Top 10 News Items 11/3-11/7: Wall Street Welcomes President-Elect Obama

November 7, 2008 3:48 PM EST

This is a recap of the top 10 news items for the last week on Wall Street:

1. In one of the most closely followed elections in US history, Democratic candidate Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States. With the top issue among voters being the state of the US economy, attention has turned to President-elect Obama's economic policies. The stock market welcomed the new President with two days of large-scale losses: the Dow Jones moved from just over 9600 to just under 8700 during Wednesday and Thursday's trading sessions.

2. Liquidity concerns at General Motors (NYSE: GM) and Ford (NYSE: F) seem to have bubbled to a new height this week. Execs from the Big 3 headed to Capitol Hill Wednesday to discuss possible government intervention in each of the automakers. The following day, both GM and Ford posted massive quarterly losses, but most investors looked to the automakers' levels of cash burn. GM said it went through about $6.9 billion during Q3, while Ford burned over $7 billion. Notably, GM announced that it had ended talks with Chrysler in order to focus on its liquidity issues. Shares of GM closed this week about 26% lower while Ford closed the week down about 10%.

3. Data released Friday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that nonfarm payrolls in the U.S. fell 240,000 in October and the unemployment rate surged from 6.1% to 6.5%. In addition, August and September job losses were revised downward, bringing the total job losses from August-October to 651,000.

4. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made it clear that she intends to push for another economic stimulus package which could be valued at $60-$100 billion.

5. Retailers released their October sales numbers Thursday, and as would be expected they were mostly horrible except for a few outliers including Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT). Costco (Nasdaq: COST), Gap (NYSE: GPS), Urban Outfitters (Nasdaq: URBN), The TJX Companies (NYSE: TJX) and Abercrombie (NYSE: ANF) issued worse-than-expected numbers while JCPenney (NYSE: JCP) and The Children's Place (Nasdaq: PLCE) posted better-than-expected same store sales.

6. In an effort to curb a drastic economic slide in their respective regions, the ECB and Bank of England lowered their benchmark interest rates. The ECB took its rate from 3.75% to 3.25% while the Bank of England cuts its rate by 150 basis points from 4.5% to 3%. Both moves came before the US markets opened on Thursday, but despite the actions, the markets continued sliding.

7. Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) reported Q4 EPS of $0.43, 6 cents lower than the analyst estimate of $0.49. Revenue for the quarter came in at $9.45 million, versus the consensus of $9.34 billion. After initially moving down about 5% in after-hours trading and at the open on Friday, shares of Disney swung 10% during the trading session, moving as high as $24.18, but closed the session only about 2% higher.

8. Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) reported Q1 EPS of $0.42, 3 cents better than the analyst estimate of $0.39. Revenue for the quarter was $10.3 billion, versus the consensus of $10.30 billion. The tech bellweather also guided its Q2 sales down 5-10%, but the stock proved resilient, trading about 3% higher on Friday.

9. Gaming stocks, specifically Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS), once again came under heavy pressure this week: the stock fell nearly 50%. Thursday, the company warned that it may be in default on its debt, which brings bankruptcy into play. CNBC's David Faber also reported that the company is looking to hire a banker to restructure its capital to avoid a bankruptcy, certainly further adding to fears.

10. Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) announced this week that they had ended their advertising agreement with Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO), saying it is clear government regulators and some advertisers continue to have concerns about the agreement. Google said pressing ahead with the agreement risked a protracted legal battle and damage to relationships with valued partners. Shares of Yahoo! initially traded higher on the seemingly negative news, but Friday, the stock sunk more than 14% on comments from Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) CEO, Steve Ballmer, that suggested Microsoft would not pursue a deal with Yahoo!.

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• Chrysler LLC
• David Faber
• Nonfarm Payrolls
• StreetInsider.com Top 10 News Items for the Week
• Bankruptcy
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