Weekly Market Wrap: November 20, 2009
Friday, November 20, 5:07 PM ET

Hi. I’m Sayoko Murase. Welcome to the “Weekly Market Wrap” for Friday, November 20, 2009.

Major equity indexes were mixed for the week.

This week, the Dow Industrials ended relatively unchanged, as did the the S&P 500 Index. The NASDAQ Composite Index ended lower.

Gold traded around the $1,140 mark today after hitting a record $1,152.74 on Wednesday. December gold futures are trading up for the week.

Despite being up for the week, Oil prices dropped on Friday and are likely to stay below $80 a barrel due to high inventories in the United States.

Several countries are thinking about imposing capital controls to stop short-term speculative inflows. The capital inflows are being driven by a weaker U.S. dollar and causing emerging market currencies to surge higher. The capital controls are designed to head off concerns about emerging market asset bubbles.

Brazil has already imposed a 2 percent tax on the inflow of money destined for financial assets, vowing to further tighten those restrictions. The Brazilian finance ministry also imposed a new 1.5 percent tax on the issuance of depository receipts or ADRs. ADRs allow companies to offer shares on foreign exchanges.

Federal Reserve chairmen rarely make public comments on the U.S. dollar. But this week, Fed chief Ben Bernanke said the US central bank was monitoring currency markets "closely" and will conduct policy in a way that will "help ensure that the dollar is strong." The dollar briefly spiked higher on his comments. But it later fell against other major currencies while commodities, stocks and bonds strengthened as investors focused instead on growth, prices and interest rate comments by Bernanke.

In third quarter earnings news, shares of Dell Corporation (NASDAQ:DELL) dropped nearly 9 percent on Thursday after the company reported disappointing profits. Adjusted earnings per share came in at 23 cents. Analysts had expected profits of 28 cents a share.

Lowe's (NYSE:LOW) third quarter earnings per share of 24 cents was in-line with consensus estimates. The company indicated they "…are beginning to see signs of improved performance in some of the hardest-hit housing markets including California, Florida and areas of the desert Southwest."

Home Depot (NYSE:HD) earnings beat the street by 5 cents on reported profits of 41 cents per share.

Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) beat consensus this week by reporting third-quarter profit of 58 cents per share. Analysts expected Target to post earnings of 50 cents a share.

This is the “Weekly Market Wrap” for Friday, November 20. Please join us on Monday with the “Week Ahead Market Report.”