MARKET SNAPSHOT: Stocks Trim Weekly Losses On Word Geithner Will Head Treasury

By Kate Gibson

U.S. stocks on Friday surged on a report President-elect Barack Obama would nominate New York Federal Reserve President Timothy Geithner as Treasury secretary. The leap higher in the final hour of trade came on the heels of a two-session freefall and halved the market's weekly decline.

After a volatile session, equities rocketed higher in the wake of an NBC report that Obama would appoint Geithner to head the Treasury Department.

Of the trio, Geithner is "the one people in the market wanted to see," said Owen Fitzpatrick, head of the U.S. equity group at Deutsche Bank. The choice is particularly important in light of Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's comments earlier in the week "of being done with Tarp," said Fitzpatrick of the Paulson's decision to let the next administration decide how to spend the remaining roughly $350 billion of $700 billion bailout package.

"The comfort level is there with Geithner," said Fitzpatrick.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) surged more than 500 points before finishing at 8,046.42, up 494.13 points, or 6.5%. The blue-chip index lost 5.3% for the week.

LATIN AMERICAN MARKETS: Argentina OKs Pensions Takeover; Brazil, Mexico Mixed

By Carla Mozee

Argentine stocks fell Friday following a widely expected decision by the government to nationalize pension funds, and Brazilian stocks dropped more than 6%, with commodity stocks driving the decline.

Meanwhile, Mexican shares finished slightly higher after a better-than- expected report about quarterly economic growth and a rally on Wall Street on news that President-elect Barack Obama has made his choice for the nominee for Treasury Secretary.

Latin American markets finished lower for the week, led by a 5.8% fall by Brazil's Bovespa index.

"Unfortunately events this past week were once again driven by these words: credit crunch, recession, deflation, stagnation, demand slump, etc.," said analysts at Saxo Bank in a weekly commodity update.

Argentina's Merval equity index fell 4% to 828.94 in the wake of Thursday night's vote in the Senate that gives the Kirchner administration control of $24 billion in assets that had been managed by 10 private pension funds, ending a 14-year run of the system

MARKET SNAPSHOT: U.S. Stocks Look For Respite In Holiday shortened Week

By Nick Godt

U.S. stocks will start next week with investors looking for some respite after reports of key nominations to the administration of President-elect Barack Obama helped stem heavy selling that had slammed the market to 11 year lows.

In particular, the nomination of Tim Geithner, currently the head of the New York Federal Reserve, as the next treasury secretary, seemed to find immediate approval from Wall Street, judging by a market rally that saw the Dow industrials jump nearly 500 points Friday.

"That's good news," said Robert Pavlik, market strategist at Oaktree Asset Management. "Now we have a team that can come together and start coming up with a plan. The foundation has been laid to start addressing the situation."