The Lowdown
An early lift from surprising retail data flattened at the close Friday, leaving stocks moderately higher for the week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the day up 13 at 10624. The S&P 500 was flat at 1150, and the Nasdaq slipped a point to 2368.

The session got off to a strong start after the Commerce Department said U.S. retail sales rose by 0.3% in February. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires were expecting a 0.3% decrease. Excluding the car sector, all other retail sales rose 0.8%, more than the 0.1% forecasted increase. The retail jump was boosted by soaring electronic store sales, despite blizzards that crippled the East Coast and a 2% dive in U.S. car and parts sales in February.

In Washington, President Barack Obama plans to nominate San Francisco Fed President Janet Yellen as vice chairman of the Federal Reserve. Known as a strong supporter of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's low-interest-rate policy to fight the deep economic downturn, Ms. Yellen would replace Donald Kohn as Fed vice chair when the central bank veteran's term expires in late June. The White House also elected two other nominees to serve on the Fed's seven-member Board of Governors. Their names aren't yet known.

Financials finished slightly lower after a new report on the collapse of Lehman Brothers said demands from JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Citigroup (C) for collateral helped to drive Lehman into bankruptcy, according to a court-appointed examiner. The report also detailed a practice at Lehman in which it used repurchase agreements to make it appear that leverage could be moved off a firm's balance sheet.

In other markets, the dollar weakened against both the yen and the euro. Crude-oil prices ebbed 83 cents to $81.28 a barrel. Treasurys slipped to yield 3.70%.

For a detailed rundown on Friday s trading session see our market story.

Winners
The iShares Cohen & Steers Realty Majors Index fund (ICF) rose 3.7% as interest in real estate began to ramp up again. The financial services sector surged ahead of major indexes, sending the SPDR KBW Bank fund up 3.6% for the week.

Losers
Gold's decline to $1,102 an ounce took a toll on the Market Vectors Gold Miners fund (GDX), which shed 3.5% for the week. Rising oil prices pushed down the United States Natural Gas fund (UNG) 2.6%.

This Week s Industry News

Data Point
State Street (STT) latest ETF Snapshot report said assets in U.S. exchange-traded fund totaled $752 billion as of Feb. 28. That represented an increase of $21.5 billion, or 2.9%. Assets in large cap ETFs climbed $6.7 billion during the month lead by the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which attracted $5.4 billion in net inflows in February. Demand for dividend income is also on the rise, as the SPDR S&P Dividend ETF (SDY) attracted more than $100 million in net new inflows during the month. As of Feb. 28, 856 ETFs in the U.S. with assets totaling approximately $752 billion were managed by 31 ETF managers.

Launching Pad
Claymore announced the launch of an ETF suite that will track three broad market indexes: the Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index fund, the Wilshire 4500 Completion Index fund and the Wilshire US Real Estate Investment Trust Index. The Wilshire 5000 captures the full diversification potential of the U.S. market; the Wilshire 4500 provides a way to gain exposure to the roughly 88% of the U.S. stock market outside the S&P 500, based upon the number of issues in the market.

Asset manager Eaton Vance, a Boston-based investment has sought permission from the Securities and Exchange Commission to begin preparing a quintet of actively managed exchange-traded funds focusing on investment-grade U.S. debt. The proposed funds are the Eaton Vance Enhanced Short Maturity ETF, the Eaton Vance Government Limited Maturity ETF, the Eaton Vance Intermediate Municipal Bond ETF, the Eaton Vance Prime Limited Maturity ETF and the Eaton Vance Short Term Municipal Bond ETF. They will invest in dollar-denominated securities. Legg Mason filed a similar request last month.

State Street announced the launch of the SPDR S&P Russia fund on the New York Stock Exchange. The SPDR S&P Russia ETF seeks to track the performance of the S&P BMI Russia Capped Index. The index includes companies domiciled in Russia with a float-adjusted market cap of $100 million or more and a minimum value traded of $50 million for the last 12 months at the time of annual reconstitution. As of Feb. 26, 2010, the index included 72 stocks. The fund carries an annual expense ratio of 0.59%

Next Week's Notebook

Earnings and Conference Calls

Monday
AAON, AEP Industries, Barrington Broadcasting Group, Beacon Power, Bionovo, BMP Sunstone, Cadence Pharmaceuticals, Central Vermont Public Service, Century Casinos, China TechFaith Wireless Com Tech, Emeritus, Global Options, GTx, Houston Wire & Cable, IFM Investments, Insmed, Jinpan, Michael Baker, Nortech Systems, Parkervision, Plug Power, Reis, Schawk, Seaspan, Sequenom, Sterling Construction Company, Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, SunGard Data Systems, TechTeam Global, TheStreet.com, Toreador Resources, Trubion Pharmaceuticals, United Western Bancorp, Universal Display, VWR International, Zagg

Tuesday
4Kids Entertainment, AAR, Akorn, Ambac Financial Group, Anika Therapeutics, Applied Energetics, ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Astro-Med, China Nuokang, Cloud Peak Energy, Deutsche Bank, Discover Financial Services, Emdeon, Ever-Glory International Group, FactSet Research Systems, Focus Media Holding, FX Energy, Lightbridge, MDS, Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals, Retalix, ShengdaTech, Simcere Pharmaceutical Group, Telanetix, Town Sports International Holdings, Unigene Laboratories, ValueVision, X Rite

Wednesday
Abraxas Petroleum, Compania Cervecerias Unidas, Consolidated Water, Crimson Exploration, Federal Agricultural Mortgage, Guess, Herman Miller, IHS, Luby's, Nike, Schiff Nutrition International, Somanetics, STR Holdings, Synergetics USA, Towerstream, Travelport, Tsakos Energy Navigation, WPCS

Thursday
BioLase Technology, Charles River Associates, Cintas, Diversey, FedEx, Gamestop, MCF, National Bank of Greece, New York & Company, Ross Stores, Shoe Carnival, Stein Mart, Taseko Mines, The Cato Corporation, The Marcus Corporation, Vimpel Communications, Winland Electronics, Winnebago

Friday
Eldorado Gold, Harris&Harris Group, Perry Ellis International

Economic Data

Monday
8:30 a.m. Empire State Mfg Survey
9:00 a.m. Treasury International Capital
9:15 a.m. Industrial Production
1:00 p.m. Housing Market Index

Tuesday
7:45 a.m. ICSC-Goldman Store Sales
8:30 a.m. Housing Starts
8:30 a.m. Import and Export Prices
8:55 a.m. Redbook
2:15 p.m. FOMC Meeting Announcement

Wednesday
7:00 a.m. MBA Purchase Applications
8:30 a.m. Producer Price Index
10:30 a.m. EIA Petroleum Status Report

Thursday
8:30 a.m. Consumer Price Index
8:30 a.m. Jobless Claims
8:30 a.m. Current Account
10:00 a.m. Leading Indicators
10:00 a.m. Philadelphia Fed Survey
10:30 a.m. EIA Natural Gas Report
4:30 p.m. Money Supply

Friday
No major economic indicators scheduled