Top 10 News Items 6/1-6/5: GM IS BANKRUPT; Jobs Report Comes in Much Better-Than-Expected; Equity Offerings Still All The Rage

June 5, 2009 6:06 PM EDT

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

1. The long-awaited bankruptcy of General Motors' (NYSE: GM) (OTC: GMGMQ) is finally upon us and the U.S. government will pitch in another $30 billion of taxpayer money to assist in supporting the 'New GM', or what some have referred to as 'Government Motors'. GM will use Section 363 of the bankruptcy code which will result in the creation of a 'New GM' with a healthy balance sheet, putting the new company on a clear path toward long-term viability and success. The support of more than 54% of the bondholders cleared the way for the 363 sale. Despite the bankruptcy, hopeful traders are continuing to trade the stock under the ticker GMGMQ on the OTC market.The stock finished the week on a strong note, surging more than 200% off the low set on Monday.

2. The highly anticipated jobs report was release on Friday, shocking traders as the number came in much better than analyst had been looking for: down by 345,000 in May, compared to the consensus estimate of down 520,000. On a more negative tone, however, the unemployment rate jumped from 8.9% to 9.4%. Also dampening the positivity, reports were heard that the data contained an error, but Hilda Solis, the Secretary of Labor said these rumors were not true.

3. Equity offerings continue to be the trendy thing to do this week. We saw offerings from Prudential (NYSE: PRU), SunTrust (NYSE: STI), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM), American Express (NYSE: AXP), KEY), Valero (NYSE: VLO), Steel Dynamics (Nasdaq: STLD) and Express Scripts (Nasdaq: ESRX).

4. Following weeks of trader speculation, Dow Jones finally confirmed the removal of two once-vital parts of the DJIA, GM and Citigroup (NYSE: C). The Travelers Companies (NYSE: TRV) will replace Citigroup, while tech-bellweather Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) will replace GM. Click here to see some comments made by Robert Thomson, managing editor of the WSJ and editor-in-chief of all of Dow Jones, related to the decisions.

5. Reports emerged Friday that Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) high-profile CEO, Steve Jobs, is ready to come back to work later this month after his long medical leave. The WSJ speculated that Jobs could make his reappearance at Apple's annual software developers' conference next week in San Francisco and unveil a new iPhone. What an entrance... Traders applauded the news and shares of Apple closed Friday’s trading session up about a dollar.

6. According to reports coming out of the WSJ, Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) is expected to add four outside directors to its Board, each with experience in banking or financial oversight. Sources have indicated that the new members will be: former Federal Reserve Governor Susan Bies, former FDIC Chairman Donald Powell, former Compass Bancshares CEO D. Paul Jones and former Bank One exec William Boardman. The news puts a spotlight on the current battle being waged between overzealous regulators and “shareholder-friendly” execs.

7. Presentations at the American Society of Clinical Oncology moved numerous stocks this week, including Telik (Nasdaq: TELK), BioCryst Pharma (Nasdaq: BCRX), OSI Pharma (Nasdaq: OSIP), Keryx Biopharma (Nasdaq: KERX), Amgen (Nasdaq: AMGN), and OncoGenex (Nasdaq: OGXI), just to name a few of the many companies.

8. On the M&A front, hedge fund Ramius surprised traders by announcing a merger with Cowen (Nasdaq: COWN, Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) said it will buy Wind River (Nasdaq: WIND) for $11.50 per share and General Dyanmics (NYSE: GD) announced the purchase of AXSYS Technologies (Nasdaq: AXYS) for .

9. Retail sales for the month of May came in this week, causing investors to rethink the assumption that the worst may be over for this badly beaten down sector. While a few retailers saw better-than-expected same store sales, most posted sharply worse-than-expected results and likewise, most retail stocks sold-off on the news. Further adding to concerns related to this fickle data point, Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), the world’s largest retailer, offer monthly results, but the next day, Friday, announced a $15 billion buyback.

10. Given historic bankruptcy filings at Chrysler and GM recently, auto sales results for the month of May were a heavily-watched data point this week. For the most part, results seem to have came in in-line and improving trends continued.

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• Ramius Capital
• Chrysler LLC
• JPMorgan
• Citi
• Morgan Stanley
• Banc of America
• Steve Jobs
• Cowen & Co
• StreetInsider.com Top 10 News Items for the Week
• Hedge Funds
• Bankruptcy
• FDIC

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