Special Reports

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

1. After a horrible August, the first few trading days of September had investors pouring money back into stocks. The S&P 500 is up 5 percent so far this month.

2. Friday brought the much-anticipated jobs number, which surprised to the upside. Nonfarm payrolls in August were down 54,000, as 114,000 temporary census jobs were ended and state and local governments cut 10,000 positions. Economists had been looking for a loss of 105,000 jobs. The report showed that the private sector added a net total of 67,000 new jobs last month, higher than the economist estimate do a rise of 40,000 jobs.

3. The frenzied bidding war for 3Par (NYSE: PAR) came to an end this week after Hewlett Packard (NYSE: HPQ) raised its offer to $33 per share and Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) was unwilling to top it. Bidding for 3Par started on August 16, when Dell announced an agreement to acquire the company for $18 per share, which was a hefty premium to the prior day's close of $9.65.

4. Burger King Holdings Inc. (NYSE: BKC) agreed to be acquired for $3.26 billion by the private-equity firm 3G Capital, or $4 billion with the assumption of the company’s debt.

5. Manufacturing date on Wednesday showed it is a rare bright spot for the sluggish economy. The Institute for Supply Management said Wednesday that its manufacturing Index rose to 56.3 in August, as the manufacturing sector continues to the be the driving force in the economic recovery. The reading was up from 55.5 in July. Economists had expected the ISM index to fall to 52.8 last month as fears of a double-dip recession gripped the economy. A reading above 50 signals growth.

6. Consumer confidence showed a rebound. The Conference Board, a private research group, reported Tuesday that its consumer confidence index rose to 53.5 in August from an upwardly revised 51.0 last month. The original reading for July was reported at 50.4.

7. The SEC is probing the practice of "quote stuffing," which is a practice of trading in unusually large numbers to buy or sell stocks in fractions of a second that are almost immediately canceled, causing a distortion of stock prices.

8. With M&A action hot and heavy this week, the rumor mill was in overdrive. Some notable names getting takeover chatter this week were Saks (NYSE: SKS), Compellent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: CML), Brocade (Nasdaq: BRCD), Wendy's (NYSE: WEN), and ArcSight, Inc. (ARST). Track all the latest developments in M&A at StreetInsider.com's M&A Central.

9. Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) and JPMogan (NYSE: JPM) both shuttered some prop-trading operations to comply with the Volcker rule. Goldman is reported closing its principal-strategies unit. JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) is closing its commodities trading unit.

10. Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) held an event Wednesday and wowed loyalists with an update iPod line-up and new smaller, cheaper Apple TV product.

The Trading Radar highlights key earnings and economic announcements for tomorrow's trading session:

Before The Market Opens
Earnings:

Animal Health International, Inc. (Nasdaq: AHII) - consensus EPS $0.10
Casey's General Stores (Nasdaq: CASY) - consensus EPS $0.81
Pike Electric Corp. (Nasdaq: PIKE) - consensus EPS $0.00

After the Market Closes

China Mass Media Corp (NYSE: CMM) - consensus EPS $0.04
Comarco, Inc. (Nasdaq: CMRO) - consensus loss $0.03
DJSP Enterprises Inc. (Nasdaq: DJSP) - consensus EPS $0.29
Flow International (Nasdaq: FLOW) - consensus loss $0.03
Mitcham Industries (Nasdaq: MIND) - consensus loss $0.06
Navistar (NYSE: NAV) - consensus EPS $1.36
NCI Building Systems, Inc. (NYSE: NCS) - consensus loss $0.64
Pep Boys (NYSE: PBY) - consensus EPS $0.19
Phillips-Van Heusen (NYSE: PVH) - consensus EPS $0.54

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This report is an intraday check of some of the more notable stocks that have hit a 52-week high or low so far today.

52-Week High:

• Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS) high of $31.34. LVS is shrugging-off a Citi report today, which has the firm reiterating their Sell rating on the stock, and shot up about 4.2% to reach a new 52-week high. Many other gaming stocks are seeing some positive upside today as well.
  
  
• Almaden Minerals Ltd. (AMEX: AAU) high of $2.94. The miner may be seeing some upside today from Goldcorp's (NYSE: GG) $3.4 billion acquisition of Andean Resources Ltd. Shares soared over 33% today to the new 52-week high.
  
  
• Netflix, Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX) high of $142.50. Reaching another 52-week high this week. Shares received some positive reinforcement earlier in the week when Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) announced that their iTV would carry Netflix.

• Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: CLDX) low of $2.91. Dropped about 39% today as Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) announced that they would pull-out of rindopepimut development.
  
  
• Converted Organics Inc. (Nasdaq: COIN) low of $0.36. Announced that they filed a registration to sell up to 2,314,814 shares of Common Stock on behalf of Selling Shareholders. The offering comes after the company filed an 8.04 million common shelf at the end of July, and announced reductions to it staff.
  
