What a Week: Bears Bloodied

It's hard out here for a pimp, according to Three 6 Mafia. They should try short-selling.

This week provided another reminder of why it's tough to be a bear. Deal activity, share buybacks and benign economic news sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average deeper into record territory, while the S&P 500 came within a hair of its March 2000 peak.

For the week, the Dow rose 1.6% and the S&P 500 gained 1.1%, the seventh straight weekly gain for each. The Nasdaq Composite dipped 0.2% for the week, its second straight weekly decline.

The Comp suffered from Applied Materials' (AMAT Quote - Cramer on AMAT - Stock Picks) weak guidance and setbacks for biotechs Amgen (AMGN Quote - Cramer on AMGN - Stock Picks), ImClone (IMCL Quote - Cramer on IMCL - Stock Picks) and Sepracor(SEPR Quote - Cramer on SEPR - Stock Picks). Strength in energy stocks such as Exxon Mobil (XOM Quote - Cramer on XOM - Stock Picks), amid a surge in crude and another round of deal-making, helped the blue-chip averages push ahead.

On Friday, the Dow was up 0.6% to 13,556.53, its 24th record high of 2007, while the S&P gained 0.7% to 1522.75, less than 5 points below its all-time closing high of 1527.46. The Nasdaq rose 0.75% to 2558.45.

Friday's gains came after Microsoft (MSFT Quote - Cramer on MSFT - Stock Picks) set plans to buy Internet marketer aQuantive (AQNT Quote - Cramer on AQNT - Stock Picks) for $6 billion in cash. In addition, General Electric (GE Quote - Cramer on GE - Stock Picks) is close to selling its plastics division to Saudi Basic Industries, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The reported $11 billion price tag for GE's plastics division was well above the range that analysts had expected and, along with Microsoft paying a whopping 83% premium for aQuantive, was further evidence of the quite ample global liquidity searching for a home.

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