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Swiss central bank President Thomas Jordan said policy makers are ready to take further measures if needed to weaken the franc as its strength poses

It’s a hot week for public debuts. Shares of two tech-related companies, CafePress and Millennial Media, gained in their initial public offerings Thursday.

Millennial () more than doubled in early trading. It priced its initial public offering at $13 per share, the high end of its range. Shares opened on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday at $25, and they quickly rose to $27.50 each. By the late afternoon, Millennial shares were trading at $24.27.

Founded in 2006, Millennial Media has emerged as a competitor to behemoth rivals Apple (, Fortune 500) and Google (, Fortune 500). Facebook, which has dominated in display advertising, has so far ignored the mobile ad sector — though that may change soon. Facebook said last month that it would start expanding into mobile ads.

Like many other newly public startups, Millennial Media is not profitable. Its losses narrowed sharply last year as its sales increased. Millennial took a net loss of $287,000 in 2011 on sales of almost $104 million. In 2010, the company recorded a net loss of more than $7 million on sales of nearly $48 million.

CafePress (), which was founded in 1999, also began trading Thursday on the tech-heavy Nasdaq.

CafePress opened at $21 cash advance to savings account.50 , but the stock was trading at $20.46 late in the session. The company, which was founded in 1999 and survived the early-2000s dot-com bust, prints custom designs on items like T-shirts and mugs.

It priced its IPO at $19 a share, above the $16 to $18 range it had set previously.

Unlike Millennial Media, CafePress made a profit last year. It netted $3.6 million on $175.5 million in sales. That’s up from a $2.7 million profit and almost $128 million in revenue for 2010.

CafePress and Millennial are just two of 10 companies expected to go public this week. On Wednesday, organic food company Annie’s () closed 89% higher after pricing at the top of its range.

Two other companies that went public Wednesday also surged. Vocera Communications (), a maker of health care technology, closed 32% higher, and consumer finance company Regional Management () finished the day up nearly 10%.

Investors appear to have a strong appetite for IPOs this year. According to the New York Stock Exchange, the average return for IPOs on their first day of trading this year is 15%. 

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Apple Inc. stoked fears of a market correction Wednesday as its surging stock price drove the Nasdaq to heights not seen since the end of the dot-com era more than a decade ago.

The tech-heavy composite index fell back after breaching 3,000 but remains on track to post its best February in 14 years. The Nasdaq briefly passed the 3,000 milestone a day after the Dow Jones industrial average closed north of 13,000 for the first time since the start of the recession in 2008.

Apple, the Nasdaq

Businesses slashed spending on machinery and equipment in January after a tax break expired, pushing orders for long-lasting manufacturing goods down by the largest amount in three years.

Orders for durable goods fell 4 percent last month, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.

A big reason for the decline was demand for so-called core capital goods, which are viewed as a good measure of business investment plans, tumbled 4.5 percent. That’s the biggest drop in a year.

Demand for core capital goods hit an all-time high in December. Companies rushed to take advantage of a tax break that expired at the end of last year.

A durable good is a product expected to last at least three years. They include everything from appliances and cars to heavy machinery and planes. Orders tend to fluctuate sharply from one month to the next. But the overall trend in orders has increased since the recession ended nearly three years ago.

In January, overall orders totaled $206.1 billion. That’s 38.6 above the low hit during the recession. Orders are still 16 percent below their peak hit in December 2007.

Even without that tax break, many analysts believe business investment will pick up and stay strong in 2012 as companies take advantage of stockpiles of cash to expand and modernize their production facilities payday loan lenders.

U.S. factories boosted output last month and December ended up being their best month of growth in five years. Strong auto sales and growing business investment in machinery and other equipment are keeping factories busy and helping the economy grow.

About 9 percent of the nation’s jobs are in manufacturing. But last year, factories added 13 percent of new jobs. And in January, about one-fifth of the 243,000 net jobs the economy created were in manufacturing.

The economy grew at an annual rate of 2.8 percent in the final three months of last year. Economists are looking for roughly the same level growth in the current quarter. And a forecasting panel of the National Association for Business Economics said Monday that the economy should grow 2.3 percent this year.

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U.S. stocks capped off a solid week on either side of the break even line Friday, as investors hesitated to make big bets ahead of a key vote on a second bailout for Greece.

The Dow Jones industrial average () rose 46 points, or 0.4%, closing at the highest level since May 2008. The S&P 500 () edged up 3 points, or 0.2%, and the Nasdaq () lost 8 points, or 0.3%.

Investors are optimistic that European finance ministers will sign off on Greece’s latest economic reform proposal when they meet Monday. Their approval is needed in order for Greece to receive bailout funds and avoid default on a €14.5 billion bond redemption in March.

But until they receive official word, investors are taking a breather going into the long weekend and Monday’s big meeting.

"From an investor’s perspective, European leaders have over-promised and under-delivered over and over for the past several months," said Michael Sheldon, chief market strategist at RDM Financial Group. "Until we see some signatures on a dotted line, there are still questions about Europe’s ability to contain its issues."

Greek bailout: The pressure is on

Friday’s muted moves came a day after the stocks gained more than 1%, with the Nasdaq closing at a decade high.

All three indexes posted solid gains for the week. The Dow rose 1.2%, while the S&P 500 added 1.4%. The Nasdaq jumped nearly 1.7%.

For the year, the Dow is up almost 6%, and the S&P 500 is up more than 8%. The Nasdaq has made an impressive 13% run.

