Vimovo Demonstrates Benefit Over Naproxen Yesterday, at the American College of Gastroenterology meeting in San Diego, Pozen (POZN) released data from two phase III trials comparing Vimovo (formerly PN400) to enteric-coasted naproxen (ECN) in patients with osteoarthritis (OA), rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS) who are at risk of developing NSAID-associated gastric ulcers. The data demonstrated that patients taking Vimovo experienced significantly greater reduction in severity of dyspepsia (SODA) and overall treatment evaluation for dyspepsia (OTE-DP) compared to patients taking ECN. The OTE-DP results showed 43-46% of the patients on Vimovo reporting positive change at month six vs. only 28-34% on ECN. The results were highly statistically significant. Plus, patients taking Vimovo also had discontinuation rates far below ECN, at 3-5% vs. 11-12%, respectively. The safety of Vimovo was also superior to ECN, with only 2% of the patients experiencing erosive duodenitis as compared to 10-14% for ...

The longer the rally persists, the more dangerous it becomes.

The S&P 500 is up almost 60% since March. The Dow just had its best quarter since ’98.

Yesterday, the Dow slipped 29 points. Is the rally finally rolling over? Or is this a genuine bull market, just taking a pause?

If it is a real bull market it’s a funny-looking bull – one that is missing parts!

For example, corporate earnings are missing. P/E ratios are rising far above the corporate earnings that support them. This puts the market 35% overvalued on a cyclically-adjusted P/E basis, says Smithers & Co.

And if you look at it in terms of its “q” ratio – a comparison of capitalisation and replacement costs – the S&P is even more overvalued. As for emerging markets, “they’re off the charts,” says the Financial Times.

Another missing part is the consumer. This from David Rosenberg:

“ Consumer confidence not only

...

Slothful Investing: How to Beat the Markets With a Lazy Portfolio

by Louis Basenese, Advisory Panelist

MarketWatch columnist Paul B. Farrell loves to tout the performance of his eight Lazy Portfolios.

They earn their name by being comprised of nothing but low-cost, passively managed index funds - properly diversified - that require nothing but an annual rebalance.

In his latest column, he gushes about how his lazy strategy “keeps beating the S&P 500, as well as popular actively managed funds.”

Here’s my rub: Mr. Farrell doesn’t have a corner on slothful investing.

We’re Going Fishing & Beating the Market, Too!

We’ve got our own version of a lazy portfolio at The Oxford Club. We call it the Gone Fishin’ Portfolio.

And guess what?

It’s outperforming the S&P 500, too. It has ever since we created it six years ago.

It’s trouncing the most popular actively managed funds. That includes the wildly

...

TiVo (TIVO), the creator of digital video recorder (DVR), recently announced a strategic partnership with Best Buy (BBY), a global retailer of entertainment and technology products and services.

The partnership will provide TiVo products a vast distribution platform and Best Buy a digital platform to promote its digital content services through TiVo’s DVR offerings. Best Buy will market TiVo’s digital video recording products through its 1,100 stores in the United States.

Both TiVo and Best Buy plan to develop user interface features for TiVo DVRs to be sold by the latter. The features will provide a platform to communicate with subscribers and facilitate smooth access to Best Buy’s various retail offerings.

TiVo also intends to integrate its user interface, search function and Internet-delivered content like on-demand movies from Amazon (AMZN) and Netflix (NFLX) with Best Buy's exclusive Brands group – Insignia and Dynex – by

...

Today Pozen (POZN) announced the submission of the new drug application (NDA) to the U.S. FDA, seeking marketing approval for Vimovo (proposed trade name for PN-400) for the treatment of signs and symptoms of osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis in patients who are at risk for developing NSAID-associated ulcers.

Vimovo is a combination of 500mg enteric coated naproxen and 20mg immediate release esomeprazole. In early December 2008, Pozen released positive top-line data from its 400-301/-302 phase III program testing PN-400 (20mg esomeprazole / 500mg naproxen) vs. 500mg enteric coated naproxen alone. Results show that 400 patients total in both trials taking PN-400 experienced statistically significant fewer number of confirmed gastric ulcers by endoscopy compared to 400 subjects receiving enteric coated naproxen during the six-month period.

