With the United States market still in slump, businesses project difficulties in profit increase in the next 7 years. Job cuts continue in the US and the rate of job creation of 25 per year is not sufficient to offset job losses in the next 5 years. On the other side of the world, Indian outsourcing firms show an opposite trend. Global IT service providers such as Infosys which provides technical consulting, design and development of business solutions have been aggressively increasing their workforce. Last week, the company reported that in the second quarter it has hired 6,069 people offsetting the 4,521 employees it laid off in the same quarter. Tata Consultancy Service is also bullishly hiring with plans of hiring 25,000 people worldwide for this year 2009 and 90%

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• Wynn (NASDAQ:WYNN) IPO, representing a 25% stake in Wynn's Macau operations, priced its $1.6 billion listing at the high end of the projected range

• Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB) raised its price targets on numerous applications software firms, noting positive signs for the second half. Included in this group were: Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) with its target lifted to $22 from $20; Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) hiked to $44 from $40; and Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM) raised to $80 from $65

• Bristol-Myers-Squibb (NYSE:BMY) coverage was initiated by Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) with "outperform," rating noting that, "strategic repositioning ahead of patent cliff, new product flow between 2009-2012, broadening R&D portfolio through selective risk-sharing, and high dividend yield underlie our positive thesis"

• Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) initiated coverage of Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) with "market perform," and with a $33-$35 valuation, noting concerns over a "steep and lengthy patent cliff and recent clinical setbacks."  The firm cautioned its Alzheimer's program and the Imclone pipeline "do

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Wipro Technologies, the IT services business of Wipro Ltd. (WIT) announced that it has entered into a five year agreement with BP Plc. (BP) to provide IT Applications Development and Maintenance services for BP’s Fuels Value Chain and Corporate businesses across the globe.

Wipro has been selected as a strategic partner after an arduous selection procedure, which assessed the company on its IT capabilities, domain knowledge of the Oil and Gas sector and proven past record of operational transformation.

Wipro will support BP in IT standardization, simplification and achievement of corporate efficiency. This agreement significantly expands the scope of partnership between Wipro and BP to additional business segments and newer geographies in future.

Through this agreement, Wipro will provide benefits of scale and efficiency by utilizing its proven global delivery model, which will look at delivering services from locations across the globe for BP.

Wipro has enjoyed a compounded annual revenue growth

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International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) recently signed a multiyear IT services contract with Nomura Services India Private Ltd. to provide disaster and system failure response services. Financial terms on the agreement were not disclosed.

Nomura will implement IBM's end-to-end business continuity and resiliency services to bolster its business continuity, disaster and system failure response strategies. The deal will also provide Nomura with an in-city work area recovery service to recover business functions if operations are interrupted.

The contract, which was executed in July, further demonstrates IBM's leadership in the managed resiliency space in India. Going forward, the company expects emerging markets to drive revenue growth.

Moreover, IBM’s Global Business Services won a 5-year contract with BP Plc. (BP) to manage the oil and gas giant's enterprise applications and integrated service desk responsibilities (SAP applications). The company had the largest share in the contract among multiple Indian IT

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DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Tuesday July 28, 2009

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Cardiome Pharma Corp. (NASDAQ: CRME) today announced that it has earned a US$15 million milestone payment from its collaboration with Merck & Co., Inc., through an affiliate. The milestone was triggered by the submission, by Merck, of a Marketing Authorisation Application (MAA) to the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) seeking marketing approval for vernakalant (iv) in the European Union.

MakeMusic, Inc. (NASDAQ: MMUS) announced today the release of SmartMusic(R) 2010, a free update for all current subscribers of SmartMusic, the music learning software for band, orchestra and choir. A guided tour, demonstrating what’s new in SmartMusic 2010, can be viewed at the SmartMusic website.

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Wipro Technologies, the global IT services arm of Wipro Limited (WIT), has executed a five-year agreement to provide IT data center and applications management services for BJ’s Wholesale Club, Inc. (BJ), which provides discount branded merchandise.   As per the contract, Wipro will relocate BJ’s mainframe and open systems environment to its data center in Omaha, Nebraska. This will enable BJ’s to customize infrastructure solutions, provide more flexibility and improve applications support and efficiently focus its IT spend. Wipro will provide applications management, support, disaster recovery, enterprise security and compliance services to BJ.   Wipro has enjoyed a compounded annual revenue growth rate of 25% over the last five years, exhibiting stability, profitability, and growth from its inception and through down markets for IT services. A solid growth strategy, strategic acquisitions, robust performance of the IT Services and Products segment, and a leading position in the Indian Outsourcing

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• Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) was added to Goldman Sach's (NYSE:GS) conviction buy list from a previous "neutral" rating, due to both the company's significant operating leverage as well as growing confidence in the PC upgrade cycle expected next year , with the additional opportunity of improved consumer sentiment

• Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) downgraded shares of IBM (NYSE:IBM) to "neutral" from "buy"

• Infosys Technologies (NASDAQ:INFY) beat estimates by 8 cents, posting fiscal first-quarter earnings of 55 cents a share as revenues fell 2.9% y/y to $1.12 billion.  The company expects second quarter earnings of 50 cents to 51 cents a share and full-year earnings of $1.97 to $2.00

• Barclays (NYSE:BCS) upgraded KLA Tencor (NASDAQ:KLAC) shares to "overweight"

• General Motors (NASDAQ"GMGMQ) exits bankruptcy today

• Nissan Motor (NASDAQ:NSANY) CEO Ghosn warned 2010 is likely to prove "as difficult as 2009," with Europe expected among the slowest areas to recover worldwide

• Credit Suisse (NYSE:CS) upgraded Western

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL - April 17, 2009 - Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Biogen Idec (BIIB), CSX Corp (CSX), Infosys Technologies (INFY), Kimberly-Clark Corp (KMB) and Procter & Gamble (PG).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=4579.

Here are highlights from Thursday's Analyst Blog:

Biogen Beats on Bottom-Line

Biogen Idec (BIIB) reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2009 on April 16, 2009. Revenues for the quarter totaled 1,036.5 million, up approximately 10% from the same period in 2008, and just below our forecast of $1,075 million.

Revenues were

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Business Week recently published an article “Stock Screen: Buy ‘Em Like Buffet“. It presented a list of 49 stocks they screened according to five criteria they report Warren Buffett uses, plus their own criteria to filter out overvalued stocks.  The five criteria were:

Free cash flow of $250 million or more Net profit margin of 15% or more. Return on equity greater than 15% for each of the past three years and the most recent quarter. Shareholder value increasing at least as much as retained earnings over the past five years. Liquidity — market capitalization of  $500 million or more.

We thought it might be interesting to go a step further and review that list of 49 stocks in terms of the S&P Star ratings for near-term market performance and current fair value.  S&P uses a 5 star rating system with 5 being the best.

The following 13 stocks from the list of 49 was rated

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