Stock market closes out its best week since 2009 (AP)

NEW YORK ? An early rally fizzled on the stock market Friday but still left the Standard & Poor's 500 index up 7.4 percent for the week, its biggest gain since March 2009.

A surprise drop in the U.S. unemployment rate sent stocks higher in early trading, but the gains faded during the afternoon.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 0.61 of a point to close at 12,019.42. The Dow ended the week up 7 percent, the largest weekly gain since July 2009.

Bank stocks rose sharply, continuing a weeklong rally. JPMorgan Chase & Co. jumped 6.1 percent, the most among the 30 stocks in the Dow average. Morgan Stanley leapt 6.9 percent, the second-biggest gain of any stock in the S&P 500 index.

European stock indexes and the euro rose after German Chancellor Angela Merkel made a speech pushing for tighter rules on government spending. Merkel said the 17 countries that use the euro must quickly restore market confidence by making financial controls stricter.

Bond yields for Spain and Italy fell, a sign that investors are becoming more confident in the ability of those countries to pay their debt. France's CAC-40 and Britain's FT-SE each rose 1.1 percent.

Markets could be in for more volatility next week as European leaders prepare for a summit to propose new measures for containing the crisis.

The Labor Department reported before the market opened that the unemployment rate fell to 8.6 percent last month, the lowest level in 2 1/2 years. Economists had expected the rate to stay at 9 percent. But a key reason the unemployment rate fell so much was that more than 300,000 people gave up looking for work and were no longer counted as unemployed.

The Nasdaq composite index inched up 0.73 to 2,626.93. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 0.31 of a point to 1,244.28. The S&P surged 7.4 percent over the week, the most since March 2009.

Decisive steps by world leaders to right Europe's teetering economy sent stocks soaring on Wednesday. The Dow jumped 490 points, its biggest gain since March 2009 and its seventh-largest one-day point gain in history. The weekly point gain of 787 in the Dow was the second-biggest in its history, following a 946-point gain in October 2008.

"This market has been gripped with fear for a long time," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital. "And I think some of these fear factors are beginning to dissipate."

This week's strong stock performance is partially a reflection of the market's increased volatility since August, when concerns that Europe's debt was spinning out of control made dramatic stock price swings the norm. On Monday the S&P 500 broke a 7-day slide that had taken the index down 7.9 percent.

The improvements in the U.S. job market are "another illustration that the US economy is, for now at least, shrugging off the global economic downturn and fears about the collapse of the euro-zone," Capital Economics Chief U.S. Economist Paul Ashworth said in a note to clients.

Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy will meet Monday to discuss changes to European Union treaties. The talks will culminate in a Dec. 9 summit of EU leaders, where the proposals are expected to be debated and detailed. Analysts say stricter controls on spending could encourage the European Central Bank to offer more short-term help for governments struggling with their debts.

If the European Central Bank takes a larger role in buying government debt, "it will certainly be a relief to markets," Cardillo said, "and maybe even mean Europe avoids falling into a deep recession. Not that it's going to cure all the problems of Europe."

In corporate news:

? Western Digital Corp. soared 7.5 percent, the most in the S&P. The data storage provider raised its revenue estimate for the current quarter and said that recovery efforts at its facility in Thailand following massive flooding there were proceeding faster than had been expected.

? Big Lots Inc. slumped 8.7 percent, after the retailer reported a 76 percent plunge in income because of lower margins and a loss related to a newly acquired Canadian business. The company buys overstocked items including food and housewares and sells them at a discount.

? H&R Block Inc. fell 6.4 percent. The country's largest tax-preparation company reported a wider quarterly loss late Thursday. H&R Block also said there was a jump in claims tied to bad loans made by its former subprime mortgage unit.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111202/ap_on_bi_st_ma_re/us_wall_street

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Colorado Still Divided on Medical Marijuana (ContributorNetwork)

According to a report by the Associated Press, the governors of Washington and Rhode Island are pushing for a federal reclassification of marijuana that would allow doctors to prescribe the drug and pharmacists to supply it. However, the Denver Post reports that in Colorado, citizens still remain divided on whether legal medical marijuana is a good thing.

