Ahead of the Bell: ISM service sector index

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City of Industry, CA NEW YORK (AP) -- A private trade group's measure of the U.S. service sector is expected to signal modest growth in January, reflecting improvement in consumer spending.


The Institute for Supply Management's service index likely rose to 51 last month from a revised 49.8 in December, according to economists polled by Thomson Reuters.

Any reading above 50 signals growth in the service sector. That threshold was broken in September for the first time in 13 months. The service sector's recovery has been bumpy since, shrinking again in November and December.

ISM originally said December's level read 50.1, a growth reading, but revised it lower to 49.8 in its yearly seasonal adjustment late last month.

New orders, however, have been growing for five straight months, a signal that future business activity should increase.

The service-sector gauge is closely watched because service jobs comprise more than 80 percent of non-farm U.S. [Read the full article]

SAN DIEGO, Feb. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ADVENTRX Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE Amex: ANX) today announced that Odysseas D. Kostas, M.D. will join its Board of Directors.  Dr. Kostas also will serve on the Board's Audit Committee.  Dr. Kostas was appointed as the representative of entities affiliated with Carl C. Icahn.

"We are delighted to welcome Odysseas to our Board of Directors," said Jack Lief, Chair of the ADVENTRX Board of Directors and the Board's Audit Committee.  "His insights should prove valuable as we advance our product candidates towards commercialization."  

Dr. Kostas, M.D. is an attending physician and one of seven hospitalists at Greenwich Hospital, a member of the Yale New Haven Health System and a subsidiary of Greenwich Health Care Services, Inc. At Greenwich Hospital, Dr. Kostas is a member of various committees that oversee aspects of the hospital's operational decision-making. Since March 2007, Dr. [Read the full article]

AP - A billboard for CNN is shown Monday, Feb. 1, 2010 in New York. Time Warner, which owns CNN, ...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Media conglomerate Time Warner Inc. said Wednesday that improving results at its movie studio and cable networks boosted fourth-quarter revenue, and smaller one-time expenses helped it post a profit after reporting a loss a year ago.

Time Warner has been slimming down, shedding both AOL and Time Warner Cable in the past year to focus on creative content rather than the businesses that deliver it to customers.

While that strategy has yet to prove itself, the focus appears to have paid off in the fourth quarter, as Time Warner's HBO and Turner cable networks pulled in more money from subscription and affiliate fees and its Warner Bros. movie studio had success with "The Blind Side" and "Sherlock Holmes."

Time Warner, which also owns Time Inc. magazines, said it earned $627 million, or 53 cents per share, in the last three months of 2009. [Read the full article]

-Statistically significant changes observed in measurement of sweat chloride suggest increased CFTR activity-

-Data support planned combination trial of VX-809 and VX-770 in second half of 2010 for CF patients with the F508del mutation-

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (Nasdaq: VRTX - News) today announced results from a preliminary analysis of data from a 28-day Phase 2a clinical trial of VX-809 in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) who are homozygous for the F508del mutation. VX-809, an oral investigational Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator protein (CFTR) corrector, was well-tolerated across all four dose groups studied. In the trial, VX-809 showed a statistically significant decline in sweat chloride at both the 100 mg and 200 mg once-daily doses, suggesting that the activity of the CFTR protein was increased in patients during dosing. [Read the full article]

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