The Dow Jones Industrial Average spent two days above 10,000 last week, before slipping below on Friday. The surge -- and retreat -- both followed profit reports from big banks. The Dow rose above 10,000 on Wednesday when Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan announced better-than-expected profits. Losses at Bank of America, Citigroup and the financing arm of General Electric, reported on Friday, dragged the Dow back below 10,000. For the week, the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq gained 1.3%, 1.5% and 0.8% respectively. MMBB equity funds, as well as the U.S. Bond Fund, advanced for the week.

In other news, the National Association for Business Economics reported that the vast majority of its members believe the recession has ended. Perhaps offering support for this conclusion, the Federal Reserve announced that industrial production rose 0.7% in September and that capacity utilization at American factories had increased to 70.5%. This indicates that factories are increasing output.

The Labor Department reported that first-time claims for unemployment fell by 10,000 last week to 514,000. Continuing jobless claims fell below 6 million. This indicates that the job market may be improving, albeit slowly. Consumer prices showed the smallest increase since July, 0.2%.

On the down side, the Reuters/University of Michigan survey of consumer sentiment showed an unexpected drop to 69.4 in October from 73.5 in September.