Top 10 News Items 3/9-3/13: Stock Stage 4-Day Win Streak; Bank CEOs Make Upbeat Comments (C, JPM, BAC); GE (GE) Gets Rating Cut

March 13, 2009 4:31 PM EDT

This is a recap of the top news items of the week on Wall Street for the week of 3/9/09-3/13/09:

1. Stocks ended higher four days in a row this week, with gains in the major indexes of over 10%.

2. On Tuesday, the CEO of bailed-out Citigroup (NYSE: C), Vikram Pandit, distributed a letter to employees providing an update on Citi's position. In the letter, Pandit said the current stock price doesn't reflects the strengths of Citi and its strong tangible common equity, that could increase to as much as $81 billion. JP Morgan's (NYSE: JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon and Bank of America's (NYSE: BAC) Ken Lewis also made positive comments.

3. S&P lowered its credit rating on General Electric (NYSE: GE) from AAA to AA in a much anticipated move. Investors bought the stock as the reduced rating was not as bad as some had expected. Rumors suggested that S&P could move GE's credit rating lower by 2 or even 3 notches. Also, S&P moved its credit outlook on GE to stable, meaning that the rating agency does not see a need to change it rating for six months to two years. MORE

4. Barney Frank, the Chairman of House Financial Services Committee, said he expects to see the up-tick rule back within a month.

5. Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE: MRK) and Schering-Plough Corporation (NYSE: SGP) announced a definitive merger agreement under which Merck and Schering-Plough will combine, under the name Merck, in a stock and cash transaction worth $41.1 billion. MORE

6. US February retail sales were much better-than-expected. The headline number was a drop of 0.1%, versus the consensus of a 0.5% drop. Retail Sales-ex autos gained 0.7%, versus the consensus of a 0.1% drop.

7. A Congressional subcommittee held a meeting on financial mark-to-market rules. At the meeting, the head of the Financial Accounting Standards Board told the panel that in three weeks the organization will issue new relaxed guidance on mark-to-market rules.

8. Roche and Genentech (NYSE: DNA) signed a merger agreement under which Roche will acquire the outstanding publicly held interest in Genentech for $95.00 per share in cash. The two sides have fought for months on terms of the deal, which were originally $89 per share that later dropped to $86.50 then raised to $93 and is now at $95.

9. Gilead Sciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: GILD) and CV Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: CVTX) today announced the signing of a definitive agreement pursuant to which Gilead will acquire CV Therapeutics for $20.00 per share in cash through a tender offer and second step merger.

10. After hammering Cramer and CNBC for the better part of a week, the much anticipated battle between Cramer and The Daily Show's Jon Stewart aired Thursday tonight. Stewart ridiculed Cramer for the station's lack of guidance to common investors ahead of the current crisis. Cramer mostly accepted the blame and vowed to do more to expose Wall Street corruption. MORE

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• JPMorgan
• Citi
• Banc of America
• Standard & Poor's
• Jamie Dimon
• StreetInsider.com Top 10 News Items for the Week

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