Most U.S. stocks ended the week with losses, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average notched a small rise for the period thanks to gains on Friday in health care stocks and consumer-related shares. Tech shares were the biggest losers on the week.

The Dow fell 14.28 points or 0.1% on Friday to close at 10,318.16. For the week the index rose 0.5%. The Nasdaq Composite fell 10.78 points or 0.5% to close at 2,146.04 on Friday for a weekly loss of 1%. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 3.52 points or 0.3% to close at 1,091.38. For the week the benchmark index fell 0.2%.

Stay tuned to MarketWatch over the weekend for the latest on the health care reform bill and all the rest of the news you need. Our weekend features include a look at the market for initial public offerings and an examination of how discount airlines are ramping up their Web sites to attack the bigger carriers on a new front.

Please take a few minutes to view our weekly look ahead videos.

U.S. Week Ahead: Housing Data, Holiday Sales

Europe's Week Ahead: LSE, Remy Cointreau Report

Asia's Week Ahead: GDP, Auto Makers In Focus

-- Christopher Noble, assistant managing editor

Visit to the East

President Barack Obama appears to have come away with few tangible gains on the economic and trade front during his first state visit to China, although his message on Internet freedom and human rights are likely to resonate on Chinese Web sites in coming months, analysts say. Some China-watchers cautioned it was too early to say if Obama's trip to the country will make less of an impression than Bill Clinton's 1999 visit. Read more about Obama's trip East.

Debt for sale

Companies are bombarding the bond market with debt sales this month, pushing issuance above $40 billion, as they take advantage of low rates to build acquisition war chests, prepare to buy back stock and build up cash to finance growth. Lockheed Martin Corp. , Cisco Systems Inc. , Waste Management Inc. and Kellogg Co. are among the corporations that have collectively sold $42 billion in debt this month, including $24 billion last week. Read more about the latest moves in the corporate-bond market.

Buying a home on deadline

House shopping usually slows down in the winter, as people put their home searches on hold to trim the tree, buy presents to put under it and avoid the chilly weather. This winter, however, might be different, thanks to the extended -- and expanded -- first-time home-buyer tax credit. Here are five tips on tapping the new tax credit.

Lower profit at Home Depot

Home Depot Inc. reported that its fiscal third-quarter profit fell a less-than-expected 8.9%, after the home-improvement retailer controlled expenses. The company also raised its full-year outlook, even though its implied fourth-quarter forecast fell short of Wall Street expectations. Read more about Home Depot's results.

More losses for GM

Fresh out of bankruptcy, General Motors Co payday loan lenders. reported a third-quarter loss of $1.15 billion this week, as government stimulus programs helped the automaker increase its sales and reduce inventory. Further, the company said it would begin paying down its debt to the U.S. and Canadian governments in December, ahead of schedule, thanks to improving global economic conditions and stabilizing industry sales. Read more about GM's results.

Nestlé takes aim at Starbucks

An instant-coffee war is brewing. A month after Starbucks' Via Ready Brew invaded Nestlé's jealously guarded turf, the giant Swiss food maker has mounted a spirited counteroffensive, passing out free samples of its Nescafé Taster's Choice instant coffee across several key U.S. cities. It's hard to fathom the marketing muscle Nestlé and Starbucks are throwing behind their rival instant brews. But the stakes are enormous. Read more about the instant-coffee market.

Google and Microsoft software battle

Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. kicked their battle for personal computing supremacy into a higher gear, with Microsoft bragging about strong sales of its latest operating system and Google promoting its contrasting approach to PC operating systems. Read MarketWatch's story about Google and Microsoft's operating system battle.

God Save the Queen

This week, Britain's Labour government detailed a legislative agenda that includes measures to cap bankers' pay and to attack the budget deficit as the nation prepares for an election that must take place by June. Opposition leaders branded the Queen's Speech, written by the government and delivered by Queen Elizabeth II in the House of Lords, as pre-election grandstanding. The Queen's Speech is the central part of the official state opening of Parliament, which marks the beginning of a new, annual parliamentary session. Read more about the Queen's Speech.

