Weekly Market Wrap: August 24, 2012
Friday, August 24, 4:49 PM ET

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Hi. I'm Sayoko Murase. Welcome to the 'Weekly Market Wrap' for Friday August 24, 2012.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the Nasdaq, and the S&P 500 edged lower for the week.

Crude oil futures are higher this week, trading around $96.40 per barrel on Friday afternoon.

Gold futures are higher this week, trading at $1669.99 an ounce in afternoon trading..

In notable economic news this week, jobless claims rose by 4,000 for a second week to reach 372,000 in the period ended August 18 according to the Labor Department.

In corporate news this week, Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) announced that net income during the quarter fell by 90 percent, due to weak sales and restructuring charges. The company earned $12 million, or 4 cents per share, versus $128 million, or 34 cents per share in the same period last year. Adjusted earnings were 20 cents per share, and revenue declined by about three percent to $10.55 billion. Adjusted earning were 20 cents per share, while analysts had expected earnings of 31 cents per share and $10.65 in revenue. Same store sales were lower by 3.2 percent.

Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) announced that it earned $732 million in the second fiscal quarter on revenue of $14.5 billion, or 42 cents per share, versus a profit of $890 million on revenue of $15.6 billion in the same period last year. The amounts to an eighteen percent decline in profit, and eight percent revenue decline.

Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) announced that it lost $8.9 billion, or $4.49 per share, versus a profit of $1.93 billion, or 93 cents per share in the same period last year. Revenue was $29.7 billion versus $31.2 billion in the same period last year. The results include a one time $10.8 billion, or $5.49 per share charge related to one time changes. Analysts had expected adjusted profit of 98 cents per share on revenue of $30.2 billion.

Autodesk (NASDAQ:ADSK) announced that it earned 48 cents per share on revenue of $568.7 million, below estimates of 49 cents per share and revenue of $593.5 million. The company expects a profit of 40-45 cents per share in the current quarter, and revenue in the range of $550 to $570 million, well below estimates of 50 cents per share and revenue of $601.3 million.

A Seoul, South Korea court ruled that Samsung's Galaxy smartphone looks very similar to Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone, but the company did not violate the iPhone design patents.

This is the 'Weekly Market Wrap' for Friday August 24, 2012. Please join us on Monday for the 'Week Ahead Market Report."