This last week felt like a roller coaster ride in the markets, yet all in all the markets were little changed from a week earlier. 24/7 Wall St. wanted to feature ten prominent equity stories from this last week that will help balance out a must-know news from noise. The markets are still dealing with a dovish Fed and promises from Fed Chair Janet Yellen to keep rates low, while still dealing with tensions in Russia and Ukraine. We even saw some less optimistic employment data this last week, which is odd when you consider the strong payrolls report from a week earlier. The following shows the price change for the week for each index:

• DJIA May 9 Close vs May 2 close: 16,583.23 vs 16,512.89, a gain of 0.4%
• S&P 500 May 9 Close vs May 2 close: 1,878.48 vs 1,881.14, a drop of 0.1%

These are the 24/7 Wall St. top ten equity stories of the last week:

Companies with the best and worst reputations is of continued interest. Some of the top companies include Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Whole Foods Market Inc. (NASDAQ: WFM). Some of the worst include Sears Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: SHLD), JP Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), and Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S).

On the heels of the Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) annual shareholder meeting, Warren Buffett’s nine best dividend stocks brought interest from all over. What does Buffett’s irony tell you — he won’t pay his shareholders a dividend, but he sure likes collecting dividends.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is still one of the most popular companies in the world. It is also, of course, the most valuable company in the world. So now that its stock briefly hit $600 again for an 18-month high, here is how Apple can gets its stock back up to that magical $700 level and reach new highs. Speaking of which, get ready for an August launch of the iPhone 6 for a sooner release.

The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) turned in the type of earnings report that you would want all Dow stocks to report in a bull market. This stock closed up about 2% for the week, but this was the model earnings report of what you would prefer to see . Revenue was up 10%, with earnings per share up 30%. So many companies have reported earnings beats due to cost cuts with no revenue growth.

ALSO READ: The 6 Most Shorted NASDAQ Stocks!

Whole Foods Market created a game-changing valuation story for what had been an endless growth story. The easy money is gone now, but long-term investors may finally have their shot at building a position for returns in the years ahead. This was one of the worst weeks ever for Whole Foods, with shares down more than 22%.

This last week we had ten analyst stocks trading under $10 where the analysts saw big implied upside. Last weekend’s piece was 8 analyst stocks under $10.

We also had a motley crew of companies covered, which are far from your normal companies. These are the ten most unusual public companies in America. Rather than conglomerates and industrials and normal tech or media companies, these have themes around very unusual activities indeed — gentlemen’s clubs, treasure hunting, baseball cards, maternity, cannabis meds, sports teams and more.

ALSO READ: The 6 Most Shorted NYSE Stocks!

Rare earth elements are mandatory for many electronics, industrial goods, and consumer products. The problem is that many are not available here. Molycorp Inc. (NYSE: MCP) is the only major producer in America, yet we have to ask one sad question that is very serious – can Molycorp be saved?

High-flying momentum tech stocks have come crashing back down to earth. The good news: At least one analyst sees some of these stocks ready for a big bounce.

3D Systems Corp. (NYSE: DDD) remains a battleground stock, with bulls and bears fighting over the leader of 3D printing. Some analysts have tried defending this leader after shares have been cut in half from the peak, but a short selling ETF fund manager sent us his reasons why 3D Systems could keep falling and why he is still shorting the stock.

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.