Top 10 News Items 10/12-10/16: Dow Crosses 10,000; Google Blows-Out Earnings; Goldman Continues Earnings Dominance, But Traders Sell

October 16, 2009 3:54 PM EDT

Below is a recap of the top news items from this week on Wall Street:

1. Taking traders back to the pre- and post-tech bubble days, the Dow crossed over the battleground 10,000 level this week. Some investors viewed the move as a great vote of confidence for market players, while others viewed it as "simply a number". Much to the chagrin of bears everywhere, the NYSE passed out "Dow 10,000" hats on the NYSE floor.

2. Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) reported blow-out Q3 earnings this week, causing the shares to rise by more than 4% on Friday. Surprising even the most bullish analysts, Google turned out to be one of the only bright spots on the earnings front this week.

3. Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) topped the Street on both earnings and sales this week, but traders booed the results, pushing the stock down by more than 3% to close the week. EPS came in at a whopping $5.25 while sales came in at $12.37 billion.

4. General Electric (NYSE: GE) shares sold-off on Friday (about 4%) following a Q3 earnings beat. A miss on the sales number pulled the stock down, as well as renewed concerns related to GE Capital.

5. Also on the earnings front, specifically financials, Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and Citigroup (NYSE: C) also reported, both reporting losses. BofA reported a wider-than-expected loss of $0.26, sending the stock about 6% lower to finish the week, while Citi reported a $0.27 loss, better than what the Street had been expecting, but its shares sold off by about 8%.

6. Lazard Ltd. (NYSE: LAZ) Chairman and CEO, Bruce Wasserstein, passed away at the age of 61 this week. Late Sunday, Lazard said Wasserstein was hospitalized for an irregular heartbeat. The Board named Steven Golub, Vice Chairman, as interim CEO. Lazard shares finished the week about flat.

7. Elsewhere on the tech front, IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) reported their quarterly earnings. Despite beating and guiding FY09 higher, shares of IBM sold-off almost 5% on Friday. Intel, which reported earlier in the week, came in slightly better-to-inline, but shares traded only marginally higher on Wednesday and lower on Thursday and Friday.

8. Galleon Group founder and billionaire Raj Rajaratnam was arrested by federal agents Friday morning and charged by the U.S. Attorney with crimes including securities fraud and conspiracy over alleged insider trading. Click here for our full report.

9. Hedge fund billionaire John Paulson disclosed a stake in Conseco (NYSE: CNO) this week, sending shares surging 30% on Wednesday and 6% on Thursday. The company signed an agreement with John Paulson's Paulson & Co. Inc., on behalf of the several investment funds and accounts managed by it, to sell to Paulson 16.4 million shares of common stock and warrants to purchase 5.0 million shares of common stock for an aggregate purchase price of $77.9 million.

10. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), the world's largest pharmaceutical company, reported Q3 results on Tuesday. The company reported EPS of $1.20, beating by 7 cents, but missed on the sales number. JNJ shares traded flat following the results.

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