Here's a look at medical marijuana in the state:

* Colorado is among 16 states, and the District of Columbia, who have laws on the books regarding medical marijuana. Colorado's law, Amendment 20, was passed in November 2000. The law amended the state constitution to allow medical marijuana for patients with a qualifying condition. Doctors can recommend the use of marijuana for illnesses such as nausea, HIV/AIDS, cancer, chronic pain and seizures. A primary caregiver may register with the Medical Marijuana Registry to possess up to two ounces of usable form marijuana and not more than six plants, with no more than three being mature, per patient.

* Voters in 33 cities and towns, as well as those in nine counties in Colorado have opted to ban medical marijuana businesses in their communities. Another 44 cities and 30 counties have banned dispensaries by ordinance, the Denver Post reports. Though medical marijuana is legal in the state, 43 percent of Colorado's residents live in communities where businesses providing medical marijuana products are not allowed.

* A study released in November, by Daniel I. Rees of the University of Colorado Denver, indicates that legalization of medical marijuana is associated with increased use of marijuana among adults, but not minors. Legalization in the sixteen states that have passed medical marijuana laws, Rees wrote, is associated with a nine percent decrease in traffic fatalities. The reason, the study reports, is that medical marijuana is often a substitute for alcohol. The highest reduction in traffic fatalities in medical marijuana states is with the 20-29 age group, the study showed.

* An independent poll conducted this summer showed that, in spite of all the municipal bans of medical marijuana businesses, 51 percent of the state's citizens support an outright legalization of marijuana. The most support (71 percent) came from individuals in the 18-29 year old age bracket. Males tend to support the idea more than females. An organization calling itself the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol has been collecting petitions in order to get a 2012 statewide ballot initiative to end marijuana prohibition in Colorado, establishing the ability to tax the drug as alcohol is taxed and also provide for the cultivation of industrial hemp.

* A spokesman for Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper stated to the Associated Press that the governor may be compelled to join on with the petition by Washington and Rhode Island's governors for the reclassification of medical marijuana. The reclassification would make marijuana a Schedule 2 drug, rather than a Schedule 1. In the past, the Drug Enforcement Agency has denied such petitions, though this is the first one signed by governors, the Associated Press reported.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20111201/hl_ac/10573407_colorado_still_divided_on_medical_marijuana

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Court rejects Teva appeal over cholesterol drug Crestor (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? A federal appeals court on Thursday refused to revive Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd's patent infringement suit against AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP for the rights to Crestor, a multibillion-dollar cholesterol fighter.

In a ruling that upheld a lower court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit invalidated Teva's patent for Crestor on grounds that AstraZenec invented it first.

Teva in 1999 patented a method for stabilizing drugs known as statins, which help lower cholesterol. Statins are inherently unstable and require an added compound to be medically effective.

In 2008, Teva sued AstraZeneca over its cholesterol drug Crestor, which contains the active ingredient rosuvastatin calcium, a stabilized statin. AstraZeneca argued that it first manufactured a batch of the drug in mid-1999, before Teva obtained its patent. The batch included a compound Teva later identified as a stabilizer.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania sided with AstraZeneca, invalidating the Teva patent based on AstraZeneca's prior invention. Under federal law, a patent is invalid if someone else made the invention first and did not abandon, suppress or conceal it.

On appeal, Teva argued that AstraZeneca in 1999 did not appreciate the stabilizing effect of the compound it added to the drug formulation. But the Federal Circuit found such an appreciation was not necessary.

AstraZeneca understood that it had created a stable formulation, and it understood the components of that formulation, the court found.

"AstraZeneca did not need to appreciate which component was responsible for stabilization," Judge Richard Linn wrote on behalf of the three-judge panel.

Denise Bradley, a spokeswoman for Teva, declined to comment on the litigation.

AstraZeneca spokeswoman Elizabeth Renz said the company was pleased with the court's ruling invalidating Teva's formulation patent.

In a separate case, AstraZeneca is fighting several companies seeking to sell cheap versions of Crestor, including Mylan, Teva, Sun, Aurobindo, Par, Watson, Sandoz and Apotex. A Delaware federal judge in June 2010 upheld the validity of AstraZeneca's Crestor patent, which keeps generics out of the market until 2016. That case is also currently on appeal before the Federal Circuit.

The latest ruling was in the case Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd v. AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP et al, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, No. 2011-1091.

(Reporting by Terry Baynes; Editing by Eileen Daspin and Jerry Norton)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111201/hl_nm/us_teva_patent

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