Weekly Market Wrap: 3/26/2010

(MarketNewsVideo.com) -- Hi. I'm SAYOKO MURASE. Welcome to the Weekly Market Wrap for Friday, March 26, 2009.

The S&P 500 was about even for the week, as was the Nasdaq Composite Index. The Dow Industrials closed higher.

Gold prices were trading around the $1,104 to $1,105 an ounce level late on Friday.

Crude oil was almost flat for the week. April crude futures were trading just under $80 a barrel on Friday afternoon.

On Tuesday, existing home sales came in at a 5 million annualized rate, in-line with expectations.

On Wednesday, durable goods orders for February increased 0.5 percent month-over month. Observers were expecting a 1 percent gain.

Also on Wednesday, new home sales data for February were slightly down from the consensus number. The consensus number was 315,000. The actual number reported was 308,000.

Treasury prices gained a bit on Friday, but lost ground for the week as rates on 10-year notes reached the highest levels since June 2009. Investors are increasingly worried about the U.S. government's ability to finance its extraordinary budget deficit.

Companies are starting to increase dividends again. This week, Raytheon (RTN) indicated it will raise its annual dividend by 21 percent to $1.50 a share.

Starbucks (SBUX) announced its first-ever quarterly dividend of 10 cents per common share.

Restaurant owner and franchiser Brinker (EAT) said it would increase its quarterly dividend by 27 percent from 11 cents to 14 cents per share.

On the earnings front this week, General Mills (GIS) reported profits of 97 cents per share, beating street expectations of 93 cents.

Homebuilder Lennar (LEN) also beat the street, reporting a loss of 4 cents per share. Expectations were for minus 30 cents per share.

On Tuesday, Adobe Systems (ADBE) reported earnings per share of 40 cents, beating street estimates by 3 cents.

Also on Tuesday, Darden Restaurants (DRI) announced profits of 96 cents per share, beating consensus estimates by 4 cents.

Oracle (ORCL) quarterly earnings were in-line with Wall Street expectations of 38 cents per share.

On Thursday, Best Buy (BBY) reported $1.82 a share in profits for the fourth quarter, beating street estimates of $1.78.

This is the Weekly Market Wrap for Friday, March 26. Please join us on Monday for the Week Ahead Market Report.

The preceeding is a transcript of the MarketNewsVideo.com video published at: http://www.marketnewsvideo.com/?id=201003WeeklyWrap032610&mv=1.