A Week's Worth

• With blue-chip companies such as Microsoft, Caterpillar Inc., and United Technologies leading the way, the Dow Jones Industrial Average recovered much of the previous week's loss and closed Friday at 10907.21. Sixty-three percent of the 244 companies reporting fourth-quarter results exceeded analysts' expectations.

• Hiss, if you like, at globalization, but almost two-thirds of corporate chiefs responding to a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers said it has become their No. 1 goal - and not just in a search for cheap labor. It's because that's where the emerging markets are, especially the BRIC economies: Brazil, Russia, India, and China.

• No time to make a phone call? Send an e-mail instead. That's what almost 75 percent of executives polled by OfficeTeam, a California-based administrative staffing agency, said they do exclusively now. Face-to-face chats came in a distant second. Five years ago, the largest percentage would call when they wanted to communicate.

• For the first time in the seven-year history of its survey of US teenagers, females eyeing careers in business, medicine, or education have told Junior Achievement Worldwide they expect to be paid as well as their male classmates, if not better. In the fields of law, entertainment, and - especially - computers, however, it's the guys who have the higher pay expectations. By a factor of almost 13 percent, females also were more confident of finding their "ideal" job.