Last week, markets managed to push higher, propelled by the strength in the semiconductors and a late rally by the financials. Semiconductors have been drawing speculators searching for the next deal, ADI and MXIM being the latest in merger talks. SNDK remains on the radar as a takeover target.

Financials were sluggish to start the week, as earnings from JPM, WFC, and GS were not very inspiring. But, buyers came in in full force on Thursday. We caught most of that surge with our GS calls, which brought in profits as high as +43%. Our GLD calls also scored an intraday +48% gain! Here are the closed trades for the week:

For the week, the Dow was up +131.48 points; SPX added +18.22 points; Nasdaq gained +56.22 points. Gold continued to push higher, trading above $1170/ounce (see my latest analysis on gold). Oil was flat, trading above $47/barrel. At the time of this writing, Asian markets were mixed. Let’s see where the US markets stood after Friday’s close:

SPX

On Friday, SPX added +9.25 points to close at 2033.11. Its daily MAs and MACD went up.

Nasdaq

Nasdaq gained +16.59 points to close at 4886.69. Its daily MAs and MACD also went higher.Markets experienced some weakness on Tuesday and Wednesday last week, but, were able to finish higher with the help of a rally from the financials