Top 10 News Items 8/31-9/4: Unemployment Rate Soars to 9.7%; Gold Rallies as Investors Hunker Down; Citi Shareholders Approve Increase in Authorized Shares

September 4, 2009 5:19 PM EDT

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

1. The always highly-anticipated "Jobs Friday" showed investors that the US unemployment soared to 9.7% during August, higher than the 9.5% economists were hoping for. The number of unemployed persons rose by 466,000 last month. After a skittish start to Friday's trading session, stocks rallied at noon. The Dow closed up more than 90 points.

2. Gold rallied more than 3% this week, possibly hinting that traders could be hedging for some downside following the Labor Day weekend. The GLD, or SPDR Gold Trust ETF (NYSE: GLD) rose more than 5% while the GDX, or Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSE: GDX) rose almost 15%.

3. Citi (NYSE: C) shareholders approved a number of resolutions this week, including an increase in the number of authorized shares to 60 billion. Upon comletion of a reverse stock split, Citi will have just under 22.9 billion shares outstanding, putting the government's 7.69 billion share stake at about 33.6%. Despite the massive dilution likely coming to common shareholders, shares of Citi only fell about 7% this week.

4. Swine flu and, consequently, any possibly related stocks, received a lot of attention from the media this week. A small biotech company, Sinovac (NYSE: SVA), received approval to produce its H1N1 vaccine in China this week, and it's stock surged more than 44%. Also, Novartis (NYSE: NVS) announced that data suggested that patients will only need one 15 micogram dose of its vaccine to be effective for the H1N1 strain.

5. Auto sales for the month of August came out this week. Results were mixed, with several automakers reporting growth, and others reporting a sluggish decline. Ford (NYSE: F) posted a 17% gain, GM saw a 20% decline, Toyota (NYSE: TM) sales rose 6.4% during the month and Chrysler saw a 15% decline.

6. Two large acquisitions were announced Monday, the first between Baker Hughes (NYSE: BHI) and BJ Services (NYSE: BJS). The deal, which was valued at $5.5 billion, placed shares of BJ Services at a 16% premium from the previous trading session.

7. The other M&A story came out of Disney (NYSE: DIS) when it announced it would be acquiring Marvel Entertainment (NYSE: MVL) for $4 billion, or $50 per share.

8. Retailers issued their monthly same store sales results this week: Costco (Nasdaq: COST), Limited (NYSE: LTD>, Buckle (NYSE: BKE), Gap (NYSE: GPS), Macy's (NYSE: M), Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF), Target (NYSE: TGT), JCPenny (NYSE: JCP), Kohl's (NYSE: KSS).

9. According to a WSJ report this week, Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) is offering to repay a portion of its government bailout money and the U.S. is pushing the bank to pay least $500 million to shelve a tentative pact that would have had the government share its losses on certain assets. Sources say BofA won't repay the $45 billion in TARP capital it has received, instead it would start with the $20 billion in additional aid supplied in January related to its takeover of Merrill Lynch. The stock finished this week down about 5%.

10. eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) announced it would sell its Skype communications unit this week for $2.75 billion. The buyer, who will control an approximately 65% stake, is an investor group led by Silver Lake and includes Index Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. The stock was flat this week.

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• StreetInsider.com Top 10 News Items for the Week

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