Charlotte, NC Named Best Place to Live Apparently, there's just something about North Carolina. For the second year in a row, America's best city in which to live lies within its borders, according to Relocate-America.com's annual list. This year, Charlotte, N.C., is in the top spot, the site announced this week. Last year's winner was Asheville, N.C., which slipped to No. 7 on this year's list. Other top places are runner-up San Antonio, TX, Chattanooga, TN, Greenville, SC and Tulsa, OK. Charlotte dethrones Asheville, N.C., as best place to live - MarketWatch
Jumbo Loan Rates Finally Decline The interest rates for jumbo mortgage loans are coming down, but standards for qualifying are much tighter. Jumbo loan rates finally decline - Bankrate.com
In a move to help turnaround its troubled business, General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) will sell or divest its appliance division, and could expect to receive between $5B and $8B for the unit, according to the Wall Street Journal. Potential buyers appliance makers BSH Bosch & Siemens Hausger of Germany and Haier Group of China, as well as private equity firms and Controladora Mabe, GE's partner in Mexico.
The Wall Street Journal also reported that Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) will acquire Plaxo, a networking Web site, in an effort to increase its range of services. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
To help improve its Ask.com search engine, the Wall Street Journal reported that IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ: IACI) will buy the Lexico Publishing Group, which owns Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com.
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Citing the New England Journal of Medicine, Bloomberg reported that migraine headache medicines, including Merck & Co Inc's (NYSE: MRK) Maxalt and GlaxoSmithKline Plc's (NYSE: GSK) Imitrex caused potentially fatal reactions in at least 11 people. The Journal said people using "triptans," an older class of migraine drugs, could develop serotonin syndrome, which may cause fever, shock, vomiting and rapid heartbeat.
Well, one step at a time, Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK) is trying to get past the Vioxx saga. Back in 2004, after over 20 million Americans had used the painkiller drug, Merck pulled it from the market following a study that found that Vioxx doubled the risk of heart attack and stroke in patients who took it for at least 18 months.
Immediately, Merck was hit with nearly 27,000 lawsuits. In November 2006, the company agreed to a $4.85 billion settlement. Merck now says that about 94% of the plaintiffs have chosen to participate in the settlement. I'm not sure the Garza family could have chosen to be part of the settlement or not (as the case was decided before the settlement was agreed), but if they family could, they might be sorry today they didn't do so.
A Texas appeals court overturned a multimillion-dollar verdict against Merck Wednesday. In April 2006, a jury awarded 71-year-old Leonel Garza's widow $32 million (which were later cut to about $7.75 million). The reason cited by the court was that Garza's family failed to provide evidence that Garza's long-standing heart disease could not have been the cause of his fatal heart attack in 2001.
Financial Stocks to Love The subprime mortgage meltdown and resulting credit crisis have slammed financial stocks recently. But there are still some diamonds in the rough. They include Berkshire Hathaway, RBS, AFLAC, Raymond James and BOK. Financial stocks we love - CNNMoney.com
Big Mac's Local Flavor Once vilified for pushing America on the world, McDonald's lets countries invent their own buns, bags, and business practices. Now some ideas are making their way back home. Big Mac's local flavor - FORTUNE
The third-largest U.S. drugmaker has cut 8,100 jobs globally since the beginning of its restructuring plan, Plan to Win, in late 2005. But as Cordaptive, which was supposed to offset some of the losses Merck is expecting from generics coming into the market, fell through, the cost cutting side of the plan took on an added urgency.
Cordaptive and generics aren't Merck's only problem. The FDA also recently suggested its other cholesterol pills, Zetia and Vytorin, aren't any better than an older, cheaper treatment. Merck said it expects to lose as much as 61% of sales for these drugs.
So none of this comes as no surprise really; not in light of Merck's problems, and not in light of the industry's. Other drugmakers, including Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE), Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE: BMY), Wyeth (NYSE: WYE) and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) have announced job cuts as they face more competition from generic substitutions. Merck is also planning some plant closures.
