Top 10 News Items: 9/26-9/30: Q3 GDP Surprises to the Upside; Dollar Still Dominating Market Action; VIX Spikes Sharply, Now Over 30

October 30, 2009 4:08 PM EDT

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

1. Investors were surprised with a better-than-expected Q3 GDP reading on Thursday of this week: a 3.5% rise, versus the consensus of a 3.2% rise. The Dow rallied sharply (200 points) on the news, but all these gains were given up on Friday as the dollar had a strong day.

2. The dollar continues to dominate investors trading decisions this week. As it has gone for the last few months, a strong dollar has meant a sliding stock market, and similarly, commodities. When the dollar is weak, stocks rise. Recent weakness the dollar is being attributed to the easy money policy of the Fed crushing the dollar, and in turn, boosting asset prices.

3. The VIX, often referred to as "the fear indicator" for the stock market, rallied extremely sharply this week. After closing around 21 last week, the index rose nearly 50% and is closed Friday just under 31.

4. Shares of Apollo Group (Nasdaq: APOL) tumbled more than 20% this week as the company announced that the SEC will be holding an investigation into the revenue recognition practices of the company.

5. Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) shares sank more than 11% on Tuesday following concerning Q3 earnings. Although the search-giant reported better-to-inline results, it also issued guidance that was well below the Street estimate.

6. In the Communications sector, we had earnings from Verizon (NYSE: VZ), Motorola (NYSE: MOT) and Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S). Both Verizon and Motorola beat the Street, while Sprint missed. Motorola traded higher (10%) following the results, Verizon was relatively flat and Sprint sold-off.

7. Traders cheered Procter & Gamble's (NYSE: PG) Q1 results this week, bidding the stock up by about 4% on Thursday. The company topped the Street's estimates and also boosted the low end of its FY09 outlook.

8. The world's largest credit card processor, Visa (NYSE: V), reported strong Q4 earnings on Tuesday of this week. Shares rose 3.5% on Wednesday and added another percent on Thursday, giving up Thursday's gain on Friday.

9. Worse-than-expected new home sales data surprised traders this week, coming in at 402,000 for the month of September. Economists had been looking for new home sales of 440,000. A popular homebuilder ETF, the XHB (NYSE: XHB) fell 5% on Wednesday and 3% on Friday.

10. IBM (NYSE: IBM) raised its share buyback plan by $5 billion this week, showing investors that solid, blue chip company's are still performing in this environment. This amount is in addition to approximately $4.2 billion remaining at the end of September 2009 from a prior authorization. IBM's stock was relatively flat this week.

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