Top 10 News Items 6/22-6/26: Bernanke Gets Grilled in Washington; Fed Keeps Key Interest Rates Unchanged; 4 IPO's Launched This Week

June 26, 2009 4:06 PM EDT

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

1. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke spent Thursday infront of an uneasy panel of congressional leaders who grilled him on his involvement in Bank of America's (NYSE: BAC) acquisition of Merrill Lynch. This week's testimony follows Ken Lewis' testimony earlier this month where he said the Fed pressured BofA to complete the deal in light of the MAC (material adverse change) clause. Lewis also said that the Fed threatened to remove BofA's Board if the deal was not completed. While Bernanke was very vague throughout the testimony, he denied such allegations. Former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson is slated to take the stand sometime next month.

2. As the market had been expecting, the Fed left its key interest rates unchanged this week. As is always the case, economists ripped through the FOMC statement, dissecting even the simplest of language changes. Click here to see StreetInsider.com's comparison of the most recent FOMC statement with the previous statement.

3. What is now becoming a cliche, "green shoots" are still sprouting. This week we had four IPO's successfully launch: Medidata Solutions (Nasdaq: MDSO), Chemspec International (NYSE: CPC), Duoyuan Global Water (NYSE: DGW) and Invesco Mortgage Capital (NYSE: IVZ).

4. Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) traders were surprised early this week when headlines hit reporting that Steve Jobs had a liver transplant. The news sparked debates on whether such issues should be disclosed to shareholders. According to sources, Jobs reported to work this week.

5. Boeing (NYSE: BA) once again delayed the first flight of its highly-anticipated 787 Dreamliner. While some traders would say the numerous delays are getting a little ridiculous, many were not very surprised. Despite the mixed anecdotal sentiment, shares of Boeing sold off more than 13% on the news this week.

6. Shares of Anglo American (Nasdaq: AAUK) rose more than 10% this week on reports that Xstrata approached it about a possible takeover. Late Monday, Anglo American came out with a statement calling the Xstrata proposal "unattractive" with terms that were "totally unacceptable".

7. Palm (Nasdaq: PALM) shares closed 16% higher this week on solid Q4 results.

8. Responding to an ever-changing US auto market, traders sold shares of Lear (NYSE: LEA) hand over fist as bankruptcy edges nearer and nearer for the auto supplier.

9. Personal Income for the month of May came in at up 1.4%, substantially better than the up 0.3% economists had been expecting. Meanwhile, personal spending for the month was inline at 0.3%.

10. Ag-related stocks continued lower this week, this time on lowered guidance out of Potash (NYSE: POT).

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• UBS
• Henry Paulson
• Ben S. Bernanke
• Merrill Lynch
• Banc of America
• Federal Open Market Committee
• Steve Jobs
• StreetInsider.com Top 10 News Items for the Week
• Bankruptcy

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