Top 10 News Items 5/4-5/8: Bank Stress Test Results Released: BofA, Citi, Wells Fargo Need More Capital; Unemployment Rate Just Under 9%; Retailers Issue April Sales Results

May 8, 2009 3:44 PM EDT

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

1. Following a delay last week, results from the government's highly anticipated bank stress test were released late this week. 10 of the 19 banks were found to need additional capital in order to survive the Treasury's proposed scenarios. Among some of the notables needing to boost their capital buffer: BofA (NYSE: BAC), Citi (NYSE: C), Fifth Third (Nasdaq: FITB), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC). Out of these banks, several have already filed to raise funds, including: 1.25 billion shares at BofA, 341 million shares at Wells Fargo and 146 million shares at Morgan Stanley.

2. Friday, the U.S. Department of Labor showed a 539,000 drop in nonfarm payrolls for the month of April, coming in better than the 600,000 economists had been looking for. Also, the unemployment rate rose 0.4% during April, from 8.5% to 8.9%, in-line with the Street's expectations. To see details and demographics related to Friday's data, view our full report here.

3. Retailers released their monthly sales numbers this week. For the most part, the April results came in better-than-expected. Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) recorded a 5% jump in same store sales during the month, Target (NYSE: TGT) saw comps rise 0.3% and Costco (Nasdaq: COST) had April comps fall 8%. Elsewhere, TJX (NYSE: TJX), Kohl's (NYSE: KSS) and Aeropostale (NYSE: ARO) raised guidance.

4. General Motors (NYSE: GM) reported a Q1 loss of $9.66 per share on Wednesday. The results were better than the Street's $10.97 loss estimate but shares of GM still sold-off more than 10% on the news.

5. Crude oil prices rallied this week, marking a more than 9% gain over the course of the 5 trading days. A barrel of oil finished last week around $53.20, and by Friday's close, crude had pushed above the $58 level. On Friday alone, crude spiked nearly 3%.

6. Shares of biotech company Vanda Pharma (Nasdaq: VNDA) rallied more than 720% in 2 days of trading this week following news that the FDA has approved the marketing of its Fanapt(TM) schizophrenia treatment. Shares of Vanda closed at $1.08 on Wednesday night and opened $7.84 on Thursday morning. Wow!

7. Disney stock surged nearly 12% on Wednesday, an unprecedented move for the nearly $50 billion media company. The company reported is Q2 results on Tuesday night, and despite mixed earnings, traders applauded the company's resiliency in this environement.

8. Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS), MGM MIRAGE (NYSE: MGM) and Wynn Resorts (Nasdaq: WYNN), three of Las Vegas' top casino operators, all reported quarterly earnings this week. Wynn reported a Q1 miss, Las Vegas Sands topped the Street's EPS estimate by 3 cents and MGM MIRAGE reported a better-than-expected Q1 loss. Shares of LVS finished the week 30% higher, MGM rose 60% and Wynn rose 21.8%.

9. Tech bellweather Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) reported its Q3 earnings this week, surprising the Street with better-than-expected results on both EPS and sales. Despite the beat, traders sold the stock as they could have been viewing the results as a "sell the news" event. The stock finished this week 4.4% lower.

10. DirecTV (NYSE: DTV) and Liberty Media (Nasdaq: LMDIA) announced that they entered into a definitive agreement to merge the companies. Liberty finished this week 7% higher following the news.

Related Categories

Special Reports

Stocks Mentioned

Related Entities

• Nonfarm Payrolls
• Citi
• Morgan Stanley
• Banc of America
• StreetInsider.com Top 10 News Items for the Week
• Crude Oil
• Layoffs

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