"All the economic data recently has been pointing to a rebound in economic growth, which has propelled stocks higher," said Sheldon. "But the market might be getting ahead of itself from a sentiment perspective, so it may be due for a pause or a brief pullback."

Europe: Out of ICU but still ill

But as long as economic data continue to come in strong, and Europe continues to work toward a solution for its problems, the market should trend higher in the months ahead, said Sheldon.

Markets will be closed Monday for Presidents Day.

World markets: European stocks finished modestly higher. Britain’s FTSE 100 () added 0.3%, the DAX () in Germany rose 1.4% and France’s CAC 40 () gained 1.3%.

Asian markets ended higher. The Shanghai Composite () edged up slightly, the Hang Seng () in Hong Kong rose 1% and Japan’s Nikkei () popped 1.6%.

Economy: The Consumer Price Index rose 0.2% in January, after holding steady the two months prior. Analysts were expecting a rise of 0.3%.

Core inflation rose 0.2%, compared to estimates for 0.1% uptick.

The Conference Board’s Leading Economic Indicators index ticked up 0.4% in January, a bit less than forecasts for a 0.5% increase.

Companies: Shares of H.J. Heinz (, Fortune 500) moved higher after the company beat earnings estimates, thanks to growth in emerging markets.

Campbell Soup’s (, Fortune 500) stock also edged higher after the company’s second-quarter profit declined but still managed to beat forecasts.

Nordstrom (, Fortune 500) shares were lower after the retailer issued a disappointing profit forecast for the year.

Green Mountain Coffee’s new Vue

Baidu (), China’s top search engine, beat fourth-quarter earnings and sales estimates, but shares edged lower as the company issued a disappointing first-quarter revenue outlook.

Gilead Sciences (, Fortune 500) shares tumbled after the drugmaker said that the majority of patients involved in a hepatitis C treatment experienced a relapse within four weeks of completion.

Shares of Brightcove (), known for its Internet video platform, surged more than 35% in its stock market debut. The company’s shares were priced at $11 in its initial public offering, and soared above $15 on Friday.

McNeil, a Johnson & Johnson (, Fortune 500) company, is recalling more than half a million bottles of Infants’ Tylenol because of consumer complaints about the difficulties of using the dosing system.

Currencies and commodities: The dollar edged lower against the euro and the British pound, but rose versus the Japanese yen.

Oil for March delivery gained 93 cents to settle at nine-month high of $103.24 a barrel.

Gold futures for April delivery fell $2.50 to settle at $1,725.90 an ounce.

Bonds: The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury fell, pushing the yield up to 2.01% from 1.99% late Thursday.  

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Japan

German unemployment dropped more than economists forecast to a two-decade low in January, bolstering economic growth as the euro region

Nintendo Co.’s upcoming Wii U game console will come with a controller that has a big, touch-enabled screen. At first glance, that seems like an obstacle to the kind of casual multiplayer gaming that made the first Wii console such a breakout hit.

But in demonstrations Tuesday, the company emphasized that the Wii U will work with the cheaper, stick-like Wii controllers as well, making family multiplayer games feasible.

The Japanese company is giving some journalists hands-on time with the console on the sidelines of the International Consumer Electronics Show, which started Tuesday in Las Vegas.

It’s the second time the U.S. media is getting a glimpse of the device, which was first shown in June. Nintendo said the device will go on sale after the next Electronic Entertainment Expo gaming trade show in Los Angeles in June.

Nintendo went against conventional wisdom with the original Wii in 2006. The quirky, cheap game console relied not on high-end graphics and complex buttons to lure in hardcore players, but on simple motion controls to lure in everyone.

Although the company successfully courted casual gamers with the Wii, it is now facing increased competition from Apple Inc.’s iPhone and other devices that offer simple games. It had hoped to win new gamers through a 3-D handheld device. But sales were slow, and Nintendo slashed prices on the 3DS within six months.

The Wii U will be sold as a bundle with one touch-screen controller, which is almost as big as the game console itself. Nintendo hasn’t said what the package or an extra controller will cost. Touch screens are expensive, often accounting for nearly half of the cost of a phone or a tablet computer.

Nintendo’s demonstrations reveal that the touch-screen controller is designed to work with older controllers free credit report and score. For example, in one of Nintendo’s demonstration games, four players with Wii remotes chase a fifth, who uses the touch controller. The fifth player uses the screen on the controller to guide his movements, which are thus kept secret from the other players. The other players keep track of their own movements on the TV screen.

In another demonstration game, two players with Wii remotes collaborate to fight a third, who zooms around in a spaceship, controlled through the touch controller.

The integration of the older remotes and the touch controller goes even further. The existing Wii console is able to keep track of where the old-style Wii remotes are with the help of a “sensor bar” that attaches to the TV set. That’s how the Wii remote can be used to “point” to things on the screen. The new Wii U controller has its own sensor bar, so the Wii U can figure out where a Wii remote is in relation to the controller, not just the TV set.

This sounds complicated, but it enables simple, unexpected forms of game play. For instance, Nintendo showed in a video how the Wii U controller could be placed on the floor for a golf game. The screen of the controller shows a teed-up golf ball. Swinging a Wii remote like a golf club above the controller gets the ball flying.

While the ability to use older remotes will appeal to consumers, supporting multiple remotes could pose a challenge for game developers, who might decide to drop support for older hardware. To make things more complicated, there are two versions of the Wii remote, with differing motion-sensing abilities, and an accessory “Nunchuck” controller.

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