StreetInsider.com Top 10 News Items 8/4-8/8: Crude, Fannie/Freddie, Auction Rate Securities, More...

August 8, 2008 1:55 PM EDT

StreetInsider.com Top 10 News Items for the Week of August 4-8. This is a recap of this week's major news on Wall Street.

1. Crude continued its recent sell-off. Crude fell to $116, down over 20% from its high. The sell-off helped contribute to a great week for stocks.

2. On Friday, Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) reported a loss of $2.54 per share, versus the consensus of a $0.69 loss, due to large mortgage losses and higher loss reserves. The company also cut its dividend to preserve capital. Questions remain about the future of the GSE.

3. On Wednesday, Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) reported a Q2 loss of $1.63 per share, versus the consensus of a $0.41 loss, due to large mortgage losses and higher loss reserves. The company also cut its dividend to preserve capital. Questions remain about the future of the GSE.

4. A number of larger brokerage firms, including UBS (NYSE: UBS), Citigroup (NYSE: C) and Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER), settled with state and federal regulators on auction rate securities, agreeing to buy them back at par from clients.

5. On Thursday, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) reported that July Comparable Store Sales rose 3.0%.  The company said stimulus checks are at an end and customers are living paycheck to paycheck.

6. On Thursday, American International Group, Inc. (NYSE: AIG) reported an adjusted Q2 loss of $0.51, versus the consensus of a $0.63 profit. The company has investment losses of $6 billion and losses on credit default swaps of $5.6 billion.

7. On Tuesday, Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) confirmed that it has been retained by the United States Department of the Treasury to provide capital markets advice to support the Treasury's responsibilities associated with its new authorities regarding Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE).

8. On Tuesday, Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) reports Q4 EPS of $0.40, 1 cent better than the analyst estimate of $0.39. Revenues for the quarter were $10.4 billion, versus the consensus of $10.31 billion. The company also gave surprisingly upbeat guidance.

9. On Tuesday, The Federal Open Market Committee decided today to keep its target for the federal funds rate at 2 percent.

10. On Monday, Florida home-builder WCI Communities, Inc. (NYSE: WCI) filed Chapter 11 to restructure their debt and capital.

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