Top 10 News Items 11/17-11/21: Citi (C) in Free Fall, Financials Follow; Auto Bailout Delayed Until Next Month

November 21, 2008 4:03 PM EST

This a recap of the top news items from the last week on Wall Street:

1. Shares of Citigroup (NYSE: C) were in free fall this week, declining more than 60% amid fresh concerns about the financial stability of the company. Attempting to pick up shares at seemingly value levels, Prince Alwaleed announced plans that he will boost his stake in Citi back to 5% soon. The bank also announced plans to cut about 50,000 jobs from its workforce, but despite the announcements, Citi management appears to be scrambling for a vote of confidence, including a possible merger.

2. Considering the investor worries surrounding Citigroup, financial stocks across the board plunged; numerous financials set new 52-week lows: Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) fell 35% setting a new low at $10.01, Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) fell 22% to a new low of $47.41 and JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) fell 38% to a new low of $19.69. Notably, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.a) fell 18% to $82,600.

3. The outlook for the US automakers continued to worsen this week. Flying to Washington to testify in front of Congress, execs from General Motors (NYSE: GM), Ford (NYSE: F) and Chrysler could not prove convincing enough, however, and democratic leaders decided they would delay an announcement until December, asking the execs to return next month with a plan on exactly how they intend to use federal money. Despite large declines on Wednesday, both GM and Ford rallied Thursday and Friday to close this week flat.

4. As fear moved through different parts of the economy this week, commercial mortgage backed securities got crushed. Deterioration in this space has traders speculating on whether commercial real estate will be the next shoe to drop.

5. Yahoo!'s (Nasdaq: YHOO) Co-Founder and CEO, Jerry Yang, finally, finally stepped down from his positions at the search giant. Separately, shares of Yahoo! tumbled 20% on Wednesday when Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) CEO, Steve Ballmer, made comments saying talks related to any deal with Yahoo! are now "done". The stock closed this week's trading session around $9.15, about 72% lower than Microsoft's $33 bid that Yang turned down.

6. Dalls Maverick's owner, Mark Cuban, was charged with insider trading by the SEC earlier this week. According to the regulatory agency, Cuban sold 600,000 shares of Mamma.com just after hearing that the company would soon announce an equity offering. No new developments have been announced since the news initially hit.

7. Tuesday, Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) reported preliminary better-than-the-Street Q4 sales and EPS. The company also guided Q1 and FY09 above the Street, showing that not everyone is losing money in this market. Shares of HP rose 12% this week, much better than the 9.9% decline in the S&P 500.

8. Friday, Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) announced that Lee Scott will step down from his positions as President and CEO, effective February 1. The retailer disclosed that its Board has selected Mike Duke to succeed Scott.

9. Crude oil broke below the $50 level just several months after hitting an all-time high just under $150. Many traders view the drastic slide in crude oil prices as a welcomed-relief to US consumers, however, some consider it an indicator of the global slowdown which seems to be impending.

10. Grand Canyon Eduction (Nasdaq: LOPE) began public trading this week. The IPO marked the first offering in more than 3-months. After pricing at $12 and initially trading under $10, the stock rallied with the broader markets in the last hour of trading, closing the week around $12.59.

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• Warren Buffett
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• Citi
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• Prince Alwaleed bin Talal
• Standard & Poor's
• StreetInsider.com Top 10 News Items for the Week
• Crude Oil
• Mark Cuban

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