The S&P 500 is keeping its winning streak alive, just. The index ended the week nearly two points higher, enough to give it a seventh straight week of gains. But the S&P lost 1 1/2 points today to end at 1,519.79. The Dow Jones industrial average is down for two straight weeks, although today it rose 8 points to close at 13,981. The Nasdaq composite fell 6 ½ points today.
- Oil prices have fallen below $96 a barrel after disappointing U.S. industrial production data fed concerns about the nation's economic recovery. In New York, benchmark crude for March fell $1.45 to finish at $95.86 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, used to price many varieties of foreign oil, fell 34 cents to end at $117.66 per barrel in London.
- The first lawsuit has been filed in the wake of days of miserable conditions aboard the crippled Carnival Triumph cruise ship. A Texas resident sued Carnival today in federal court seeking unspecified damages. The suit says Terry Cassie feared for her life or that she might suffer serious injury or illness because of the presence of raw sewage and spoiled food.
- Federal regulators are alleging that a Swiss brokerage account was used for insider trading ahead of the H.J. Heinz merger. The Securities and Exchange Commission obtained a court order today to freeze the account and prevent the assets from being moved. On Thursday, it was announced that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and a Brazilian firm had agreed to buy Heinz. The SEC alleges the traders must have known in advance about the pending transaction based on inside information.
- Next season will be the Minnesota Vikings' last in the 31-year-old Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, and fans of the purple and gold can look forward to blue lips and red cheeks as they shiver through two seasons of old-school, outdoor football. The Vikings vice president says the team plans to play at the University of Minnesota's TCF Bank Stadium during the 2014 and 2015 seasons, while the team's new stadium gets built at the Metrodome site in downtown Minneapolis.
