Stock options expiry day tends to be volatile. However, we are in a quiet season and there were precious little news and data coming out today. Yesterday's negative data surprises kept weighing on stock markets worldwide. Swedish government continued a run of recent upgrades in growth outlook. Finance minister said that GDP growth is high but risks remain. The new prognosis is 4.5% annual growth, coming in fittingly just ahead of september elections.
News of a few Norwegian day traders finding a way to outwit Timber Hill trading system is getting plenty of publicity. So far the ensuing actions suggest it is OK for automated programs and financial firms to 'cheat' using random orders and arbitrary transactions but not OK if an individual investor finds a way to follow suit.
Reporting season for second quarter 2010 is winding down. Today among those reporting, Swedish pharmaceutical company Orexo touted continued
progress in drug launches and a partnering agreement reached during the quarter. Reported loss was over 60 million kronor. At the same time, the company announced it will change CEO. Norwegian civil engineering and construction company AFG reported its best ever result.
Another set of meta-analysis news from the United States Food and Drug Administration hit Orion Oyj and Novartis AG's Parkinson's disease drug Stalevo. The FDA scrutiny on such issues is very tight as of late with several high profile approved drugs facing drug safety, side effects and effectiveness questions in follow-up studies. FDA cites potential increased risk of heart attacks with Stalevo, but says the data is inconclusive. Orion commented in a release after the markets had closed, that the amount of heart disease events in STRIDE-PD follow-up study was similar compared with previous entacapone studies as well as the incidence noted in a similarly-aged general population but less myocardial infarction events were observed in the carbidopa/levodopa arm of the study.
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