, traders are "sold out," and the market rallies. But even though such an oversold rally might be swift and of considerable size, it is often short-lived. The decline in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index this month has been swift, but surprisingly orderly. SPX has declined from 1,415 on May 1 to 1,290 just last Friday. Today's decline may have effectively been a retest of those lows, as SPX probed down to 1,295. At its nadir, the index was nearly 4 standard deviations below its 20-day moving average, which is an indication of an oversold condition. Read MarketWatch story on value in the stock market China's manufacturing activity sparks jitters China's factory activity appeared set for a seventh straight month of contraction in May, according to HSBC data released Thursday, with export orders shrinking to erase one of the bright spots in the previous month's numbers. Export orders were firmly in contraction, reversing from a reading that indicated expansion in April, the survey said. Meanwhile, factory orders extended their weakening, declining at a faster rate than in April, the PMI showed. Read full MarketWatch coverage of troubling China PMI data 5 money moves one risk manager is making now Investors who take minimal risk can't expect much gain, but those who don't manage risk can expect much worse.Keith McCullough is committed to risk control, to the point where he named his investment research firm Hedgeye Risk Management. Hedgeye provides strategic advice to institutions such as mutual funds and hedge funds, and to self-directed individual investors. McCullough's overarching investment theme nowadays is that the U.S. dollar will strengthen further. "If you get the U.S. dollar right, you get a lot of other things right," McCullough said. Read Jonathan Burton's "Money Talks" column, on MarketWatch IPO means 'it's probably overpriced' In the past few days, thanks to the initial public offering of Facebook, investors have learned what the letters IPO really stand for: "It's probably overpriced." Truthfully, the initial public offering process is built and managed to give a predictable pop on opening day, which results in an equally predictable fallback later, which is why chasing after any initial public offering is the Stupid Investment of the Week. Read Chuck Jaffe's 'Stupid Investment of the Week," on MarketWatch Bankia seeks 19 bln euros in government aid The board of troubled Spanish lender Bankia SA (ES:BKIA)  announced Friday that it will seek 19 billion euros ($23.8 billion) from the government in a recapitalization plan, making it the largest bailout in the nation's history. The figure already has been agreed with the government, a source familiar with the matter said. The government said it would provide all funds needed to stabilize the bank, with Economy Minister Luis de Guindos commenting earlier this week that at least 9 billion euros would be needed to help cover the bank's exposure to bad loans and repossessed homes, according to media reports.Read about Bankia's desperate need for money, on MarketWatch 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 2012 MarketWatch, Inc. All rights reserved. MarketWatch, the MarketWatch logo, and BigCharts are registered trademarks of MarketWatch, Inc. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy (updated 6/26/07). 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