Week in Review: November 2 - 6, 2009

• Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A) places an "all-in wager" on the US economy's future, planning to acquire the nation's second-largest railroad, Burlington Northern Santa Fe (NYSE:BNI), for $44 billion
• Cisco Systems' (NASDAQ:CSCO) CEO John Chambers said a global recovery is currently underway, as he projected a current quarter sales rebound. The company's interims topped estimates, and revenue expectations were raised for the current quarter to 1-4% growth from a year earlier
• Hyatt Hotels (NYSE:H) successfully raises $1.09 billion in the second biggest IPO this year, as 38 million shares priced at $25 per share
• Verizon (NYSE:VZ) launches its Droid smartphone Friday, utilizing Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) operating system, Android 2.0 OS, directed squarely at the fast-growing, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone, but expected to cut into Research in Motion's (NASDAQ:RIMM) and Palm's (NASDAQ:PALM) market share
• October nonfarm payrolls report indicates jobless rate at a surprising 10.2%, its highest since 1983, and well above consensus projections of 9.9%. The 190K jobs cut also exceeded estimates of 175K as payrolls continued lower for the 22nd consecutive month

• Earnings: Pall Corp. (NYSE:PLL), Adobe Systems (NYSE:ADBE), Best Buy (NYSE:BBY), Kroger (NYSE:KR), Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL), Discover Financial (NYSE:DFS), FedEx (NYSE:FDX), Pier 1 Imports (NYSE:PIR)
• Economic Data (estimates in parenthesis): Initial Jobless Claims Nov 7 (510K), Continuing Claims Oct. 31 (5700K), Trade Balance Sep (-$31.6 billion), Import Price Index MoM Oct. (-5.6%), University of Michigan Confidence Nov P (71.0)
• FedSpeak: Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart (Tues), San Francisco Fed President Janet Yellen (Tues), Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher (Tues), Chicago Fed President Charles Evans (Fri)

By Chip Brian, Editor-in-Chief