Groupon proves to be just the ticket The S&P 500 was on track to finish lower for the third time in four weeks but was down only 1 per cent after rallying from midweek losses. The index fell as much as 2.4 per cent for the week at one point, but a strong showing from the telecoms and consumer staples sectors and a broad rally on Thursday mitigated losses in the financials and energy sectors. Online discount site Groupon stood out on Friday, rising 11.5 per cent to $7.65 after Deutsche Bank upgraded the company to "buy" from "hold." The company is up more than 57 per cent this year, and short positions - bets that the share's stock price will decline - are at near record lows. However, Groupon still sits well below its IPO price of $20. The S&P 500 closed down 0.6 per cent on Friday to 1,626.71. Gannett shares fell 6.1 per cent to $24.99 but remain up just over 20 per cent for the week on news it would acquire a Dallas-based TV station group. A series of mergers and acquisitions was behind some of the week's highest risers. Grocer Safeway added 7.2 per cent to $24.3 after announcing the sale of its Canadian operations. Fruit producer Dole gained 29.6 per cent following a buyout offer from the company's chief executive. The Nasdaq Composite index lost 0.6 per cent on Friday to 3,423.56 and ended 1.4 per cent lower for the week, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.7 per cent to 15,070.18 and retreated 1.2 per cent on the week. The announcement of a major revamp to Apple's mobile operating system did little to halt the decline of the company's stock. The tech giant, which is the heaviest weighted stock on the Nasdaq, was down 2.3 per cent for the week to $431.45. The S&P 500 has been volatile since mid-May when it closed at an all-time high. Since then, statements from the US Federal Reserve about a possible exit plan for quantitative easing have left investors to determine whether the underlying fundamentals of stocks can sustain existing levels. "I think this is one of those weeks in which the market is volatile yet it seems it's going to end close to where it started because there was no big news," said Andres Garcia-Amaya, global market strategist at JPMorgan Funds. You have the Fed next Wednesday as the big catalyst and I think the market is trying to gauge what they're going to do. Neither cyclical nor defensive stocks have particularly been the stronger lately, which Mr Garcia-Amaya attributes to bond investors continuing to seek yield in US stocks. "I think the sector movements have more to do with the fact that there's a lot of bond investors in the equity markets right now," he said. Therefore, they are the ones that tend to be moving the equity markets more than pure equity players. Mark Arbeter, chief technical strategist at S&P Capital IQ, said in a note that if the benchmark index could withstand current wavering and maintain the 1,598 level, it would lead to new all-time highs for the market. Unfortunately, we expect this type of price activity to continue in the weeks ahead as the major indices as well as many individual stocks work off some pretty heady overbought readings. Once this ends, we see new all-time highs for the market," he said. Smith & Wesson rose 5.2 per cent to $9.78 after reporting record sales. The gunmaker is one of the few publicly traded civilian weapons suppliers and helps provide a window into an opaque industry. The gun debate that followed shootings in the US led to significant demand for personal weapons because of fears of new regulation. Shares in Smith & Wesson are up 15.9 per cent in the year to date. Sturm Ruger, the other widely traded gun company, was up 0.9 per cent to $46.89 and is 3.3 per cent higher over the year.