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Top 10 News Items 5/2-5/6: Osama bin Laden Killed by US Navy Seals; Bloodbath in Commodities; Jobs Report Better Than Expected

May 6, 2011 4:30 PM EDT
Here is a recap of the top news items from this week on Wall Street:

1. Americans were stunned late Sunday night as President Barack Obama announced US special forces eliminated the world's most wanted terrorist, Osama bin Laden. After years of reconnaissance, US officials located a large compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan which turned out be bin Laden's. Stocks jumped early Monday following the news, however sold off. Crude oil prices pushed below the $100 level this week for the first time since March amid the headlines.

2. Commodities tumbled sharply this week, with silver leading the charge lower. Consumers, however, were likely most interested in the sharp move lower in crude oil. Crude fell 14 percent his week, gold was down 4.4 percent and silver was down almost 28 percent.

3. Data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics Friday showed much better-than-expected payroll figures for the month of April but a move higher in the unemployment rate. Nonfarm payrolls came in at 244,000, vs. the consensus of 185,000, private payrolls were up 268,000, vs. the consensus of 231,000 and manufacturing payrolls were 29,000, vs. the economist estimate of 20,000. The unemployment rate rose to 9.0%.

4. Shares of Cephalon (Nasdaq: CEPH) rose this week following news Teva (Nasdaq: TEVA) will buy the company for $81.50 per share in cash. The deal values the company at $6.8 billion. Teva shares were up 3.4 percent on Monday.

5. Elsewhere on the M&A front: Arch Coal (NYSE: ACI) is buying International Coal (NYSE: ICO) in a $3.4 billion deal, Applied Materials (Nasdaq: AMAT) will acquire Varian Semi (Nasdaq: VSEA) for $63 per share, and Warner Music (NYSE: WMG) was offered $8.25 per share by Access Industries.

6. Friday US stocks pared solid gains from a better-than-expected jobs report following rumors Greek regulators could be looking to leave the European Union. Reports from Germany's Der Spiegel suggest the troubled country is considering reintroducing its own currency as debt levels continue to soar.

7. The Q1 earnings season will soon be finished; this week, the following companies reported: Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), Visa (NYSE: V), Kraft (NYSE: KFT), MasterCard (NYSE: MA), First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR), GM (NYSE: GM), News Corp. (Nasdaq: NWSA), CVS (NYSE: CVS), Kellogg (NYSE: K), priceline.com (Nasdaq: PCLN), Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS) and MGM Resorts (NYSE: MGM).

8. TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO), DISH Network Corporation (Nasdaq: DISH), and EchoStar Corporation (Nasdaq: SATS) announced Monday that they have settled all of their ongoing patent litigation. DISH Network and EchoStar agreed to pay TiVo $500 million, including an initial payment of $300 million with the remaining $200 million distributed in six equal annual installments between 2012 and 2017. TiVo, DISH Network and EchoStar agreed to dismiss all pending litigation between the companies with prejudice and to dissolve all injunctions against DISH Network and EchoStar.

9. Retail sales for the month of April came in very strong this week as consumers shrugged off recently rising crude oil prices. Retail Metrics, a market research firm focused on the Retail sector, said monthly retail sales rose 8.7 percent, vs. a consensus of 7.7 percent. Goto our Retail Sales category to see all the results.

10. Beijing-based Renren (Nasdaq: RENN), the so-called Facebook of China, opened for trade this week. After pricing at $14, the high end of its range, shares opened sharply higher at $19.80. The stock pushed over $20, however closed this week's session down to $16.80.


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Nonfarm Payrolls, StreetInsider.com Top 10 News Items for the Week, Crude Oil, Barack Obama, Earnings