  
• Synutra International Inc. (Nasdaq: SYUT) low of $10.08. Saw a little pop on Wednesday, when the company said it would seek a formal apology from Phoenix Satellite Television Holdings Limited and its Beijing subsidiary, Phoenix New Media Inc. No response has been received, so the company will move forward with legal proceedings. Synutra recently saw a drop off after reporting their first quarter earnings earlier in August, and then saw negative coverage that linked Synutra to premature development of infants who ingested milk powder used in infant formula made by Synutra.

DayStar Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: DSTI) 27.0% HIGHER; seeing a bounce today after shares have fallen 32% since mid August, and more than that since mid-July. Volume increased above the $1.65 level today, a possible short squeeze. Overall volume is about double the normal three-month average.

Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: CLDX) 25.9% LOWER; Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) is pulling out of rindopepimut development. Pfizer said that the program is "is no longer a strategic priority" for the company.

Almaden Minerals Ltd. (AMEX; AAU) 21.8% HIGHER; may be seeing some upside today from the $3.4 billion acquisition of Andean Resources by Goldcorp. (NYSE: GG).

Rediff.com India Ltd. (Nasdaq: REDF) 18.8% HIGHER; higher today as reports of Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) losing South Korean partner NHN Corp., based on their alliance with Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT). Yahoo and NHN's search advertising contract is set to expire in November 2010. The move is the second time an Asian partner as dumped Yahoo!, with the last being Yahoo Japan, which is switching to a Google-based search engine.

Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance, Inc. (Nasdaq: ULTA) 18.3% HIGHER; reports Q2 adjusted EPS of $0.25, 7 cents better than the analyst estimate of $0.18. Revenue for the quarter was $321.8 million, which compares to the estimate of $314.86 million. Q3 EPS of $0.18 - $0.20, versus $0.16 consensus. Also sees Q3 revs of 324 - 330 million, versus $325 million consensus.

SeaChange (Nasdaq: SEAC) 16.3% LOWER; reports Q2 EPS of $0.10, versus the analyst estimate of $0.13. Revenue for the quarter was $51.6 million, which compares to the estimate of $53.99 million. Sees FY10 revs of $215 - $220 million, down from $225 - $235 million prior, and compared to the consensus of $231.8 million.

TrueBlue, Inc. (NYSE: TBI) 14.4% HIGHER; the staffing company is seeing upside today on a solid jobs report.

Finisar (Nasdaq: FNSR) 13.9% HIGHER; reports Q1 EPS of $0.31, 8 cents better than the analyst estimate of $0.23. Revenue for the quarter was $ 207.9million, which compares to the estimate of $200.98 million. Sees Q2 sales $215 - $230 million, versus $206 million consensus.

Quiksilver Inc. (NYSE: ZQK) 10.5% LOWER; lower following Q3 results.

Cascade Corporation (Nasdaq: CASC) 10.3% LOWER; reports Q2 EPS of $0.29, versus the analyst estimate of $0.50. Revenue for the quarter was $97.7 million, which compares to the estimate of $93.42 million.

Blyth, Inc. (NYSE: BTH) 7.0% LOWER; following the company's Q2 results yesterday, which saw an EPS of $0.09 on revs of $180.6 million, C.L. King downgraded the shares from Buy to Neutral, keeping their $53 price target.

To get this report daily visit http://www.streetinsider.com/entities/Unusual+11+Mid-Day+Movers..

Gainers

• Financial Select Sector SPDR (NYSE: XLF) up 1.41% to $14.42. Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) is leading the financials higher today, on better-than-average volume, heading north of 4.2% today. The markets are up overall today as nonfarm payroll numbers showed 67,000 net additions of jobs in the private sector (which excludes census workers).
  
  
• SPDR S&P Retail (NYSE: XRT) up 1.07% to $38.59. Retailers have produced and overall solid August showing, and retail sales across the pond are up 1.1% year-over-year, producing a good environment for this ETF to gain today.
  
  
• SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) up 0.69% to $110.23. Reiterating that the markets are up on mostly solid economic data this week. The PowerShares QQQ (Nasdaq: QQQQ) is also up 1.04% today.

• United States Oil (NYSE: USO) down 1.98% to $32.74. Oil is seeing some downside today as the ISM Services index came in a 51.5, lower than the consensus of 53.0, and below the 54.3 reported for July. A lower ISM number indicates that non-manufacturing industries are growing at a slower rate, or receding if the previous number is higher. Earlier in the week, the EIA reported that oil stockpiles increased 4.04 million barrels.
  
  
• SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD) down 0.34% to $121.878. The gold ETF is down for the second straight day today as investors are reacting to jobs numbers today, along with solid August retail sales numbers earlier in the week. Gold is seen as a safe-haven to more volatile equities, and investors may be willing to take on more risk upon economic recovery.
  
  
• iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (NYSE: VXX) down 3.14% to $19.42. The CBOE VIX volatility index is trading about 3.41% lower today as investors may be sneaking their way back into more risky assets on beliefs of a stronger economic recovery.