Merck's shares lost nearly 33% of their value year-to-date, as it was partly down with the overall market and partly due to the string of bad news that seemed to have hit most hard recently. It is trading not far from its 52-week low.
While Merck is saying it will still fight the FDA decision on Cordaptive and try to convince doctors about Vytorin, the actions it is taking seem reactive, not proactive. Without much to offer in its arsenal of upcoming possibilities, Merck, at least for now, seems to have lost the potential for meaningful growth.
Stock futures were lower early Tuesday morning as oil prices remained high offsetting any recent optimism about the economy in light of Monday's surprise expansion in the service sector. Several companies are also reporting earnings today and will be in focus.
U.S. stocks dropped on Monday after Microsoft withdrew its takeover bid for Yahoo and as commodity prices once again spiked. The Dow industrials lost 88 points, or 0.68%, the Nasdaq Composite fell 12 points, or 0.52%, and the S&P 500 lost 6 points, or 0.45%.
Without much economic news today, no doubt investors will have no choice but to focus on the high oil prices. After setting a record close Monday and hitting a new trading high of $120.93 a barrel Tuesday, crude retreated to $119.88, down 9 cents from Monday's close. It is interesting that just as hopes were growing the slowdown of the US economy may not be as deep and long as originally thought, crude prices surge again, concerning investors about inflation and profits once again.
Despite today's major markets showing a drop, this would really look like another mixed day on fairly light trading volume as profits fight economic numbers. Oil fell more than $3.00 per barrel and consumer confidence came in at a 5-Year low. Foreclosures also have risen by more than 100% with what now appears to be 1 home per 194 that are in foreclosure. All this is one day ahead of the FOMC meeting with the decision to raise rates, and one day after Warren Buffett called a recession already here. Below are the unofficial closing prices for major US index averages:
Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) shares are trading higher after the Food and Drug Administration denied regulatory approval for Merck & Co.'s (NYSE: MRK) cholesterol drug Cordaptive. The Merck drug would have directly competed with ABT's own cholesterol drug. If you think that the stock won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on ABT.
After hitting a one-year low of $49.58 in July, the stock hit a one-year high of $61.09 in January. ABT opened this morning at $53.32. So far today the stock has hit a low of $52.97 and a high of $53.73. As of 12:10, ABT is trading at $53.24, up $1.63 (3.2%). The chart for ABT looks bearish and steady, while S&P gives the stock a positive 4 STARS (out of 5) buy rating.
For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a June bull-put credit spread below the $50 range. A bull-put credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of put options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make a 13.6% return in just seven weeks as long as ABT is above $50 at June expiration. Abbott would have to fall by more than 6% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.
Merck (NYSE: MRK) was counting on its new cholesterol drug to help its revenue in the years ahead. It won't work out. The drug, Cordaptive, was turned down by the FDA.
According toThe Wall Street Journal, "Merck was counting on Cordaptive to bring in as much as $2 billion a year in sales." The news is likely to hurt the company's stock, which trades at $41.44, well below its 52-week high of $61.62.
Merck's revenue last year was just over $24 billion, so the rejection will hurt, and perhaps hurt a great deal.
Merck is one of a handful of Big Pharma companies that have a number of important drugs coming "off patent." That means that cheap generics will flood the market and margins on the original drugs will disappear. Creating a "blockbuster" drug can take years of R&D, so Merck is left with relatively high costs against falling revenue.
The best way to look at Merck, and the shares of companies like it, is to watch for approval of drugs that are likely to bring in billions of dollars. Without those Merck and its peers will have falling share prices for years to come.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com and the author of Ten Stocks Under $10.
Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK) shares are dropping over 8% in premarket trading after it said its cholesterol pill Cordaptive failed to win approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, less than a week after it was recommended for marketing in the European Union. While Merck intends to submit more data to the FDA, it is unclear it will succeed given even some European doctors said more research is needed on one of the drug's main components safety.