Citi makes a move from Claren Road

Citigroup Inc. recently redeemed its investment with Claren Road Asset Management after helping launch the hedge-fund firm in 2005, according to two people familiar with the matter. Citi redeemed all of its investment, roughly $250 million, the people said on condition of anonymity. The decision to withdraw wasn't driven by Claren Road's performance, which has been solid through the financial crisis. Claren Road told one person that Citigroup pulled its investment as part of a broader decision to redeem holdings from outside hedge funds. Read more about Claren Road.

Reform is from Venus

Two women have emerged as leading thinkers and doers in the post-financial crisis world. Sheila Bari of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Elizabeth Warren who leads Congress's oversight for the $700 billion bank bailout package have been leading the charge for meaningful reform in the face of resistance from the old boy network.

Top Ten: MarketWatch's top stories of the week, Nov. 16-20

Hot News: Casual Male Retail Group posts smaller 3Q loss

WASHINGTON &<51; Flights over much of the eastern United States were delayed Thursday by a pre-dawn failure in a fairly new communications system, which led to the shutdown of a computer that accepts flight plans from the airlines and feeds them to air traffic controllers.

It was the fourth major systemwide disruption attributed to the communications system, which the Federal Aviation Administration began putting into service earlier in this decade as a way to cut costs and assure reliability.

But when it failed, at about 5 a.m. Eastern time on Thursday, the airlines had to send flight plans by fax, and the controllers typed them into their computers, sort of a hunt-and-peck exercise that was so cumbersome that many planes were delayed more than an hour. But there was no risk to planes in flight, according to the F.A.A.

By mid-morning the system was working again, but the backlog caused widespread airport delays.

The crucial computer that was knocked out, the National Airspace Data Interchange Network, situated in Atlanta and with a backup in Salt Lake City, had also failed in August 2008, with a similar result, but for a different reason.

Flight plans typically consist of hundreds of alpha-numeric characters giving the flight number, type of equipment, takeoff location and various intermediate points, with altitudes. When the first failure happened at about 5 a.m. &<51; a router, according to the F.A.A. &<51; it knocked out not only the computer that handles flight plans, but one that sorts through &S220;notices to airmen,&S221; or F.A.A. alerts about short-lived problems like equipment failures or runway closings, and delivers them to pilots.

By early afternoon, the F.A.A.&S217;s online status board was showing the problem limited to the Northeast. The computer that handles the flight plans was repaired by around 9 a low interest payday loans.m., but by then a huge backlog developed.

&S220;It may take many hours for the system to catch up,&S221; the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said in a statement, adding, &S220;Airport efficiency is being cut by at least half in places like New York - J.F.K.&S221;

Airlines reported problems in other areas as well. Around the country, planeloads of passengers heard pilots blame the air traffic system as they sat on the tarmac.

AirTran Airways, based in Orlando, Fla., quickly announced that passengers with tickets for Thursday could rebook without charge, as is commonly done in storms.

The aviation agency&S217;s data processing system has a variety of problems. While it was hailed as a marvel when it was introduced decades ago, much of it is written in obsolete computer language and the agency has been slow to provide updates. And with a requirement for up-to-the-minute, round-the-clock performance, parts of the system have crashed while technicians tried to install upgrades, like uninterruptible power supplies, or software fixes.

Each failure causes frustration. At LaGuardia Airport in New York on Thursday morning, Gilbert Valdez, a teacher a the University of Tricosi in Chicago, who flies in four or five times a year, showed up early for his 2 p.m. flight home because he had heard about the disruption.

&S220;It&S217;s kind of nerve wracking because I don&S217;t want to be stranded at LaGuardia,&S221; Mr. Valdez said. &S220;I just want to get home.&S221;

Micheline Maynard contributed reporting from Detroit, and Brian Knowlton from Washington.

Backlog of Flight Delays After Computer Problems