Stock Market News & Financial Analysis

MARKET CURRENTS

5:26 PM The Federal Trade Commission sues to block Omnicare's (OCR) bid to acquire PharMerica (PMC), alleging the deal would lead to higher costs for Medicare patients and taxpayers. PMC -13.2% AH. Comment! [Healthcare, M&A, On the Move, Breaking News]
5:15 PM Even as Greece struggles toward agreement on debt relief with its private-sector creditors, the country still may need vastly more funding than envisioned so far. So when German commentators from the left and right ask essentially the same question - "If the Greeks don't want to help themselves, why should we?" - the fragile nature of the situation becomes clear. (submitted by David Urban) Comment! [Global & FX]
5:15 PM Next week, we're going to be interviewing Ford's (F) CEO Alan Mulally, and we're asking readers to help us out. Please use this form to submit a question, and we'll consider including it in the interview. Comment!
5:14 PM Three Rivers Operating Company files for a $300M IPO. It plans to list on the NYSE under the symbol "TROC." The company is an independent exploration and production company engaged in oil and natural gas exploration, production and development in the Permian Basin of West Texas and Southeast New Mexico. (S-1) Comment! [Energy]
5:05 PM LG Display (LPL +4.3%) closed higher after delivering an encouraging Q4 report. While LG's $129.3M operating loss was slightly below consensus, revenue of $589M was slightly better. More importantly, LG, which has struggled to cope with weak TV sales, says it sees display panel prices holding steady in Q1, and expects to turn profitable in Q2. iPhone, iPad, and 3D TV panel shipments are expected to give LG a boost. (transcript) Comment! [Tech, Earnings, On the Move]
5:02 PM Republic Airways (RJET +0.8%%) says it's named David Siegel as CEO, president and interim COO of its Frontier Airlines unit as it prepares to dispose of the loss-making business. Comment!
4:57 PM Shares of Altria Group (MO -1.8%) finished the day in the red despite beating Q4 estimates, as earnings slid 9% Y/Y due to several charges. Bottom line results managed to beat the Street however, on strong volume growth for smokeless products and a modest increase in demand for cigarettes. Comment! [On the Move]
4:57 PM Zero: That's the bearish call on U.S. economic growth from Lombard Street's Charles Dumas, who points out the unexpected element in the weak Q4 GDP growth was that two-thirds of it came from a build-up of inventories. Dumas figures it means inventories are more likely to contribute negatively to Q1 growth than positively. Comment! [U.S. Economy]
4:45 PM A Greek government official tells Reuters his country could strike a debt swap deal with private creditors by Sunday, and adds Greece doesn't expect the EU to provide additional bailout funds should the latest rescue package prove insufficient. Meanwhile, Germany reportedly wants Greece to surrender control over its budget policy to the EU in exchange for that rescue package being approved. 1 Comment [Global & FX]
4:35 PM Though closing below its morning highs, Universal Display (PANL +2.4%) still managed to outperform on account of top licensee Samsung's (SSNLF.PK) Q4 report. Samsung claims it saw "rapid growth" in its OLED panel business, and say it expects demand for its smartphone display panels (many of which rely on PANL's OLED technology and materials) to remain strong. Comment! [Tech, On the Move]