U.S. stocks fell modestly for the week, with a rally on Friday putting an end to a four-day losing streak for the large cap S&P 500. Meanwhile our Short Term Indicator was less Bullish than last week. 

•  The Dow Jones Industrial Average gave back some of last week’s gains, falling 1.5%, or 389 points to close at 24,946. The technology-heavy NASDAQ Composite fell a lesser 1%, ending the week at 7,482. By market cap, large caps pulled back more than their smaller cap brethren. The large cap S&P 500 index gave up -1.2%, while the mid cap S&P 400 and small cap Russell 2000 each fell -0.7%.

• On the international front Morgan Stanley Capital International, developed markets slipped -0.44%, while emerging markets fell -1.1%.

• Precious metals lost some of their luster as Gold retraced 0.9% or -$11.70 to close at $1312.30 an
  ounce. Silver, which usually trades similarly to Gold but with more volatility, fell 2% to close at $16.27 an ounce.In energy, crude oil had its second week of gains. West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose
  $0.37 to close at $62.41 a barrel, a gain of 0.6%. Similarly, Brent crude oil ended the week up 0.78% to close at $66 per barrel.

• The number of Americans seeking new unemployment benefits fell slightly last week,
  remaining near a 50-year low. The Labor Department reported initial jobless claims declined by 4,000 to 226,000,well within the key 300,000 threshold that analysts use to indicate a “healthy” jobs market. Last week was the 158th consecutive week that claims remained below that level. Even more encouraging is the unemployment rate,which sits at a 17-year low of 4.1% and is likely to drop even lower in the coming months. Federal Reserve officials consider the labor market to be near or even a little beyond “full employment”. Continuing claims, which counts the number of people already receiving benefits, rose by 4,000 to 1.88 million. Continuing claims dropped below 2 million last spring and have remained there ever since.
  
  
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