This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy.

• Jim Jubak (MSN Money): 3-step strategy for a twitchy market, November 19, 2009. Many investors are deeply suspicious of the 60% run-up in stocks this year and are itching to sell. But then what? Here’s how to take some gains now while setting up a profitable 2010.

• Randall Forsyth (Barron’s): Treasury yield plunge sends warning, November 20, 2009. Collapse in note yields suggests economic distress will keep Fed on hold well into 2010 or beyond.

• Gordon Chang (Forbes): When in doubt, blame Bernanke, November 19, 2009. According to Liu Mingkang, China’s chief bank regulator, low American interest rates and the falling dollar have “seriously affected global asset prices, fueled speculation in stock and property markets

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This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy.

• Andy Xie (Caijing.com.cn): Why one bubble burst deserves another, September 28, 2009. The financial crisis taught crucial lessons about the dangers of bubbles, loose regulation and debt. It’s a pity we didn’t learn.

• John Hussman (Hussman Funds): Zen lessons in market analysis, October 11, 2009. The best way of preparing for the future is to take good care of the present, because we know that if the present is made up of the past, then the future will be made up of the present.

• John Authers (Financial Times): Manufactured surprises will keep stocks rolling, October 10, 2009. A stronger recovery would help earnings but would also bring the risk of higher interest rates to

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Yesterday, ISTA Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ISTA) announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved its drug candidate, Bepreve, for the treatment of ocular itching associated with allergic conjunctivitis in patients two years and above. The drug is approved as a twice-daily prescription eye drop treatment. ISTA filed the New Drug Application for the drug (bepotastine ophthalmic solution) on Nov 13, 2008.  As a reminder, the advisory committee of the FDA had recommended the drug in June. The seven-member panel had voted unanimously in favor of Bepreve after reviewing comprehensive safety and efficacy data from ISTA's clinical program.  Bepreve is expected to be available to ophthalmologists and patients in the United States in the fourth quarter of 2009. The company, which expects to recognize revenues from the drug from this year, is expanding its sales force for this purpose.  ISTA has three drugs on the ...

Yesterday, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International (VRX) announced the failure of its drug candidate, retigabine, in a mid-stage study. The trial evaluated retigabine for pain associated with postherpetic neuralgia (PHN), which is common in shingles. The company’s shares closed down 8.5% at $ 24.85.

Retigabine was tested in 187 PHN patients versus placebo for a period of up to ten weeks in approximately 50 locations. The drug was administered once daily in doses of 300 mg to 900 mg. In the final week, patients rated their pain on a scale of zero to ten. While retigabine was generally well tolerated, the study failed to meet its pre-specified primary efficacy endpoint. Valeant is analyzing the data further.

Shingles is an acute infection caused by herpes zoster, the same virus that causes chickenpox. It is characterized by great pain and involves inflammation of sensory nerves. It causes numbness and itching followed by

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Country classification has gotten really interesting in the past couple of years with the rising interest in emerging and frontier markets. But that's probably just my inner unrepentant nerd talking.

Right now, in the wake of MSCI’s reclassification of Israel as a developed market, I’m working on a rundown of the country classifications of four major index providers: MSCI, Dow Jones, FTSE and Standard & Poor’s.

The evolution of emerging markets (and sometimes devolution of developed markets—see Greece, which could lose developed-market status in the FTSE indexes) is just particularly fascinating to me. Take some of the frontier/emerging markets that the index providers cover at the very bottom rungs of the investability ladder: Latvia? Slovakia? Trinidad & Tobago? Mauritius?

Frankly, I’m dying to know what the investment stories are behind these tiny, tiny markets. And while I believe frontier markets (like, say, Vietnam) offer some awesome investment opportunities, is anyone really itching to

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Below is a summary of updates to the BioMedReports.com database of over 200 entries included in the FDA and Clinical Trial Calendars. The FDA Calendar includes companies with pending new drug, biological agent, or medical device new product decisions at the FDA sorted by their PDUFA decision deadline dates while the Clinical Trial Calendar encompasses pending clinical trial results (with a focus on late-stage, Phase 3 trials), pending new submissions to the FDA (e.g. NDA, BLA, 510k, PMA, sNDA, sBLA filings), and pending re-submissions to the FDA for complete response rulings by the agency which require more information before an approval can be granted.

Clinical Data [CLDA: 11.83, -0.23 (-1.91%)] announced positive top-line results on 6/2/09 from the second of two Phase 3 trials of its investigational compound, vilazodone, for the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD). In the study, vilazodone achieved statistically significant results on the primary

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Sometimes accepting “what is” happens to be counter intuitive. That’s the way it feels right now with the DJIA above 8,700 as I write and the S&P 500 at 945. The trend for this bear market rally is powerful and it will be meaningful to see how far it goes.

From a technical standpoint some important indicators such as breadth, advances versus declines, volume and moving averages are signaling that this rally has a ways to go yet. The markets are shrugging off the GM bankruptcy and other bad news, at least for now.

One of the better technicians that I collaborate with is my friend Richard Wendling who writes the ever-interesting web site The Bear Facts Specialist Report at :

http://www.bearfactsspecialistreport.com/.

I sincerely encourage you to read his May 29th NYSE Dow Jones Market Report http://www.bearfactsspecialistreport.com/. Richard believes that if the DJIA can break above and close above 8,700 that the next

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Risk Takers return…  Bank of America gets more cash!  30-year mortgages below 5%!  Looking for direction… And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

Well… Right out of the starters blocks this morning, we have a change in sentiment going on… The Risk Takers are back in the driver’s seat this morning, as the markets are feeling better about things given that the remaining TARP money has been given to the Obama campers to dole out, and Bank of America came away with an emergency lifeline from the Gov’t that totals about $138 Billion… $20 Billion in cash, right here, right now, with the rest spread out between liquidity access and guarantees… And… The TARP money… Given the fact that

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Sometimes you have to just stand back and admire the extremes a real bubble can produce. What you have now, as Bill explained last night at the Doomer’s Ball, is the last greatest bubble of them all, the bubble in U.S. bonds. It’s reaching staggering levels.

How do you measure these things? In yields. This, by the way, is how you’ll know the bubble is popping. When that happens (bond yields rise like a rocket ship) it’s going to unleash financial chaos. But for now, the bubble just keeps on getting bigger and yields on short-term U.S. bonds keep approaching-and even reaching-zero.

“The Treasury sold $27 billion of three-month bills yesterday at a discount rate of 0.005 percent,” reports Bloomberg. It’s, “the lowest since it starting auctioning the securities in 1929. The U.S. also sold $30 billion of four-week bills today at zero percent for the first time since it began selling

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