Pozen expects to receive a milestone payment of $10 million when the NDA is formally accepted for review by the FDA. We

...

Highlights include Cox Radio, Inc. (CXR), Cumulus Media (CMLS), Emmis Communications (EMMS), Entercom Communications (ETM) and Radio One, Inc. (ROIAK).Cox Radio: Lowball Tender Offer Set to Go HigherCox Radio, Inc. (CXR) withdrew its recommendation that its shareholders accept Cox Enterprises' recent tender offer of $3.80 a share. The offer represented a 15% premium over Cox Radio's previous closing price and a 22% premium over the ten-day volume weighted average closing price. Simultaneously, Cox Enterprises extended the deadline to Friday, May 1.The stock has traded at an average of $4.14 since the March 23rd announcement, reflecting investors' doubt that the offer would be accepted at the initial price. As of the market's close last Friday, 457,000 shares, or about 2% of the outstanding shares, were tendered.Cox Enterprises, which divested Cox Radio years ago, currently owns a 78% ...

Highlights include Cox Radio, Inc. (CXR), Cumulus Media (CMLS), Emmis Communications (EMMS), Entercom Communications (ETM) and Radio One, Inc. (ROIAK).Cox Radio: Lowball Tender Offer Set to Go HigherCox Radio, Inc. (CXR) withdrew its recommendation that its shareholders accept Cox Enterprises' recent tender offer of $3.80 a share. The offer represented a 15% premium over Cox Radio's previous closing price and a 22% premium over the ten-day volume weighted average closing price. Simultaneously, Cox Enterprises extended the deadline to Friday, May 1.The stock has traded at an average of $4.14 since the March 23rd announcement, reflecting investors' doubt that the offer would be accepted at the initial price. As of the market's close last Friday, 457,000 shares, or about 2% of the outstanding shares, were tendered.Cox Enterprises, which divested Cox Radio years ago, currently owns a 78% ...

There is a lot of buzz about a Congressional hearing on mark-to-market accounting, scheduled for Thursday.  Much of the information is inaccurate or misleading.  Astute investors should understand the purpose of the hearing and what might happen. Background When Congress passed the original TARP legislation it required the SEC to study the  possible link between accounting rules and bank failures, reporting within 90 days.  They complied with a series of round tables, public commentary and a report.  This was the last action of the Christopher Cox Chairmanship, with Cox and senior staffers leaving immediately thereafter.  The recommendation was to keep the rule and do minor tweaks.  This is not what Congress expected or hoped for. The Obama Administration We have watched closely for a sign of interest from the Obama team concerning this issue, but there has not been much.  Paul Volcker, a senior advisor, favors a change, but there is no sign ...

Both presidential candidates want to crucify SEC Chairman Cox for failing to control our creative financial institutions. But rumor has it that Congress specifically excluded the devilish derivatives from SEC purview. Let’s fire the right bunch of “poips” for a change!

Scary markets are brought about by many factors, some normal, and some not so normal. It’s often helpful to look backwards before getting too paranoid about the present. The S & L crisis of the early 80s might be an appropriate starting point.

Later that decade, a multi-year rally had its head lopped off by high interest rates, high inflation, and a computer loop. Ten years later, another soaring market was toppled by economic factors. The turn of the century witnessed the bloody demise of the no-value-at-all dot-com illusion.

A profit taking strategy during the rally days was all that was …

This past weekend saw the federal government bail out the mortgage agencies, Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE). These two agencies combined either own or guarantee over $5 TRILLION worth of mortgages.

Why did the government step in? Because they had to! Over the past year, Fannie and Freddie have racked up a combined $14 billion in losses and write-downs. Both agencies, particularly Freddie Mac, were technically insolvent.

Foreign banks of all types, who own billions in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonds, became aware of this. They became worried about getting paid back the value of those bonds when the bonds matured. These foreign banks told the US Treasury that unless something was done, they would immediately stop buying these bonds. That would have had devastating effects on the US mortgage markets.

So the Treasury acted. Both the common and preferred stocks of Fannie and Freddie are now nearly worthless. This

...