What a Week: Bears Bloodied

Beyond the deals, stock proxies were aided by revelations in SEC filings of the latest holdings of famed investors such as Warren Buffett and Carl Icahn. Their positions in rail stocks helped the Dow Utility Average join the DJIA in record territory this week. Meanwhile, Eddie Lampert revealed a large stake in Citigroup (C Quote), which boosted shares of the financial giant and raised further speculation about the fate of embattled CEO Chuck Prince.

"Almost every day there's incremental news that puts pressure on Chuck Prince," Joe Capone, managing member of SMaRT Financial Partners and RealMoney.com contributor, said in an interview on TheStreet.com TV. "It's rare in my experience where situations like this aren't alleviated by either removal of the executive, a major change in strategic direction or the company turning around. In all three scenarios, the stock can go higher."

Riding the Divergences

Also helping stocks Friday was a stronger-than-expected University of Michigan consumer sentiment report, which buttressed solid results this week from retailers Kohl's (KSS Quote), Nordstrom (JWN Quote) and J.C. Penney(JCP Quote), which in turn helped offset weak results from Home Depot (HD Quote), Wal-Mart (WMT Quote) and Federated (FD Quote).

Mixed results in the retail sector were a good representation of the broader market. In addition to the Nasdaq's slippage, the Russell 2000 shed 1.7% for the week, as buying interest continued to focus on a narrower number of stocks and those with larger capitalization.