social networking site facebook, making a couple acquisitions. facebook shares up 10% in the first three months of the year, and as far as overall sector performance, the utility sector, the high dividend paying, safe haven utility sector was the best performing sector, and when you look at dow winners and losers on this barely changed stock market for the quarter, merck, up 13%. microsoft, scatter boeing lost 8%. goldman sack lost 8%. and again electric, your top losers for the quarter, so, barely budging for the quarter. even though we had a lot of big swings in the stock market, facebook and other big names certainly had a great quarter.
sandra smith on the market numbers that are barely up. and we had a triple digit gain for the dow today, and in fact there s been 23 triple digit moves for the dow so far this year but still no decisive direction for the stock market. take a look how we re finishing up the month. the s&p up .7 of one percent. the tech heavy nasdaq, the sole loser for the month of march, losing 2.6%. different story when you look at the markets for the quarter. for the quarter the dow jones industrial average actually losing .8 of one percent. the s&p 500, gaining more than a full percent. you can say the broader stock market is up for the year. the tech heavy nasdaq a winner for the quarter, up a half of one percent. while the stock market barely budged, there were certainly some standout stock, including