Top 10 News Items 8/3-8/7: Job Losses Are Slowing; Earnings Season Is Concluding; S&P Closed Above 1,000

August 7, 2009 4:06 PM EDT

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

1. The much-anticipated July jobs report was released Friday and showed that job losses are slowing. Data from the Department of Labor showed that the U.S. lost 247,000 jobs in July, which is down from the 443,000 jobs lost in June and better than the consensus of 325,000 job losses for the month. The July drop was the smallest since September 2008. In addition, the unemployment rate declined from 9.5% to 9.4%, the first drop since April 2008.

2. Ford (NYSE: F) reported that July vehicle sales rose 2.3% to 165,279 units, its first year-over-year total sales gain since November 2007. Ford was the first of any major manufacturer to post a sales increase in 2009. Ford said demand for its fuel-efficient vehicles and the 'Cash for Clunkers' drove the results.

3. A number of bailed-out Zombie stocks were back from the dead this week: AIG (NYSE: AIG) doubled on the week. Other movers this week included Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM), Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE), CIT (NYSE: CIT) and Citigroup (NYSE: C).

4. After first being rejected, PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) entered into definitive merger agreements with its two largest anchor bottlers, The Pepsi Bottling Group, Inc. (NYSE: PBG) and PepsiAmericas, Inc. (NYSE: PAS). The total value of the shares that PepsiCo will be acquiring is about $7.8 billion.

5. Earnings season is wrapping-up, with a majority of the S&P 500 companies now out. Results have mostly surprised to the upside. Notables this week included: Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO), CBS (NYSE: CBS), Kraft (NYSE: KFT), Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA), Brinker (NYSE: EAT) and NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA).

6. This week, the S&P 500 closed above the 1,000 for the first time this year and the Nasdaq closed above the 2,000 level.

7. The IPO market continues to show signs of life. Two deals priced this week, Avago Technologies Limited (Nasdaq: AVGO) & CDC Software Corporation (NASDAQ: CDCS). In addition, Hyatt (NYSE: H) filed a fresh $1.15 billion IPO.

8. The 'Cash for Clunkers' program has received an enormous response from consumers causing the program to be drained of funds in under a month. The Senate approved a $2 billion cash infusion to extend the program for at least another month.

9. This week flash orders came under heavy scrutiny after Senator Chuck Schumer said that he was personally promised that the SEC would seek to prohibit flash orders. SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said the agency was drawing up plans to eliminate flashes. The Nasdaq (Nasdaq: NDAQ) voluntarily followed and eliminated flash orders.

10. Today, US retailers announced their monthly comparable sales. Most of the retailers comp sales were down, but many of their stocks still bounced up today on the heals of the better than expected jobs report. Dollar Tree (Nasdaq: DLTR) reported comps up 6.8%; Saks (NYSE: SKS) reported comps down 16.3%; J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP) comps down 12.3%; Target (NYSE: TGT) comps down 6.5%; Macy's (NYSE: M) comps down 10.7% and Costco (Nasdaq: COST) comps down 7%.

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• StreetInsider.com Top 10 News Items for the Week
• Layoffs
• Mary Schapiro

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