Who said higher oil prices aren't good? If you ask Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS.A) and BP (NYSE: BP), high oil prices are fantastic as the two oil giants beat forecasts when posting quarterly earnings Tuesday, reporting that net income, excluding unrealized gains from changes in inventory values, rose 12% to a record $7.8 billion and 48% to $6.6 billion respectively. Shell shares are climbing 5.7% in premarket trading and BP's over 4.8% as it seems investors think oil above $100 a barrel is here to stay.
Archer Daniels Midland Co. (NYSE: ADM), the world's largest grain processor, said third-quarter profit rose 42% to $517 million or 80 cents per share, topping analyst estimates of 69 cents per share, as it traded more grains and crushed more soybeans. Sales climbed 64% to $18.7 billion. Seems that being in agriculture lately is a positive and ADM shares are rising 3.75% in premarket trading.
20 Most Profitable Tech Companies Among Fortune 1000 techs, Microsoft remains on top, taking in $14.1 billion in earnings last year. IBM, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard and Intel round out the top five most profitable. 20 most profitable tech companies - FORTUNE
PDUFA date for Genentech, Inc. (NYSE: DNA) and Roche Holding Ltd. (OTC: RHHBY)'s supplemental Biologics License Application for Herceptin for label expansion to include AC followed by docetaxel in treatment of adjuvant HER2+ breast cancer.
PDUFA date for Shire plc (NASDAQ: SHPGY) and New River Pharma's supplemental New Drug Application for Vyvanse (NRP-104) treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disordre, or ADHD, in adult patients 18-55 years old; the drug is already approved for pediatric ADHD ages 6-12.
Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) to report Q earnings; conference call at 8:30am.
Tyson Foods, Inc. (NYSE: TSN) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 9:00am.
Tuesday, April 29
Two-day FOMC meeting beginning at 8:30am.
PDUFA date for Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE: MRK)'s New Drug Application for Cordaptive (MK-0524A) adjunctive therapy to diet for treating elevated LDL Cholesterol, low HDL Cholesterol and elevated triglycerides levels.
PDUFA date for Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCMP)'s supplemental New Drug Application for dose of 8mg treatment of Irritable Bowel Syndrome with Constipation; already approved for Chronic Idiopathic Constipation at 24ug dosage.
BP plc (NYSE: BP) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 10:15am.
United States Steel Company (NYSE: X) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 2:00pm.
Drugmaker Schering-Plough Corp. (NYSE: SGP) reported this morning a drop of 48% in its fiscal first-quarter profit, hurt by higher costs tied to a buyout in the prior quarter. However, the company was able to post adjusted earnings well above analysts' predictions, pushing its shares up in morning trading.
Schering-Plough's profit during the first-quarter plunged to $291 million, or 15 cents a share, dragged down by charges related to its acquisition of Organon Biosciences NV. Excluding items, Schering-Plough's earnings figures would have come at 53 cents per share. Analysts' forecasts (which typically exclude one time items) were for 37 cents per share in the quarter.
The company's quarterly revenue jumped by a respectable 57% to $4.66 billion. For the period, the company benefited from strong gains from Organon, which came with sales of $1.3 billion. Anti-inflammatory Remicade sales also saw a growth of 36%, while allergy treatment Nasonex revenue saw a rise of 8%. Higher drug prices offset lower prescriptions in the U.S. Analysts, on average, expected Schering-Plough's revenue to be $4.52 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.
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Stock futures were lower early Tuesday morning as oil prices remained high offsetting any recent optimism about the economy in light of Monday's surprise expansion in the service sector. Several companies are also reporting earnings today and will be in focus.
Here are some highlights from this past week's .gif){kind=logo}
Drugmaker 
Just how high will U.S. gasoline prices rise?
Nordstrom and Kohl's post smaller-than-expected Q1 profit declines
Oil hits record $127.43 on supply concerns, raised Goldman forecast
