MarketView for March 21

Summary

The major equity indexes showed mostly red ink by the closing bell on Friday, as profit-taking was pretty much the name of the game, wiping out early gains that had pushed the S&P 500 to an intraday record high.

The S&P 500 lost momentum after hitting an all-time intraday high of 1,883.97, with biotech firms among the primary losers. Biogen Idec, down 8.2 percent at $318.53, and Gilead Sciences, down 4.6 percent at $72.07, were among those companies that were hurt the most.

Congress has asked Gilead to explain the $84,000 price tag of its new hepatitis C drug Sovaldi, which is encountering resistance from health insurers and state Medicaid programs.

Investors continued to monitor geopolitical issues after President Vladimir Putin signed laws completing Russia's annexation of Crimea.

Nike fell 5.1 percent to $75.21 and was the heaviest weight on the Dow after the company said late Thursday that growing pressures from weak emerging market currencies would take a toll on profit.

Nonetheless, despite Friday’s less than stellar performance, for the week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.5 percent, the S&P 500 was up 1.4 percent and the Nasdaq chalked up a gain of 0.7 percent.

First Solar continued its upward trend, climbing 4.1 percent to $73.37 on Friday, its sixth straight daily increase. The stock is now up 38 percent over that period.

Symantec fell 12.9 percent to $18.20 a day after it fired Chief Executive Officer Steve Bennett, the second time it has sacked its top executive in less than two years, raising concerns about its turnaround efforts.

Despite the market's recent strength, trading volume has been low, even on positive days, suggesting limited conviction behind the move. However, volume was higher on Friday as options expired alongside multiple index rebalances. Credit Suisse expected $14 billion in gross trading from the S&P 500 index rebalance, with another $6 billion from rebalancing in other indexes.

In earnings news, Tiffany reported adjusted fourth-quarter earnings and offered up an earnings outlook that was below estimates. Tiffany's stock fell 0.5 percent to $90.73.

Darden Restaurants  reported results largely in line with expectations and affirmed its plan to divest its Red Lobster business. Darden's shares rose 2.8 percent to $50.66.

Approximately 9.6 billion shares changed hands on the major equity exchanges, well above the 6.69 billion share average we have seen so far this month, according to data from BATS Global Markets.