Legal Issues For These Two Drug Companies

Stocks are
flat with oil prices peaking at $43.59 a barrel.

GDP
fell to a 3.0% increase, on higher energy
and food costs. Chicago PMI rose  to 64.7 as activity in the Midwest showed
signs of growth. Michigan Sentiment was also higher at 96.7.

Schering-Plough

(
SGP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
plead guilty for defrauding
the Medicaid insurance program and agreed to pay penalties totaling $345.5
million. Bristol-Myers Squibb
(
BMY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
settled with the SEC for
artificially boosting its earnings and will pay a $300 million fine.

Parmalat countersued
Citigroup

(
C |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
, seeking $10 billion in damages. Ingram Micro
(
IM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

reported earnings that more than doubled to $25.9 million with revenue topping
$5.72 billion. The company expects to earn $27.5 million on revenue of $5.8
billion for Q3.

Gilead Sciences

(
GILD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
rose on higher HIV drug
sales with net income at $111.5 million on revenue of $320 million.

Sales of the HIV drug Viread rose 18 percent to $197 million.

Dow +5.23 10134.32
S&P 500 +1.44 1101.87
Nasdaq +13.03 1894.14

Strong today are: Gold and
Silver

(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.78%, Amex Gold Bugs
(
HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.68%, Disk
Drives

(
DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.61%.

Weak today are: Healthcare
(
HMO.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
 -2.09%, Airlines
(
XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-0.90%.

Economic news releases today
include GDP that grew at a mere 3.0%, Chain deflator at 3.2%. Michigan Sentiment
Index at 96.7 and Chicago PMI at 64.7.

10-year Notes are +225
at 110 215

The dollar
is -0.25 at 89.89

Gold is +4.10 at 392.50

Crude Oil is +0.65 at
43.40

Volume is 600 million on
the NYSE, and 759 million on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth is positive

NYSE Issues
Advancing 1862 Up Vol 282
Declining 1180 Down Vol 241
Ratio 1.58 1.17
Nasdaq
Advancing 1520 Up Vol 451
Declining 1326 Down Vol 236
Ratio 1.15 1.91

 

Top Dow stocks are:

Boeing
(
BA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+2.72%, 
Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
, +0.53% Altria
(
MO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
, +0.49% ,  IBM
(
IBM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
, +0.36%

Stocks in the news:

Netgear
(
NTGR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
rose after
reporting earnings of $4.9 million and upped Q3 revenue forecasts to $100
million on introduction of new products and back-to-school demand.

The Washington Post
(
WPO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

reported earnings of $84.9 million with revenue rising 16% to $706.9 million on
a big boost from its education division.

Conexant Systems

(
CNXT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported a wider Q3 loss of $74.1 million on revenue
of $267.6 million and guided Q4 revenue to $255 million.

ChevronTexaco
(
CVX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
earnings more than doubled, to $4.1 billion on revenue of $37 billion.
The company also boosted its capital spending by 8.5
percent in the quarter to $3.8 billion.

Brice Wightman

bricew@tradingmarkets.com