Weekly Wrap: January 20, 2012
Friday, January 20, 5:19 PM ET

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Hi. I'm Sayoko Murase. Welcome to the 'Weekly Market Wrap' for Friday Jaunary 20, 2012.

The S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the Nasdaq were all higher this week.

Crude oil futures are lower this week, trading around $98.46 per barrel on Friday afternoon.

Gold futures are higher this week, to around $1665.15 an ounce.

In notable economic news this week, the Labor Department announced that the number of Americans filing initial jobless claims fell to a nearly four-year low, falling 50,000 to a seasonally adjusted 352,000. The unemployement rate, however, remains high at 8.5 percent.

In corporate news this week, Supervalu (NYSE:SVU) announced that its third quarter loss increased to $750 million, or $3.54 per share, versus $202 million, or $0.95 per share in the same period last year. Revenue was $8.33 billion, versus $8.67 billion in the same period last year.

SemiLEDs (NASDAQ:LEDS) posted a a second quarter loss that was less than analysts had predicted, but also said that the second quarter results will be weak due to oversupply pressuring margins. The company lost $0.28 per share, or $7.7 million, versus a profit of $0.11 per share, or $3.8 million, in the same period last year.

Morgan Stanley announced that it lost $275 million, or 15 cents per share, versus a profit of $600 million, or 41 cents per share, in the same period last year. Analysts had expected a loss of 57 cents per share. The firm attributed the loss to a one time $1.7 billion, or 57 cent per share, settlement with MBIA (NYSE:MBI), as well as to the effects of the European debt crisis.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) announced that it made $2 billion, or 15 cents per share, in the fourth quarter, versus a loss of $1.2 billion in the same period last year, meeting analyst expectations. Revenue increased by 11 percent to $25 billion. The profit includes a $2.9 billion gain on the sale of a take in China Construction Bank, and a $1.2 billion from swapping preferred stock for common stock.