Weekly Market Wrap: September 17, 2010
Friday, September 17, 4:37 PM ET

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Welcome to the “Weekly Market Wrap” for Friday, September 17, 2010.

September is a historically down month for stocks -- but so far they have started out strong. U.S. equities were higher this week.

Crude oil futures were lower on the week, trading just above $73 a barrel on Friday afternoon.

Gold surged to a record price on Friday. Safe-haven investment buying of gold surprised investors earlier in the week amid a weaker dollar and speculation that the Federal Reserve is planning further quantitative easing. Spot gold hit an all-time high of $1,282.75 a troy ounce before easing to a bid of $1,276 mid-afternoon on Friday.

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) said it will issue new equity and debt in a move to eliminate its gold hedging position and maintain a strong balance sheet to fund new projects. The company will issue 16 million new ordinary shares. The bonds are due in 2013 and will convert into American depositary shares.

On the economic front, retail sales grew 0.4 percent in August, the strongest growth since March, and ahead of economist’s expectations of 0.2 percent.

On Wednesday, industrial production was released, showing 0.2 percent growth, lower than the forecast of 0.4 percent. Capacity utilization was also reported along with industrial production. Overall capacity utilization was 74.7 percent on expectations of 75 percent, roughly flat from July’s reading of 74.8 percent.

On Thursday, the Labor Department said that initial jobless claims totaled 450,000 for the week ending September 11. This was in-line with expectations.

Producer price data were also released on Thursday, coming in at a 0.4 percent rise for the month of August. Analysts were expecting a 0.3 percent rise in producer prices.

And on Friday, consumer prices rose for the second straight month in August after three months of declines. The CPI was up 0.3 percent in August, in-line with expectations.

On the earnings front, Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) posted earnings of 60 cents per share and hiked its second half forecast on Tuesday. Consensus was 45 cents.

The Kroger Company (NYSE:KR) also reported on Tuesday with 41 cents per share in profits. Analysts were expecting 36 cents profit per share.

On Thursday before the open, FedEx (NYSE:FDX) released earnings per share of $1.20, coming in below the consensus estimate of $1.24 per share.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) topped street estimates on Thursday reporting 42 cents per share, ex-items, and beating analyst estimates of 36 cents.

And Research in Motion (RIMM) reported earnings of $1.46 per share on Thursday, handily beating the street estimate of $1.35.

This is the “Weekly Market Wrap” for Friday, September 17.

Please join us on Monday for the “Week Ahead Market Report.”

For MarketNewsVideo.com, I'm Sayoko Murase.