The market took another step down on Monday on continued Europe-debt concerns as well as uncertainty in the US debt ceiling debate. On Tuesday, the Dow had its best day of 2011 with a 200 point surge on positive earnings reports from IBM and Coca-Cola and optimism over the “Gang of Six” plan to raise the US debt ceiling. The optimism was short-lived though as stocks were effectively unchanged on Wednesday, despite a surprisingly strong earnings report from Apple. On Thursday the Dow posted another 150+ point gain as US debt negotiations between the President and Congress seemed to be making progress. The major indexes were mixed on Friday as a glum earnings report from Caterpillar offset an agreement concerning Greek debt.

The major indexes made positive strides this week despite debt ceiling concerns.

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