More Drugs Raise Concerns–Here Are The Names

  • November 19, 2004
  • Brice Wightman

Stocks are lower this options
expiration Friday on a spike in oil and
a weak dollar triggered by Greenspan’s comments. Greenspan said that
eventually foreign investors will stop financing the US current account deficit,
and that reducing the budget deficit and/or increasing the savings rate would
help the situation.

Disney (DIS)
beat by a penny; profits rose 24%; revenue was $7.54 billion, up 8% from a
year ago. CFO Tom Staggs said the company expects double-digit growth for the
next few years.

Drug stocks are in focus after a US health
official said drugs manufactured by Pfizer
(
PFE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) (Bextra) and Abbott
(
ABT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
(Meridia) needed closer scrutiny. Also, safety concerns were raised on Astrazeneca’s
(
AZN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Crestor and GlaxoSmithKline’s
(
GSK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Serevent.

Genentech
(
DNA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and OSI
Pharmaceuticals
(
OSIP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said that its lung cancer drug Tarceva received
FDA approval–in only 3.5 months. Price: $2000 for a 1-month supply.
Patients taking Tarceva lived, on average, 4 months longer. The drug is a competitor to Astrazeneca’s Iressa.

Trader talk:  techs due for backing and filling

                   
indices remain near their highs   

                   
strong inflows into stock mutual funds   

                   
path of lest resistance is still up

                   
SOX near its 200-day moving average

This day in history:

1959  Ford cancelled the Edsel

1965  Pop Tarts
created

Dow -108.40 10464.15
S&P 500 -10.98 1172.57
Nasdaq -26.74 2077.54

Strong sectors are: Gold
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.49%, Oil
Services
(
OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.46%, Natural Gas
(
XNG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.83%.

Weak sectors are: Airlines

(
XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -3.19%, Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -2.61%, Brokers
(
XDB.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-2..39%.

The dollar is -0.65 at 83.04

Gold is +4.30 to 446.80

Crude Oil is +1.54 at 47.92

ce=”Arial” size=”2″ face=”Arial”>Volume is 718 million on the NYSE and
1.086 billion on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth is negative.

NYSE Issues
Advancing 918 Up Vol 152
Declining 2255 Down Vol 510
Ratio 2.42 3.35
Nasdaq
Advancing 867 Up Vol 345
Declining 2080 Down Vol 680
Ratio 2.39 1.97

Stocks in the News

Oracle
(
ORCL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will report tender
offer results for PeopleSoft after 1 am ET Saturday.

Sirius
(
SIRI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) named former Viacom chief
Mel Karmazin, as CEO. Talk: will satellite radio kill broadcast radio?

Novell
(
NOVL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by a penny, and a
Q3 profit compared to a year earlier loss.

Marvel (MRVL)
beat by a penny; margins were in-line. UBS raised its 2005 revenue estimates but
lowered its earnings estimates.

Brice Wightman