Money Watch: Weekly Wrap

It was another losing week for stocks, as events in Japan dominated financial markets. The first part of the week saw the S&P 500 go negative on the year, off 6.4 percent from its Feb. 18 peak. Upside action on Thursday and Friday brought the index back into the black. (For more on what the week meant for investors, see "Stocks Slide: Good News For Your 401(k)" and "Japan Earthquake: 5 Investor Lessons").

DJIA: 11,858, down 1.5% on week, up 2.4% YTD (Worst two-weeks since August)
S&P 500: 1279, down 1.9% on week, up 1.7% YTD (Down 3.1% in two weeks)
NASDAQ: 2643, down 2.65% on week, down 0.35% YTD (Biggest weekly drop since week ended 8/13/10)
April Crude Oil: $101.07, down .09% on week
April Gold: $1416.10, down 0.4% on week

Total bank failures for 2011 = 25 (0 new bank failures over weekend)

FACTOIDS OF THE WEEK: Japan edition

Japan is the 3^rd largest economy in the world, accounting for 9 percent of global GDP
Japanese stocks are down 12 percent since the earthquake
In the weeks following the 1995 Kobe earthquake of 1995, Japanese stocks fell by 25 percent. By year-end stocks had recouped all of the losses.
The region affected accounts for only 4 percent of the country's gross domestic product
Japan supplies 30 percent of global semiconductor production and 15 percent of its computers and LCD TVs

IN THE WEEK AHEAD: Reports on existing and new home sales are not expected to show much progress, despite the fact that house prices are at new post-bubble lows and still falling. Additional pressure could come from a likely increase in foreclosure activity-currently, there are 11.1 million residential properties with negative equity and about 4.3 million mortgage loans are delinquent or in the foreclosure process. Final GDP for the fourth quarter is expected to rise to 3.1 percent from the previously-reported 2.8 percent.

Mon 3/21: Markets closed in Japan for holiday
10:00 Existing Home Sales

Tues 3/22:
10:00 FHFA House Price Index

Weds 3/23:
10:00 New Home Sales

Thurs 3/24:
8:30 Weekly Claims

8:30 Durable Goods

Fri 3/25:
8:30 Q4 Final GDP (previously reported as 2.8 percent, expected to increase to 3.1 percent)

9:55 Consumer Sentiment

Jill Schlesinger

Jill Schlesinger, CFP® is the Emmy-nominated Business Analyst for CBS News. She covers the economy, markets, investing and anything else with a dollar sign on TV, radio (including her nationally syndicated radio show), the web and her blog, "Jill on Money." Prior to her second career at CBS, Jill spent 14 years as the co-owner and Chief Investment Officer for an independent investment advisory firm. She began her career as a self-employed options trader on the Commodities Exchange of New York, following her graduation from Brown University.

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