Weekly Roundup: Week's Top 10: Fighting the tape -- and the bull

	Weekly Roundup AUGUST 02, 2013 Fighting the tape — and the bull Week's top stories: Fed, Pimco, Moto X and Apple's pirate flag By MarketWatch ReutersScene from la Feria del Toro de San Fermin in Pamplona, Spain.Happens every day in bullfighting, so why not on Wall Street? The bull, having been nurtured with great care, is well-respected and even venerated in the ring, fans of the sport insist, but who can blame the beast for feeling it's maybe not getting optimal treatment? And so it is with this current bull market, which has been ushering the Dow industrials and the S&P 500 to all-time highs on a regular basis , even as numerous market participants and investment sages characterize the upward trend as wrong-headed. On MarketWatch's pages this week, we had Jeff Reeves ticking off the five reasons that people are so dismissive of this bull market. But Chuck Jaffe's column on why American investors remain willing to accept the risk inherent in stocks and Mark Hulbert's argument that buy-and-hold is as relevant now as ever serve as a counterbalance, a rebuttal, an appeal for calm. On the week, during which July was put in the history books as a winner for stocks, the Dow industrials (DJIA) rose 0.6%, while the S&P (SPX) picked up 1.1% and the Nasdaq Composite (COMP) advanced 2.1%. The Dow and S&P closed Friday, in fact, at record highs — for the 30th and 25th time of the year, respectively. — Tim Rostan Dual-focus Fed As is customary, the Fed held Wall Street rapt during its monetary-policy meeting this week. But interest in the U.S. central bank was already at a fever pitch, as pundits and others engaged in an increasingly heated guessing game about Ben Bernanke's prospective successor as Fed chairman. It's grown intense enough that, as Rex Nutting posits , Senate Democrats can actually be imagined filibustering a nomination by President Obama of ex-Treasury Secretary Larry Summers to the post. Nutting bullet points two fistfuls of reasons for that state of play. Bond market vs. central bank Lately, notes Michael A. Gayed in a Trading Deck column , the Fed has kept trying to tether lending rates at their historically low rates, while the bond market has taken an opposing tack. It should, Gayed writes, be abundantly clear that the market is more powerful and much faster than the Fed. Bond-fund flight Bond prices have suffered so acutely of late that the biggest bond fund there is, Pimco Total Return (PTTRX), has suffered three straight months of net outflows for the first time in years. U.S. economy generates 162,000 jobs in July The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 7.4% in July — its lowest level since the end of 2008 — but the economy gained a modest 162,000 jobs during the month. That was only the latest sign the economy has failed to break out of its slow-growth phase. Working toward a job Job hunting these days is about more than poring over the classified ads and following up on those that interest you. For some, it's about the best ré sumé money can buy — even if that means spending $20,000 . For others, it means establishing a relationship with recruiters — the people with direct access to hiring managers. Moto X's uphill battle Google (GOOG) unit Motorola's launch of its Moto X generated buzz by calling maximal attention to the device's customizability and other purported differentiating factors, like sound quality. "We're going to show the world what Android can do," Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside said at a launch event in New York. When the confetti settled, there remained plenty of doubts that the Moto X can chart safe passage between, or navigate around, the Scylla and Charybdis of today's smartphone world, the Apple iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy. Pirates of the Cupertino? Is Apple flying the pirate flag again , as it did in its swashbuckling days 30 years ago? Therese Poletti sees in its transfer of hardware executive into a "future products" role reason to think it (AAPL) is. Leave it to Beavers At a Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni event this summer, RetireMentors columnist Joseph Coughlin asked nearly 200 graduates and spouses to write down at least three pieces of retirement advice they would give to younger people — what to do today to increase the chances of a better retirement tomorrow. This column was the illuminating result. Cellphone role in crashes In light of the revelation that the driver in the Renfe train crash near Santiago de Compostela, Spain, was on his mobile phone at the time of the deadly mishap , MarketWatch's Quentin Fottrell reported that some 25% of automobile crashes — themselves, of course, far more numerous than passenger-train incidents — are likely caused by cellphone use, according to a May 2013 report by the National Safety Council. Congressional care Can you believe Congress exempted itself from Obamacare ? It just goes to show lawmakers know the law is terrible and want to insulate themselves from its consequences. It's quite a tale, isn't it? Though — inconveniently enough — it's not quite true . 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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