2011 Market Wrap: Lackluster With Some Light

The stock market drew to its 2011 conclusion Friday,with the major averages down just over a half percent for the week.For the year,the bellwether S&P 500 Index was virtually flat,down a meaningless 0.003.You made no money on the broad market this year,but you didn't really lose any,either.
There were individual winners and losers,however.McDonald's was the biggest winner among the Dow 30,rising 31% on the year.The biggest loser in the Dow was Bank of America,losing more than half its value at -55%.Top-rated financials in the analysts' estimates are JP Morgan Chase,Prudential Financial and Wells Fargo.
The winning sectors for 2011 were utilities and consumer staples-clearly defensive areas.The biggest losers were the financials and materials-sectors dependent on a robust economy.The CBOE VIX volatility index was up a sharp 31.83% on the year,and trading volume was pretty uniformly thin.
The new year may well hold more of the same in store,with concern over European and American deficits,and the U.S. presidential election,dominating a headline-driven market.The S&P futures slipped modestly Friday evening,down 4.80%,and bond index futures gained.
McDonald's(MCD),Bank of America(BAC),JP Morgan Chase(JPM),Prudential Financial(PRU),Wells Fargo(WFC)

Canadian Open Dry and Tough

An unforgiving course and its dry greens kept scores high at the RBC Canadian Open in Vancouver.At the end of the second round,Americans Michael Thompson and Chad Campbell shared the lead at -4.Canadians Adam Hadwin and David Hearn shared fifth place with a number of other golfers at -2.
At the LPGA Evian Masters on the French shore of Lake Geneva,Japan's Miki Saiki topped the leader board with a nine under par through the second round.Americans Stacy Lewis,Paula Creamer and Kristie Kerr were close behind,with Lewis at eight under,and Creamer and Kerr at seven under par,respectively.
While the golfers seemed to be in relatively cool surroundings,the Mid-Atlantic region was gravely hot.At Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia,the rules were relaxed so fans could bring bottled water to the baseball game.Even in Toronto,on Thursday the dome of Rogers Centre was closed against the 100F heat.
Stocks were not hot for the week,but did score modest gains.The broadly based S&P 500 index was up 2.19 on some strong earnings reports from Microsoft and McDonald's,among others,as well as apparent progress in European debt talks.The Reuters/Jefferies CRB commodities index climbed 2.66 on the week.
Next week,a plethora of earnings will be logged in by Ford Motor,3M,US Steel and Exxon Mobil,to name a handful of the 300 companies slated to report.There will also be a lot of data to react to from the housing sector,as well as consumer sentiment,GDP and durable goods reports.
The S&P futures were down 1.50 Friday evening,while oil,gold and bond index futures rose.
Microsoft(MSFT),McDonald's(MCD)