U.S. Stocks Post Third Weekly Gain

U.S. stocks finished the week mixed, with the Nasdaq Composite index climbing to a moderate advance and the S&P 500 recouping about half of Thursday's six-point loss. Healthcare and consumer discretionary companies helped lift the broader markets to their third weekly gain.

G-7 Talks
Equities see-sawed through much of the session as leaders of the world's largest economies, Friday, began two days of talks on steps to keep a global recovery moving forward. No major policy statements are expected out of the Group of Seven discussion this weekend although Friday's trading was influenced by expectations the finance chief will continue to support ongoing stimulus measures by the world's central banks.

Finance chiefs meeting near London, this weekend, are expected to discuss prospective measures to shore up the global recovery, with participants also likely talking about the role of central banks, including the Bank of Japan and its aggressive monetary policies in recent weeks. Market consensus appears to point to central banks continuing their easy-money policies, which should also again receive varying degrees of support from among the G-7 members. The talks are expected to produce any significant policy announcements with a Canadian finance official telling Bloomberg News earlier this week the group may not issue a formal communique at the end of the weekend meetings.

Likely Talking Points
Nevertheless, recent moves by the Bank of Japan and its impact on global currencies are expected to generate considerable discussion. The U.S. dollar breached the 100 yen mark late yesterday for the first time in over four years as the yen has dropped sharply in value compared to other currencies since the new government took charge in March vowing to bring an end to the country's two-decade stagnation, primarily by flooding the economy with money.

Market support for continued stimulus was evident yesterday as stocks fell after the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Charles Plosser said he favors scaling back the central bank's monthly $85 billion in bond purchases as early as the next Federal Open Market Committee meeting later this month. The FOMC last week said it will maintain its asset-purchase program until the unemployment rate shows significant improvement.

Commodities settled mostly lower on Friday. Crude oil for June delivery (CLM13.NYM) recouped much of its earlier losses, settling 35 cents lower to $96.04 per barrel. June natural gas slid 7 cents to finish at $3.96 per 1 mln BTU. June gold slid $32 to settle at $1,436.80 per ounce. July silver was off 25 cents to end at $23.64 per ounce while July copper reversed a small loss to settle 1.5 cents higher at $3.35 per pound.

Among energy ETFs, the U.S. Oil Fund is down 0.70 cents to $33.47 and the U.S. Natural Gas Fund is down 9 cents to $21.39. Among precious-metal funds, the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF is down 77 cents to $29.08 and the SPDR Gold Shares ETF is down $3.15 to $ 137.66. The iShares Silver Trust is down 36 cents to $22.53.

Here's Where The U.S. Markets Stood At Day's End

• Dow Jones Industrial Average up 35.87 (+0.24%) to 15,118.49
• S&P 500 up 7.03 (+0.43%) to 1,633.70
• Nasdaq Composite Index up 27.41 (+0.80%) to 3,436.58

• Hang Seng Index up 0.47%
• Shanghai China Composite Index up 0.62%
• FTSE 100 Index up 0.49%

• (+) UNIS, Reports adjusted Q1 net loss of $0.12 per share, $0.03 better than its year-ago net loss and beating analyst forecasts for the quarter by $0.02 per share. Revenue declined 46.2% year over year to $700,000, trailing expectations.
• (+) MCP, Posts adjusted $0.15 per share Q1 net loss, reversing an $0.18 per share adjusted profit during the same quarter last year but beating analyst projections by $0.16 per share. Revenue increased 9% over year-ago levels to $146.4 mln, also beating expectations by $10.8 mln.
• (+) CCIX, Adjusted Q1 GPS grows 54% from the year-ago quarter to $0.37, beating analyst forecasts by $0.08 per share. Sales rose 0.9% to $222.5 mln, in-line with estimates. The industrial cable company also doubled its quarterly dividend to $0.04 per share, payable May 31.
• (+) TRLG, Agrees to $835-mln cash buyout by TowerBrook Capital Partners. Shareholders will receive $32 for each share they currently own, an 8.7% premium over Thursday's closing price for the stock.

• (-) PTIE, Said Pfizer Inc. (PFE) is reassessing its partnership with the smaller drug-maker on development of an experimental painkiller formulated to limit abuse, citing regulatory delays and rising costs. A third partner, Durect Corp. (DDRX) is down neraly 41%.
• (-) LPDX, Reports Q1 net loss for Q1 of $2.8 mln, reversing a $1.3 mln profit last year. Revenue declined 1.2% year over year to $13.6 mln. The diagnostics company also cut it FY13 revenue forecast to a new range of $54 mln to $56 mln.
• (-) AFFY, Warns it soon may be forced to shut down or file for bankruptcy protection, saying unless Takeda - its manufacturing and marketing partner for an anemia drug - can quickly identify the cause and rectify the hypersensitivy problems for some patients that prompted a voluntary recall in February, it will soon run out of money.
• (-) OPTR, R.W. Baird lowers rating for the drug-maker to Neutral from Outperform in a new research note Friday. Price target was maintained at $16 a share.