Tiger's Good Round,Western Weather

Tiger Woods is showing consistency at The Masters,a tradition-steeped tournament at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia.Woods played intently on Friday,finishing with a strong 2nd round seven under par 66.He was tied for 3rd place with South Korean K.J. Choi.Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy was dominant at -10,while Australian Jason Day tied a tournament record for the lowest 2nd round score for a first-timer at Augusta,shooting an eight under 64.Also of note,Fred Couples,51,is in contention with his 2nd round five under 68.
Weather conditions will be hot and humid for the remainder of the tournament.To the west,storms are taking many forms,from apple-sized hail in Butler County,Kansas to a heavy snow forecast in Flagstaff,Arizona.There may be wind gusts up to 75 mph in the Southern Plains,and a 50,000 acre brush fire raged in North Texas.
Stocks did not rage this week,with the S&P down slightly for the week,pressured by soaring oil prices.Gold closed at a record high 1474.10 an ounce Friday.The S&P futures were down a modest 4.70 Friday evening,and bond interest rate futures also dropped.Shaping trading next week will be the start of earnings season as Alcoa reports on Monday,JP Morgan Chase on Wednesday,Google on Thursday and Bank of America on Friday.
Alcoa(AA),JP Morgan Chase(JPM),Google(GOOG),Bank of America(BAC)
Update:Rory McIlroy continues to decisively top the leader board with a four stroke lead heading into Sunday's final round.Tiger Woods and Fred Couples are still in contention,along with Jason Day and former Masters champion Angel Cabrera of Argentina.Phil Mickelson is a mathematical long shot for his fourth green jacket at the tournament.

Stocks,Employment Post Modest Gains-plus Mickelson's momentum

For the week,stocks posted modest gains,with the Dow gaining 1.28,the S&P 1.42 and the NASDAQ 1.70.The first quarter has closed and Q2 has begun with risk assets still in the leading role for portfolio managers.The week ahead promises more of the same,with the S&P futures up 6.70.Bond futures rose in price also.
The employment picture improved as expected,with the unemployment rate falling slightly to 8.8% in March.Since 2009,it has declined from 10.1%.The slow recovery continues.
Unsettled spring conditions prevailed in the Mid-Atlantic region this week,and the next promises a repeat with more spotty showers in the forecast.
It was sunny at the Houston Shell Open Friday,where American Chris Kirk topped the leader board with a second round 69 for a -9.Fellow Americans Anthony Kim and Johnson Wagner shared 2nd with -9s,while Irishman Padraig Harrington was 4th,also shooting a 2nd round 69.
Update:On Saturday,Phil Mickelson,40,showed flashes of his old brilliance,seizing a share of the lead with his friend Scott Verplank,and tying the course record with a 13 under 63 at that,as he builds to his title defence at The Masters next week,the first of the year's majors.Mickelson surged from being five strokes off the lead on Friday.Chris Kirk fell to third place,sharing it with Australian Aaron Baddeley.

Market Steamrolls Forward

The incredible Teflon market powered on this week,impervious to all events,both internal and external.A near meltdown in Japan,terrible housing data in the U.S. and low consumer confidence were all brushed aside as the market posted gains for the week.The Dow rose 3.1,while the NASDAQ added 3.8 and the S&P 2.7.The cash has to flow somewhere,and bonds are out of favor because of inflation fears,so it's pouring into risk assets.Light volume today shows that there wasn't great conviction behind this,however.
At the Bay Hill Club&Lodge in Orlando,Scotsman Martin Laird did play with conviction,shooting a second round 65 for a nine under par and the lead of the Arnold Palmer Invitational.South Korean K.J. Choi and American Spencer Levin shared second place at eight under.
The Mid-Atlantic region should be under a bit of snow Sunday morning,just when it was thinking spring was fully awake.Mostly it will be a covering for the grassy areas,with the roads having had a chance to rise above freezing in recent afternoons.
Next week will be focused on the March employment report issued on Friday,as well as the beginning of earnings season just around the bend.The S&P futures were modestly higher Friday evening,up 4.80,and Treasury bond and note prices declined.

Mama Bear Resists Tranquilizer

A mama bear shook off tranquilizer when she was darted by Maryland Department of Natural Resources biologists at a housing development in Deep Creek Lake.The mother was worried about her three cubs,which she had given birth to under a resident's back deck.The biologists felt it wasn't a safe place for them to dwell and were attempting to relocate the bruins to nearby Savage River State Forest.Finally,a few more darts did bring her down.She and the cubs were taken to a temporary den in the forest sporting their new ear tags so the officials can keep records on them.
The stock market couldn't shake off the newsy week and ended up modestly lower,with the S&P down 1.9.Many other Americans couldn't shake it off,either,besieged by media coverage of the Japanese catastrophe to the point of irrational reactions to the nuclear crisis 5,000 miles away.
Monday was looking more promising,with the S&P futures climbing 5.40,while 10-year Treasury bond prices fell.New and existing home sales data will draw attention from investors next week.

Californians Feel Japan Quake Aftermath

Californians were hit in the pocketbook by the Japan earthquake's attendant tsunami Friday.Millions of dollars of damage were done to harbors and boats along the SoCal coast by the powerful waves rippling off the Pacific.Docks were ripped from harbors in both California and Oregon,and dozens of boats were lost to the aquatic aftereffects of the Asian earthquake.
One California man was missing at sea and feared dead by the U.S. Coast Guard,having been swept away by the tsunami.The town of Newport Beach warned residents by robocalls Friday morning and closed Newport Beach Elementary School,but gave the all clear Friday afternoon.
The Toshiba Classic golf tournament,part of the Champions Tour of senior pro golfers,went ahead as scheduled at the Newport Beach Country Club.South African Nick Price led the field with a first round 60 for a -11,while German Bernhard Langer,the defending Charles Schwab Cup champion,tied for second with three Americans:Mark O'Meara,Mark Wiebe and Brad Bryant,all having shot 65s for -6s.
Though finishing up for the day,stocks drifted lower for the week,hurt by renewed European debt fears,the Libyan civil war and Japan's killer quake,with the S&P giving up 1.30.In the futures market Friday evening,the S&P rose a strong 11.70,and 10 year Treasury bond prices fell as the optimism from Friday's late trading carried over to Monday's prospects.

Market Has Good Week,Despite Oil

Oil price momentum slowed,but couldn't stop,the market this week.It ended slightly higher for the week.The Dow rose 0.33,while the S&P edged up 0.10 and the NASDAQ 0.13.All bonds ended in the green on Friday as stocks dropped modestly on the day,the fear trade returning in response to continued Libyan chaos on Friday.
Fear carried over into the futures market Friday evening,with the Dow losing another 85.00,the S&P a further 9.40 and the NASDAQ futures falling 12.00 more.
North Dakotans won't have to fear sweating on Saturday,with the forecast high being 16 F at Fargo.
A stiff breeze dried the sweat off golfers at the Honda Classic,a FedEx Cup event, in Palm Beach,Florida on Friday.American Kyle Stanley,23,topped the leader board with a 2nd round 66 for a -6,while South Africans Rory Sabbatini and Charl Schwartzel held 2nd and 3rd place respectively,Sabbatini shooting a superlative 2nd round 64 with 7 birdies and only 1 bogey.
American Mark Wilson leads the FedEx Cup competition so far.