Monday blues

NEW YORK, April 27 (UPI) -- The bounce in U.S. markets slowed last week after pushing ahead for six weeks with gains that began in advance of a bumpy corporate earnings season.

The Dow Jones industrial average clawed back some of the losses from last Monday's free-fall, but ended 55 points lower for the week, or 0.68 percent, ending a month and a half of advances. The Nasdaq composite index pushed its streak to the seventh week, gaining 1.27 percent, 21.22 points, to 1,694.29 by Friday. The S&P dropped 0.39 percent, losing 3.37 points after six weeks pushing toward a comeback.

Corporate reports have hit markets only one way: Sideways. Individual ups and downs scrutinized on Wall Street found weaknesses in Bank of America Corp, after the bank posted a profit. Scrutiny uncovered strength in Microsoft Corp. after the software giant posted an annual revenue decline while cutting costs -- but not quite fast enough.

Banks on Friday learned the results of the Treasury Department stress tests, but investors will be running their own analyses, trying to imitate the government's results until May 4, when the Treasury's numbers become public. It has become, in effect, junk season on Wall Street, with investors looking for companies with staying power, and where are lots of bruises that figure to heal over time. Frankly, it's an odd week when financial markets are dominated by news of pharmaceuticals and testing laboratories benefiting from the swine flu. Welcome to Monday.

The United Auto Workers on Sunday announced they struck a deal with Chrysler LLC to lower costs to help convince the government to keep the auto giant's credit line open. The Canadian Automobile Workers union said 87 percent of its membership ratified a cost-cutting deal with Chrysler that affects 8,000 members, even though union President Ken Lewenza called the negotiations "torturous and unfair," The New York Times reported Monday.

The UAW deal allows for Italian automaker Fiat to take over 20 to 30 percent of a restructured company, which is likely to declare bankruptcy with or without an agreement with creditors -- the final Treasury Department stipulation for extending the federal line of credit from $4 billion to $10 billion.

Fiat, meanwhile, is fishing. Poised to take advantage of the crumbling U.S. auto industry, Fiat is also looking to pounce on General Motors' foreign production lines in Europe and Latin America.

With no cash from Fiat involved in the Chrysler deal and Fiat in position to take advantage of government assistance in the United States and Germany, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., looked at the options with doleful contempt. "The United States … is delivering a company with a bow tied around it to Fiat," he said.

In Asia, stocks were mostly lower Monday with the Hang Seng Index down 2.7 percent and the Taiwan Taiex down 3 percent. The Kospi in South Korea dropped 1.1 percent, and the Nikkei 225 in Japan climbed 0.2 percent. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.5 percent.

In midday trading, European markets also slumped. The FTSE 100 in Britain dropped 1.2 percent, while the DAX 30 in Germany fell 1.8 percent. The CAC 40 in France fell 1.7 percent. The broader DJStoxx 600 was down 1.6 percent.