Schacknow - TODAY'S PRIMER, September 8, 2011

Peter Schacknow, Senior Producer, CNBC Breaking News Desk

U.S. stocks are coming off September's first positive session - with the Dow chalking up its fourth biggest gain of the year. It was the Dow's 17th triple-digit move - either up or down - in the past 22 sessions, highlighting just how volatile the market has been.

Fed chairman Ben Bernanke will be in the spotlight during the trading day, as he speaks before the U.S. Economic Club of Minnesota at 1:30pm ET. Investors will be listening, as usual, for clues about further help from the Fed in stimulating the economy. That comes ahead of President Obama's prime time speech on the economy and job creation, set for 7pm before a joint session of Congress.

While investors await Bernanke and the President, the economic calendar has a number of key events to watch, starting with interest rate decisions from the Bank of England (7am ET) and the European Central Bank (745am ET).

At 8:30am ET, the Labor Department is out with its weekly report on initial jobless claims, with economists looking for 410,000 new claims, slightly higher than last week's 409,000 reading. Also at 8:30am, the government is out with trade deficit figures for July, with consensus forecasts calling for a trade gap of $51.0 billion, down from June's $53.1 billion. And at 3pm ET, July consumer credit figures are expected to show an increase of $6.0 billion, compared to June's $15.5 billion expansion.

The Energy Department is out with its holiday-delayed weekly report on oil and gasoline inventories at 11am ET. Its regular Thursday report on natural gas supplies will be issued at its regular time of 10:30am ET.

VeriFone Systems (PAY) could be a stock to watch today, as it will replace Timberland (TBL) in the S&P MidCap 400 index next week. Timberland is in the process of being acquired by VF Corp. (VFC). We'll also watch Pall Corp. (PLL), which fell about 5% in after-hours trading after preannouncing fiscal fourth quarter earnings that were below Street estimates.

Insurer Penn Millers (PMIC) is being acquired by larger rival ACE Ltd. (ACE) for $20.50 in cash, a 26 percent premium to Penn Millers' Tuesday closing price of $16.30. And gun maker Smith & Wesson (SWHC) reported an 87% drop in fiscal first quarter profit, with the company cutting its full year sales outlook. Shares were down about 5% in the after-hours session.

Amazon.com (AMZN) has cut a deal with California lawmakers to delay collection of sales taxes on internet transactions. The tentative deal allows Amazon to stop collecting those taxes until at least September 2012, although it will eventually do so.