The Lowdown

Stocks and many exchange-traded funds began Friday with big gains but finished in the red after a long string of positive finishes. The session turned volatile with the quadruple witching hour, when contracts for stock index futures, stock index options, stock options and single stock futures all expired.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 37 points at 10742. The S&P 500 ebbed 6 to 1160, and the Nasdaq dropped 17 to 2374.

In tech, Palm shares skidded after the company's weaker-than-forecast sales outlook for the fourth quarter. Palm lost $18.5 million in the third quarter. Tim Long, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets, said customers "have little interest" in Palm's devices and operating system. He also says Palm is unlikely to be purchased by a rival any time soon.

In retail, Best Buy rose as Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to "buy" on valuation grounds and hopes for a stronger 2010.

Oil futures dropped $1.60 to $80.60 a barrel on the rising dollar, while the British pound slumped on jitters on the upcoming election.

Frantic politicking in the halls of Capitol Hill continued Friday as Democrats tried to wangle enough votes to pass a $940 million health-care bill in a vote planned for Sunday. President Obama reportedly delayed a trip to Asia to lobby lawmakers and oversee passage of the legislation. For a detailed rundown on Friday s trading session see our market story.

Winners

The Federal Reserve's announcement that low interest rates will continue helped boost the iShares Dow Jones U.S. Real Estate Index fund by 2.5% for the week. The Semiconductor HOLDRS Trust fund (SMH) climbed 2.1% for the week on news that Taiwan may remove curbs on stock gains and losses on its stock exchange.

Losers

The S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures Index fund was the week's big decliner, based mostly on a volatile Friday session. Shares were down 7.0% for the week. Natural gas prices continued to drop, sending the United States Natural Gas fund down 5.4% for the week.

This Week s Industry News

Data Point

Fund provider ETFS Marketing appointed Darren Fortunato as a senior vice president to bolster its efforts to expand business for its four recently launched U.S. products: ETFS Physical Silver Shares, ETFS Physical Swiss Gold Shares, ETFS Physical Platinum Shares and ETFS Physical Palladium Shares. The quartet had $1.16 billion in assets under management as of March 12, the firm said. Fortunato will help bring new funds to the U.S. market. He previously developed financial products at Merrill Lynch, Gottex, Societe Generale and Citigroup.

Launching Pad

State Street Global Advisors sought permission from the Securities and Exchange Commission to launch seven indexed bond ETFs linked to the public and private sectors. Some also focus on specific industries. The proposed funds are: the SPDR S&P Agency Bond ETF, the SPDR Barclays Capital Corporate Bond ETF, the SPDR Barclays Capital Corporate Industrial Bond ETF, the SPDR Barclays Capital Corporate Financial Bond ETF, the SPDR Barclays Capital Corporate Utilities Bond ETF, the SPDR Barclays Capital Zero Coupon Bond ETF and the SPDR Barclays Capital CMBS ETF. They are based on the S&P U.S. Agency Bond Index, the Barclays Capital U.S. Corporate Bond Index, the Barclays Capital U.S. Corporate Industrial Bond Index, the Barclays Capital U.S. Corporate Financial Bond Index, the Barclays Capital U.S. Corporate Utilities Bond Index, the Barclays Capital U.S. Treasury STRIPS Index and the Barclays Capital CMBS ERISA-Eligible Index, respectively.

First Trust, a provider of niche exchange-traded funds, launched a pair of funds focused on copper and platinum companies, respectively, Tuesday. The First Trust ISE Global Copper Index Fund (CU) and the First Trust ISE Global Platinum Index Fund (PLTM) are built on benchmarks made up of companies whose revenues come from the mining, refining or exploration of copper and platinum. The funds allow investors to access commodities through equities rather than on the spot markets. The ISC Copper Index has more than tripled since the crash. The funds each carry an annual fee of 0.7%.

ProFunds Group, the world's largest manager of leveraged and inverse funds, announced the launch of three exchange-traded funds offering single inverse exposure to equity indexes on China, the U.S. Real Estate and the U.S. Basic Materials sectors. The funds seek to provide 100% of the opposite performance of an index or benchmark, before fees and expenses, for a single day. The new ProShares ETFs are: Short FTSE/Xinhua China 25 (YXI), Short Real Estate (REK) and Short Basic Materials (SBM) .

Next Week's Notebook

Earnings and Conference Calls

Monday
Arotech, Ballantyne Strong, Bitstream, China Telecom, CTI Industries, DXP Enterprises, Hastings Entertainment, Maguire Properties, Phillips-Van Heusen, Tiffany, Williams-Sonoma

Tuesday
21st Century Holding, Adobe Systems, American Shared Hospital Services, Antares Pharma, Axesstel, Carnival Corporation & Carnival, Companhia Energetica de Minas Gerais, CPI Aerostructures, Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals, Darden Restaurants, Havas, Inhibitex, Jabil Circuit, KB Home, Lime Energy, MDRNA, Pharmathene, Progress Software, Protection One, Psychemedics, Sonic, Stallion Oilfield Services, Steelcase, Sypris Solutions, Tivoli, Transcept Pharmaceuticals, Vertro, Walgreen, Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods

Wednesday
Aeterna Zentaris, American CareSource Holdings, American DG Energy, ATS, CKE Restaurants, Cognis Deutschland, Commercial Metals, dELiA*s, Full House Resorts, General Mills, Lennar, Lukoil, OMNOVA Solutions, Paychex, Pebblebrook Hotel Trust, Pregis, Red Hat, Robbins & Myers

Thursday
Accenture, American Apparel, American Medical Alert, Best Buy, Blonder Tongue Laboratories, CombinatoRx, ConAgra Foods, Conn's, Cost Plus, Finish Line, Fred's, G-III Apparel Group, Interleukin Genetics, Lululemon Athletica, McCormick, Michaels Stores, Oracle, Orchard Enterprises, PFSweb, Saba Software, Smart Modular Technologies, Spectrum Control, SYNNEX, TIBCO Software, ULURU, UTi Worldwide, Wet Seal

Friday
Advanced Environmental Recycling Technologies, Broder Brothers, HearUsa, Hydrogenics, Industrie Natuzzi, NPC International

Economic Data

Monday
No major economic indicators scheduled.

Tuesday
7:45 a.m. ICSC-Goldman Store Sales
8:55 a.m. Redbook
10:00 a.m. Existing Home Sales
10:00 a.m. FHFA House Price Index

Wednesday
7:00 a.m. MBA Purchase Applications
8:30 a.m. Durable Goods Orders
10:00 a.m. New Home Sales
10:30 a.m. EIA Petroleum Status Report

Thursday
8:30 a.m. Jobless Claims
10:30 a.m. EIA Natural Gas Report
4:30 p.m. Fed Balance Sheet
4:30 p.m. Money Supply

Friday
8:30 a.m. GDP
8:30 a.m. Corporate Profits
9:55 a.m. Consumer Sentiment