Week Concludes With S&P 500 Below 2,000; Dow Below 17,000

The S&P 500 finished the week below 2,000 points while the Dow was unable to hold 17,000 points. Volume was notably higher during Friday's session following weeks of light trading activity.

Major Averages

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average gave up 61 points, or 0.36 percent, to 16,988.
• The S&P 500 lost 12 points, or 0.60 percent, to 1,986.
• The Nasdaq Composite dropped 24 points, or 0.53 percent, to close at 4,568.

Top Stories

Retail sales for the month of August were inline with analyst estimates at 0.6 percent growth month over month. TD Ameritrade’s JJ Kinahan commented, “What matters here is quality - where are people spending their money? If higher-end retailers are solid, that means consumers are willing to spend more, which is a positive signal for the economy and for the market." Some of the largest growth areas were for big ticket items.

Amazon AMZN is rumored to acquire a 40 percent stake in eBay EBAY for $40 per share. Many are speculating the partial sale is being spearheaded by activist investor Carl Icahn.

Stock Movers

Conversant CNVR shares shot up 30.3 percent to $34.80 after Alliance Data Systems ADS announced its plans to buy Conversant for $35 per share.

Shares of ULTA Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance ULTA got a boost, shooting up 17.9 percent to $114.89 after the company reported upbeat second-quarter results and raised its outlook. The company also unveiled a five-year plan for impressive growth.

Sportsman's Warehouse Holdings SPWH shares were also up, gaining 15.2 percent to $6.96 after the company reported stronger-than-expected fiscal second-quarter results.

Shares of Ruckus Wireless RKUS were down 4.4 percent to $14.46. Buckingham Research downgraded Ruckus Wireless from Buy to Neutral and raised the price target from $15.00 to $16.00.

Health Care REIT HCN shares tumbled 4.87 percent to $63.25 after the company priced 15,500,000 shares of common stock at $63.75 per share.

Amarin Corporation plc AMRN was down, falling 17.7 percent to $1.49 following an update on ANCHOR trial SPA deal rescission appeal.

Commodities

Gold futures continued to sell off Friday, breaking below what some thought was support around $1,240. The contracts were last down 0.6 percent to $1,231.20.

Crude oil is sitting on support just above $92. Despite a few strong sessions, the commodity ended the week negative on Friday’s 0.7 percent sell off.

Currencies

After a strong week, the US Dollar gave up some ground Friday. The PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish ETF UUP, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of foreign currencies, dropped 0.1 percent to $22.43. The 52 week high is $22.49.

The closely watched EUR/USD pair may have put in a bottom after racing to a year low. The couple jumped 0.21 percent Friday.

Global Markets

Asian markets were mostly higher Friday, rebounding from Thursday’s drop. The Shanghai index rose 0.9 percent while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 0.3 percent. Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.3 percent for the session.

Europe finished trade mostly flat. The Euro Stoxx index, which tracks 50 eurozone blue chips fell 0.1 percent percent. London’s FTSE rose 0.1 percent, and France’s CAC was flat.