Weekly Roundup: MarketWatch top 10 stories, July 16 - 20

	Weekly Roundup JULY 20, 2012 MarketWatch top 10 stories, July 16 - 20 By MarketWatch NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stocks fell Friday for the first down day in four, erasing July gains for both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite Index in a week when earnings season, Fed testimony and euro-zone political economy wrestled to dominate investor sentiment. The Dow (DJIA) fell 120.79 points, or 0.9%, to close at 12,822.57, putting the index down nearly 0.5% for July. The Nasdaq (COMP) dropped 40.60 points, or 1.4%, and closed at its intraday low of 2,925.30, for a 0.3% loss for the month of July. The S&P 500 Index (SPX) closed down 13.85 points, or 1%, at 1,362.66, and barely hung onto a gain of less than 0.1% for the month of July. For the week, the Dow closed up 0.4%, the S&P 500 rose 0.4% and the Nasdaq advanced 0.6%. As the week drew to a close, European stocks posted broad-based losses Friday, with Spanish equities plunging as government-bond yields soared on renewed fears the country could be forced to seek a full-fledged sovereign bailout due to its debt burden. Read full story The Fed did not provide much anxiety relief this week, either. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sketched out for members of Congress on Tuesday the weaker economic outlook and stressed that the central bank was prepared to take further action to try to give the recovery a jolt. In testimony to the Senate Banking Committee as part of his twice-yearly report on monetary-policy issues, Bernanke said that the reduction in the unemployment rate will likely be "frustratingly slow." Read more about Fed chief's testimony. Also please be sure to watch our Week Ahead videos.  U.S. Week Ahead: Earnings from Apple, Facebook  Europe Week Ahead: U.S. and U.K. GDP Greg Morcroft, assistant managing editor 5 things Yahoo's Mayer can learn from Steve Jobs Marissa Mayer, formerly a well-regarded Google Inc. executive, is facing an imposing challenge as Yahoo Inc.'s (YHOO) chief executive. She lacks CEO experience and will be working under a microscope as she tries to save Yahoo and its tattered brand. Because Mayer can't consult with the late Apple Inc. (AAPL) co-founder, Steve Jobs, who orchestrated one of the greatest turnarounds in the Valley, we have compiled a few tips that might help. Steve Jobs's tips for new Yahoo chief Retirees hit hard by foreclosures Golden years? Not for an increasing number of older Americans who are losing their homes to foreclosure. One of the hardest-hit groups: those aged 75 and older, according to a report by AARP based on mortgage data from 2007 through 2011. All told, more than 1.5 million Americans aged 50 and older lost their homes in the five years from 2007 through 2011. See more on elderly suffering foreclosures A Grimm tale from the euro zone European monetary union: a chronicle of enthusiasm that ends in disillusionment. As in history, dreams and disaster sit closely together. The various acts of the drama read like episodes from fairy tales. In "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," "The Magic Porridge Pot" and "The Emperor's New Clothes," Goethe, the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen have told the respective stories. They provide the script — even key characters — for the saga playing out now. Fairy tales and financial crises Does Romney believe in capitalism? Does Obama? The Obama and Romney campaigns have been beating each other up for a week over the issue of outsourcing American jobs. Each of them is accusing the other of being the "outsourcer in chief." To hear them talk, you'd think that outsourcing is a bad thing. Which raises the obvious question: Does Mitt Romney believe in capitalism? Does Barack Obama? For outsourcing is old as capitalism itself, as basic as the theories of the division of labor and of comparative advantage that are the bedrock of capitalism. Read more on Obama, Romney and outsourcing How Bernanke will cause the next crash before 2014 "Massive wealth destruction coming," warns Hong Kong economist Marc Faber, one of many "Dr. Dooms" we've featured over the years. Faber warned in a recent interview on CNBC: The super-rich "may lose up to 50% of their total wealth. How? "Somewhere down the line we will have a massive wealth destruction. That usually happens either through very high inflation or through social unrest or through war or credit-market collapse." Dr. Doom delivers again Ignore the news headlines! It's been nearly one year since the unthinkable happened: The U.S. government's credit rating was downgraded. What have we learned in the intervening 12 months? Last summer may seem like ancient history to you, of course. But those tense weeks in July of last year, leading up to the climactic debt-ceiling vote in Congress in early August, were characterized by political polarization in Washington — and they came in the context of a European debt situation that was becoming completely unraveled and confident predictions from leading economists that the U.S. was headed into a recession. My how times changes, don't they? Read Mark Hulbert's insights, on MarketWatch Ignore the Libor scandal at your own risk Maybe you've seen the headlines mentioning Libor or Bob Diamond or the fixing of interest rates. Perhaps you vaguely know that banks were tinkering with the rates for their own advantage. Big deal, you say. So what? You should care because of all the missteps of the financial crisis, this one can't be explained away by Wall Street's excuses. Lying, Libor and you Pessimistic Bernanke doesn't commit to action Fed chief Ben Bernanke sketched out for members of Congress the weaker economic outlook and stressed that the central bank was prepared to take further action to try to give the recovery a jolt. In testimony to the Senate Banking Committee as part of his twice-yearly report on monetary-policy issues, he said that the reduction in the unemployment rate will likely be "frustratingly slow." Bernanke won't commit to action, yet Credit-card pact no deal for consumers The $7 billion settlement between Visa Inc. (V), MasterCard Inc. (MA), some large banks and retailers, if approved, sends a strong message to consumers: Buck up and plan on paying for the privilege of using a credit card or any other payment method. "If you're using an additional service when you shop you'll be paying for that service," said Anisha Sekar, vice president of credit and debit products for online financial-products reviewer NerdWallet. "Everyone who uses cash has been subsidizing credit-card holders for years." Consumers loss is in the cards Food and water investments to weather drought Record heat, dry skies and acres of drought-stricken corn are stressing farmers and cereal makers, but commodities and natural-resource investors are cool and composed. Weather has caused a "supply shock" that observers say only reinforces a longer-term investing theme in the scarcity of food and water. A hungry and thirsty world is growing, and "you can't triple a population in a lifetime without consequences," said Jeremy Grantham, a closely followed value investor and co-founder of asset management firm GMO LLC., in a speech at the Morningstar Investor Conference in June. Weathering the drought, for profit 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). MarketWatch - Attn: Customer Service, 201 California St., San Francisco, CA 94111