This week was a turbulent one for stocks that left the Dow with a weekly decline for the first time in over a month. The Dow, which dropped only 15 points today, finished the week down a total of 260 points or almost 3% while S&P dropped 2.6% on the week.  The Nasdaq rose today on strength from Microsoft (MSFT) and Apple (AAPL) that offset weak forecasts from Research in Motion (RIMM).  Despite todays jump of nearly 1.1% the Nasdaq still fell 1.7% this week.  Microsoft shares rose almost 2.5% today after Goldman Sachs added the company to their “conviction buy” list.  Apple (get Fiscal Frenzy’s view) shares rose 2.7% today as the company began selling their new and improved iPhone 3G S.  Anticipation to this event helped the stock outperform the markets and actually rise by almost 2% this week.

The markets finished the week lower as news of a still problematic jobs market as well as turmoil in Iran and oil all influenced investors actions.  News came out that almost every state in the country saw an increase in jobless claims.  This news was not encouraging to investors and was part of the reason the Dow slid today.  The markets drop this week can also be attributed to the highly fluctuating price of Crude Oil.  The commodity dropped almost $2 a barrel today to finish below $70 a barrel.  This drop brought down the energy sector and kept the Dow lower on the day.  Earlier in the week however the price of Oil was surging causing investors to sell most other stocks as the price of oil may soon be a big factor in consumer spending as it was back when oil approached $150 a barrel.  A big part in the jump in the price of Crude Oil is the fall out from the presidential elections in Iran.  As Iran controls much of the International oil supply any turmoil in that country, and the Mid East region in general, is problematic and very influential on the trading price of Oil.

The Financial sector rose today and was led by JP Morgan Chase (JPM) and Bank of America (BAC).  JPM shares rose almost 2.5% today as the company announced they will take a profit hit from paying back the TARP money from the government.  Investors embraced this as good news that the company no longer needs the government assistance and shares then rose.  Bank of America shares also rose 2.5% as the shares have continued to rally in recent days.