Rentech, Inc. (NYSE:RTK) a provider of clean energy solutions, closed at $2.00 last Friday, posting a 7.5% gain for the week. Since the start of the year, the stock has risen by 51.5%. (In fact, Rentech has been on an upward trajectory since bottoming out at $0.75 in early October 2011.)

read more

Last Friday, Paramount Gold and Silver Corp. (NYSE:PZG) closed at $2.25, marking a 6.25% loss for the week. Last week's performance was primarily due to the declining gold prices over the week. Since trading above $2.70 in February, Paramount has been declining ever since, although it is currently still up 9.2% for the year. A natural resource company, with a market cap of $308 million, Paramount is involved in the acquisition, exploration and development of gold, silver and other precious metals in the US and Mexico.

read more

While gold prices were largely unchanged last Friday ending at $1,655.94 an ounce, they posted the second-biggest weekly decline this year. The precious metal’s 3.25% drop last week, while also hitting a low of $1,634 last Wednesday, erased much of the gains made in the preceding two months.

read more

Last Friday, crude oil for April delivery rose by more than 2% to reach $107.06 a barrel, a ten-month high, due to a combination of several factors. Firstly, continuing tension over Iran’s disputed nuclear program raised the potential for supply disruptions in the region. Secondly, the weakening of the dollar also played a role in boosting oil prices. The dollar declined after last Friday’s report on US consumer prices which showed mild inflation, making it unlikely that the Fed would change its low interest rate policy in the near future. Thirdly, U.S.

read more

Last Friday, Chimera Investment Corporation (NYSE:CIM) fell by almost 3% to close at $2.95, also marking a 2.3% loss for the week. While the stock is still up 15.7% for the year, having been on an upward trajectory since early January, it has been rather volatile, trading between $2.51 and $3.12 in the past three months.

read more

JPMorgan & Chase Co. (NYSE:JPM), the biggest and most profitable US bank, closed at $44.57 last Friday, marking an 8.6% gain for the week. The stock surged 7% on 14 March, after the company's announcement that it has received regulatory approval for a 20% dividend increase. The company's rally also helped lead financial stocks in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) to a 5.9% gain.

read more

Last Wednesday (14 March), wireless broadband operator Clearwire Corp. (NASDAQ:CLWR) announced that it has signed Cricket cell service parent Leap Wireless as a customer for its new network. According to Clearwire, the deal will see it supplementing Leap Wireless' own network with the fourth-generation Long Term Evolution technology over a five-year period. The news pushed up the stock by 2.1% to close at $2.19. There were subsequent gains in the rest of the week, with the stock closing at $2.27 on Friday.

read more

The Dow Jones moved above 13000, to a level not seen since December 2007, and the S&P500 passed through 1400 for the first time since the summer of 2008 as inflation remained subdued and retail sales picked up. The technology sector saw the Nasdaq hit its highest level since late 2000.

read more

Armour Residential REIT (NYSE:ARR) experienced a 3.36% drop last Friday, ending at $6.80. ARR, which has been trading above $7 from last December, has not dropped to this level since October 2011. This was primarily due to the company's announcement on Friday that it was commencing an underwritten public offering of 26 million shares of common stock. ARR said that it planned to use the net proceeds of the offering to "acquire additional agency securities as market conditions warrant and for general corporate purposes."

read more

Last Friday, videogame maker Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ:ATVI) closed at $11.91, marking a 2.06% gain for the week. After bottoming out in early March, the stock is now down 3.17% for the year. The sharp drop of 2.25% on 1 March came about after the Santa Monica, Calif. game maker announced that it was cutting a tenth of its workforce, even though it pointed out that an overwhelming majority of the job cuts were not “related to game development”. Activision also emphasized that the layoffs have already been factored in its earnings forecast and will not affect its results this year.

read more

Last Tuesday, pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. (NYSE:MRK) posted its estimates of first-quarter profits, declaring that it would earn about 95 to 98 cents a share, excluding expenses associated to acquisitions and restructuring. This is slightly below the consensus estimate of $1.01 a share. The company also said that it expected its revenues this year “to be at or near 2011 levels on a constant currency basis. At current exchange rates, sales would be unfavorably affected by about 2-3%.” (Merck’s calculations are based on an exchange rate of $1.31/euro.)

read more

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) closed at $21.48 last Friday, marking a 0.12% gain for the week. The stock is down 1% for the year, though it has been on an upward trend since bottoming out at $18.45 last November.

read more

Last Friday, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (NASDAQ:GMCR) fell by 15.7% to end at $52.59, also marking a 23% drop for the week. After rising to $70.65 in mid-February, the stock has been on the decline ever since. Stocks of the single-cup coffee machine maker slumped on Friday after Starbucks said that it would sell its own single-cup machine (Verismo).

read more

According to the Labor Department’s monthly report last Friday, the US unemployment figure for February remained at 8.3%, while 227,000 jobs were created. This is the third consecutive month of job gains over 200,000. Job figures for both December and January were also revised upwards from 203,000 to 223,000 and 243,000 to 284,000 respectively. Thanks to the better-than-expected report, the Dow Jones finished higher for a third straight day last Friday, ending at 12,922.

read more

Last week, the Greek government indicated that it has secured sufficient participation from its private creditors for a debt swap deal that will enable it to avoid defaulting on its debts. According to the Greek finance ministry, investors with 95.7% of Greece’s privately held bonds will participate in the swap after so-called collective action clauses are triggered. (Greece needed a 75% participation rate to push through the deal before it gets a second bailout.)

read more

After falling by around 2% on Wednesday as worries over the Greek debt swap deal weighed, equity markets recovered to end the week flat, depressed by data from China but with optimism injected by a better than expected US jobs report.

Early in the week, markets were dominated by a number of bearish factors:

read more

Blackberry maker Research in Motion Limited (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM) continued its decline last week, ending at $13.79, a 6.4% drop for the week. Since peaking at $17.57 in mid-January, the stock has been on a downward trajectory. With the company facing increased competition from rivals such as Apple and Samsung, many analysts are starting to lower their expectations in the run-up to the company’s earnings announcement on 29 March.

read more

Last Friday, Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE:RAD) closed at $1.67, marking an 18.44% gain for the week. (The stock is up 34.7% since the start of this year.) Initially, there was only slight trading activity. However, trading volume subsequently spiked sharply later in the morning. In the end, about 15 million stocks were traded last Friday, more than double its usual intraday average of about 7.5 million stocks. While there has not been any confirmation of any company-specific news, there were some rumors that Walgreen Co.

read more