In September, the Producer Price Index rose by 0.3%. While this is an acceleration from the 0.6% decline in September, it is well below consensus expectations of a 0.5% increase. All of the price pressures were coming from food and energy. If they are stripped out to get the Core Producer Price Index, prices fell by 0.6% for the month -- a much faster decline than the 0.1% decline last month, and even farther below the consensus expectations of a 0.1% increase for the month. Both food and energy rose by 1.6% at the finished level in September. For energy, though, it was just a partial reversal of the 2.4% decline in September. In September, finished food prices fell only 0.1%. On a year-over-year basis, the total Producer Price Index is down 1.9%. However, last month the year-over-year decline was 4.8%. Thus on a year-over-year basis, the ...

FDA Approves NeurogesX's Qutenza After the market closed on November 16, 2009, NeurogesX (NGSX) announced that the U.S. FDA had approved Qutenza (capsaicin patch) for the management of neuropathic pain due to postherpetic neuralgia (PHN).  We expect management to spend the next several months preparing for the launch by facilitating reimbursement procedure, establishing distribution channels, hiring and training the specialty sales force, and conducting the manufacturing for commercial supply. Key to our bullish sales forecast for the drug will be establishing a permanent reimbursement code for both the product and application, as Qutenza requires administration by a physician or healthcare professional. Qutenza is a cutaneous (skin) patch designed to treat peripheral neuropathic pain conditions. The Qutenza patch provides a pure high concentration (8%) of a synthetic capsaicin, known as trans­-capsaicin, directly to the site of pain via a rapid-delivery cutaneous delivery system designed to provide ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 16, 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: Apple Inc. (AAPL), Microsoft Corp (MSFT), Quality Systems Inc. (QSII), Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions, Inc. (MDRX) and Cerner Corp. (CERN).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Friday’s Analyst Blog:

Apple Opens New Store in New York

Apple Inc. (AAPL) will open its newest retail store with an 8,500 square feet retail space in New York tomorrow. The store will help Apple deliver more Macs, iPods and iPhones, taking advantage of the coming holiday

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Apple Inc. (AAPL) will open its newest retail store with an 8,500 square feet retail space in New York tomorrow. The store will help Apple deliver more Macs, iPods and iPhones, taking advantage of the coming holiday season. The new store is the fourth in Manhattan and fifteenth in New York.   To ensure a high-quality buying experience for its products, in which service and education are emphasized, the company has expanded and improved its distribution capabilities by opening its own retail stores in the U.S. and internationally.   The company operates a network of 280 retail stores in 10 countries across the world, including the U.S., U.K., Italy, Australia, Canada, Japan, China, Switzerland, Germany and France to drive the demand for its other products. Further, Apple is soon to open two new stores in Shanghai as well as London and Paris. The company further plans to ...

Gilead Sciences, Inc (GILD) is awaiting the outcome of the Anti-Infective Drugs Advisory Committee of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) scheduled on December 10, 2009. The committee will review Gilead ’s aztreonam for inhalation solution, an investigational product for the treatment of chronic pulmonary infections due to Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). Earlier, in September 2008, the drug was denied approval by the FDA, which then asked Gilead to resubmit the application with more data.  In September 2009, the drug received conditional marketing approval in Canada and Europe under the trade name Cayston (aztreonam lysine 75 mg powder and solvent for nebuliser solution). Gilead plans to make the product available in Germany and the UK in early 2010. Aztreonam formulated with lysine is a proprietary formulation of aztreonam developed specifically for inhalation, which has orphan drug status in the US ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 12, 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: Southern Copper Corporation (PCU), Logitech International (LOGI), Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV (PHG).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Wednesday’s Analyst Blog:

Southern Copper’s Earnings Jump

Southern Copper Corporation (PCU), one of the leading copper producers in the world, posted net earnings of 37 cents in the third quarter of 2009, better than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 31 cents. Earnings jumped 78.6% from 21

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Logitech International (LOGI) announced that it has agreed to acquire privately held LifeSize Communications of Austin, Texas for $405 million in cash. LifeSize is a global leader in high definition (HD) video communication solutions, with more than 9,000 video conferencing customers across 80 countries in large enterprises, small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) and public healthcare, education and government organizations.   The acquisition will enable Logitech to extend its leadership in video communication beyond the desktop.

Logitech and LifeSize plan to pursue existing and new relationships with unified communications, collaboration and VoIP industry partners and competitors to drive the development of an open eco-system for interoperable video communication.

LifeSize expects approximately $90 million in revenues in CY 2009, with CY 2010 revenues expected to grow between 40% and 60%. Logitech expects the acquisition to be neutral to slightly positive to its operating income (excluding acquisition-related charges) in FY 2011, ending March 31, 2011, and

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This in from the Wall Street Journal on the somewhat disturbing, political dimensions of Russia's Nord Stream pipeline.  Approved just last week by Finland and Sweden after ecological concerns were overcome, the project is now ready to get off the ground, or rather under the ground.  For the pipeline will traverse the Baltic Sea floor to Germany, rather than crossing overground through former Eastern bloc countries; a divisive move, Alexandro Peterson suggests:[ . . . ] The Nord Stream project is part of an exclusionary agreement between Moscow and Berlin--nicknamed in circumvented Warsaw the "Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact," after the 1939 Soviet-Nazi deal to carve up Poland. It would have been much cheaper to build an overland pipeline ...

I am traveling in Europe - Switzerland and Slovenia - at the moment, exploring business opportunities and gathering a feel for the economic climate in Western and Central Europe. (I also have a more official relationship with Slovenia as I represent this picture-pretty country diplomatically in South Africa - as Honorary Consul. Click here for the Consulate website and some amazing photographs.)

The downside is that blog posting will be slow (and totally absent on some days) for most of the time while I am on the road. The normal blogging service will be resumed on my return to Cape Town on October 16.

However, I will be “tweeting” regularly throughout my trip, posting short comments (maximum 140 characters) on topical market issues, and also on my personal whereabouts. You can “follow me” on Twitter by clicking here. You may also consider joining me

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Cavitation Technologies, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: CVAT) announced recently that it has signed Miura Engineering Co., Ltd. Tokyo, Japan (www.miura21.co.jp) as its new agent to serve markets in Japan for CTI’s Nano-Cavitation Process Systems. Miura is a leading Engineering Company specialized in Edible Oil Processing Plants in the Far East. Last week CVAT reported a 3-for-1 forward stock split.

At the 2nd Asia Pacific Contact Center Association Leaders and CCAM Expo this week in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Convergys

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