When the swoon set in two weeks ago, it sure felt like catastrophic events like the earthquake in Japan and the upheaval in the Middle East and North Africa would legitimately slow the rally down but the quick snapback above key levels for both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 proves the action was more profit-taking than panic-driven.

Ed Yardeni, a Wall Street veteran who founded his own namesake sell-side consulting firm Yardeni Research in 2007, still sees the S&P 500 reaching 1,500 by the end of the year and says the severity of the financial crisis has fortified investors to deal with headline trauma.

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SENDAI, Japan — U.S. naval barges loaded with freshwater sped toward Japan’s overheated nuclear plant on Saturday to help workers struggling to stem a worrying rise in radioactivity and remove dangerously contaminated water from the facility.

Workers at the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi plant have been using seawater in a frantic bid to stabilize reactors overheating since a tsunami knocked out the complex’s crucial cooling system March 11, but fears are mounting about the corrosive nature of the salt in the water.

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On the one hand it makes sense why 66.7% of readers don’t want Amazon to start charging sales tax — they don’t want to pay higher prices.

But 33.3% believe it is only fair for the e-commerce giant to play under the same rules as traditional brick-and-mortar stores.

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The market has been keeping tabs on reports of hazardous radiation levels in Japan after an earthquake and tsunami damaged the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, as well as the international coalition’s efforts to topple Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi. However, neither situation appeared to significantly sway trading this week.

Even news of Portugal’s rejected austerity plan and government upheaval on Wednesday couldn’t keep U.S. indices from rising.

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As of late Friday, about 35% of the nearly 160 people who took our poll believe the Times plan is ill considered.

The new subscription system for the company’s namesake newspaper debuts on March 28, allowing nonsubscribers 20 article views each month before the wall kicks in, or better put, until one decides they’d like to allow the wall to kick in.

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“Right now it’s a time of enormous investment and transition,” said co-CEO Jim Balsillie, on the company’s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings call Thursday afternoon. “We feel very good about the PlayBook and our new architecture — if life was perfect, I’d pull its launch forward three months, but we can’t.”

That was the defensive tone RIM took Thursday, after posting solid earnings but somewhat weak guidance. RIM, known in the U.S. smartphone world as the former No. 1 OS that’s rapidly losing market share to Google, reported adjusted earnings of $1.78 a share vs. the expected $1.76. Quarterly sales, up 36% over the prior year, hit in-line at $5.56 billion.

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Pricelock offers fuel price protection through what is essentially an insurance policy. It is able to offer the strategy by grouping small businesses, cutting costs — it is done entirely online — and working with investment banks.

The Pricelock website lets business owners hedge against rising fuel costs; clients pay a fee that protects them when prices rise above the maximum they’re willing to pay.

“Essentially we actually aggregate demand from small customers,” says Naveen Agarwal, Pricelock’s chief operating officer.

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Winners

iPath Dow Jones UBS Natural Gas Subindex Total Return ETN 12.7%

Natural gas has become a highly sought after energy source in light of souring sentiment towards the nuclear industry. Investors, looking for direct exposure to this fuel, have poured into futures-based funds such as GAZ and the United States Natural Gas Fund.

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