Top 10 News Items 1/3-1/6: Friday's Jobs Report Strong, But Stocks Sell Off; Retail Sales Beat But Guidance Gives Pause; Yahoo! Names New CEO

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

1. Most stocks traded lower throughout Friday's session despite much better-than-expected gains in nonfarm, private and manufacturing payrolls. Nonfarm gains totaled 200,000, above the 155,000 expected by economists. The reading for November was revised lower from 120,000 to 100,000. Private-sector payrolls added 212,000 positions, compared to a gain of 120,000 in November. The employment rate fell from a revised reading of 8.7 percent in November to 8.5 percent.

2. While retail sales for the month of December came in slightly better-than-expected, the number of warnings from retailers was very concerning. Some highlights: Target (NYSE: TGT), American Eagle (NYSE: AEO), Kohl's (NYSE: KSS), and JCPenney (NYSE: JCP). Notably, Limited (NYSE: LTD), Macy's (NYSE: M) and Zumiez (Nasdaq: ZUMZ) raised guidance.

3. Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) named former PayPal President Scott Thompson as its new CEO this week. Shares fell more than 3 percent following the news and continued lower the rest of the week.

4. Shares of Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) plunged 17 percent on Thursday and another 3 percent on Friday following a FY12 warning. The company now expects sales of $7-$7.2 billion, down from prior guidance of about $7.4 billion. The loss moved from 10-50 cents per share to $1.10-$1.40 per share. The company also said it is considering strategic options for its NOOK unit. Speculation on what company would want such assets followed.

5. Eastman Kodak (NYSE: EK) shares tumbled nearly 50 percent this week amid headlines from the WSJ suggesting the company is preparing for a bankruptcy filing if it can't find a buyer for a pile of digital patents. The stock closed this week below $0.40.

6. In the Auto industry this week, Ford (NYSE: F) reported a 16 percent jump in auto sales for the month of December, GM (NYSE: GM) reported a 4.5 percent, and Chrysler reported a sharp 37 percent increase.

7. Stocks ticked modestly higher late Tuesday after the Fed announced it will start publishing projections for the Fed funds rate. "At the conclusion of their discussion, participants decided to incorporate information about their projections of appropriate monetary policy into the SEP beginning in January. Specifically, the SEP will include information about participants' projections of the appropriate level of the target federal funds rate in the fourth quarter of the current year and the next few calendar years, and over the longer run; the SEP also will report participants' current projections of the likely timing of the first increase in the target rate given their projections of future economic conditions..."

8. Shares of Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) have surged nearly 25 percent during only four days of trading so far in 2012. Shares closed Friday over $86. In contrast, shares of Coinstar (Nasdaq: CSTR), owner of competitor RedBox, are down nearly 10 percent.

9. Dendreon (Nasdq: DNDN) shares ended this week sharply higher, surging 40 percent on Thursday and another 15 percent on Friday following gross product reveneue of about $82 million. The company posted full-year gross revenues from PROVENGE® (sipuleucel-T) sales of approximately $228 million.

10. Shares of Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) had a rare volatile day on Wednesday after offering FY12 guidance below the Street: sees sales of $21.8-$22.8 billion and EPS of $3.10-$3.20. The Street is currently at $22.75 billion in sales of EPS of $3.61.

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