Weekly Recap - Week ending 19-Nov-10The S&P 500 ended flat as a sharp drop on Tuesday was offset by a large gain Thursday. Speculation that China will raise rates, concerns regarding the state of Ireland and a successful IPO from General Motors all influenced trade during the week.

Trading was mixed, with 5 of the 10 sectors gaining. None of the sectors posted a gain or loss in excess of 0.9%.

In corporate news, General Motors (GM +3.8%) returned to the public market with great acclaim after an IPO (post-bankruptcy) that raised more than $20 bln for the company.

The M&A market remains active. Caterpillar +3.6% is buying Bucyrus (BUCY +28.1%) for $7.6 bln, a 32% premium. EMC (EMC +0.5%) is buying Isilon Systems (ISLN +28.4%) for 2.25 bln, a 29% premium.

Several retailers reported earnings this week as third quarter earnings reporting season winds down. Target (TGT +3.9%), Lowe's (LOW +1.8%), Home Depot (HD -0.7%), TJX (TJX +0.7%), Staples (SPLS +5.7%) and Gap (GPS +1.0%) all posted upside quarterly results. Wal-Mart (WMT +0.5%) posted in-line results but provided upside guidance. Sears Holdings (SHLD -7.9%), however, missed both EPS and revenue estimates.

Separately, Dell (DELL +3.5%) reported better than expected earnings and Cisco (CSCO -2.7%) announced a $10 bln share repurchase plan.

In economic data, retail sales brought good news. Total retail sales increased 1.2% in October (Briefing.com consensus +0.7%) on top of an upwardly revised 0.7% increase in September. Excluding autos, retail sales jumped 0.4% (Briefing.com consensus +0.4%) versus a 0.5% gain in September. All in all, the