Stocks finished the week generally mixed in light
trading, with mega-caps lagging the market. Traders mostly shrugged off a
technical glitch at the Nasdaq, which halted that exchange for three hours
Thursday.

The market traded down Wednesday ahead of the
release of the minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s July policy-setting
meeting, and middling rallies on Thursday and Friday weren’t enough to overcome
the earlier losses among the big caps.

With
few macroeconomic data releases and little new in the way of policy hints out
of the Fed, investors switched their focus mainly to corporate news from
companies like Microsoft (ticker:
MSFT) and retailer Abercrombie (ANF).

The Dow Jones Industrial Average managed to climb
back above 15,000 Friday, to close at 15,010.51, down 71 points, or 0.5%, on
the week. The S&P 500 index inched up eight points to 1663.50. The Nasdaq
Composite index gained 1.5%, or 55 points, to 3657.79. The small-cap Russell
2000 index jumped 14 points, or 1.4%, to 1038.24.

The
market’s negative reaction to the Fed minutes was surprising, says Liz Ann
Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab, because it wasn’t
particularly “new news.” However, the drops are more understandable
in light of high bullish sentiment among investors coming into the week.

As a contrary short-term indicator, she says
sentiment remains “too frothy,” even if it has cooled. The Schwab
strategist is cautious about the near term and expects more of a pullback and
volatility. “I’d like to see a further reversal of sentiment” before
getting more positive, she adds.

Investors might be obliging. Last week, individuals
pulled $12.3 billion out of equity exchange-traded funds, the first outflow in
eight weeks and the largest in five years, according to a report Friday from
Bank of America Merrill Lynch chief investment strategist Michael Hartnett.

Next week might be quiet, but in September there are
going to be headwinds in the form of a Fed policy meeting on the 17th and 18th,
in a month when many expect the central bank to begin tapering its quantitative
easing, notes Jack Ablin, chief investment officer of BMO Private Bank.

Then there are critical German elections on the
22nd, and the ninth month has historically been a tough period for stocks, he
notes (Source:  Barrons Online).