Morningstar Indexes: Weekly Market Report

Comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, weakness in the dollar, and rising commodity prices put the brakes on the five-week-long rally in stocks. The Morningstar US Market Index dropped 2.71% for the week ending May 12, giving back all of the prvevious week's gain.

All nine Morningstar Style Indexes finished the week deep in the red, ending the week below where they started. The Morningstar Small Growth Index suffered the worst, shedding 4.98%. Continuing to defy expectations for a rally, the tech-heavy Morningstar Large Growth Index dropped 3.05% for the week. It is now the only style index in the red for the year.

Despite large growth's underperformance, large-cap stocks faired the best last week overall. The Morningstar Large Core Index was the best performing among the nine Morningstar style indexes, down just 1.93%. Index component Golden West Financial GDW, a large mortgage lender, was among the few exceptions, gaining 5.32% on news of acquisition by Wachovia WM. However, several other financial-services companies did not fair as well. Lehman Brothers LEH led the decline with a drop of 7.08%, which drove the index lower.

Going from bad to worse, the Morningstar Small Growth Index plummeted 4.98%. A host of semiconductor firms, including Rambus RMBS, Silicon Laboratories SLAB, and Cypress Semiconductor CY, dragged the index down with losses of 14.11%, 9%, and 7.56%, respectively. Beverage marketing firm Hansen Natural HANS jumped 16.73%