STOCKS NEWS US-Wall St ends flat as Bernanke eyed, but banks up

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1638 ET 22Feb2010
Wall St ends flat as Bernanke eyed, but banks rise

U.S. stocks finished flat on Monday as investors held back before congressional testimony by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, while scattered buying lifted shares of health insurers and banks.

President Barack Obama revised plans for an overhaul of U.S. healthcare. . The Morgan Stanley healthcare payor index rose 1.7 percent, but investors said financial shares benefited from the focus shifting away from reform in that sector.

The KBW bank index rose 1.9 percent, but energy shares weighed on the broader market.

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1305 ET 22Feb2010 Hologic call options heat up
analyst

Shares of medical diagnostics company Hologic Inc were steady at $16.13 in afternoon trade. The company last week settled a patent infringement dispute with a unit of Johnson & Johnson. For details, see. Traders on Monday focused on the stock's call options as 3,851 contracts traded against only 179 puts, according to Trade Alert. Overall option volume was double the norm and directional sentiment based on order flow was 71 percent bullish, Trade Alert data show.

During the session, some 2,700 April $17.50 calls changed hands for 35 and 40 cents per contract against zero existing open interest, said David Russell, optionMonster analyst in comments on the Web site. But he noted the trades were not huge and seem to represent purchases by one or two institutional players. The stock gapped higher on strong earnings on Feb. 1, but has been trapped below $17 since September, Russell said.

The next scheduled event that could serve as a potential catalyst is Hologic's presentation at the Raymond James 31st Annual Institutional Investors Conference on March 9, he said.

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1149 EST 22Feb2010
Airgas urges holders to reject Air Products bid

Airgas Inc urged its shareholders on Monday to reject a $5.1 billion tender offer from larger rival Air Products & Chemicals Inc, arguing the offer substantially undervalues the industrial gas supplier.

The move was widely expected, and Airgas investors now have until April 9 to formally consider Air Products's $60-per-share cash offer.

Even if a majority of Airgas shareholders sell their shares, the Airgas board still has a 'poison pill' in place to keep any one party from acquiring too large a stake.

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Airgas shares were up less than 0.1 percent at $63.58 while Air Products was down 0.2 percent at $69.53.

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1145 EST 22Feb2010
Geithner pushes for independent consumer agency

The Obama administration is still fighting for a single, independent consumer financial protection agency, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Monday as lawmakers haggled over a financial reform bill.

Geithner seized upon the implementation of new rules under a credit card reform bill signed into law last year to argue that more such protections were needed for consumers.

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1142 EST 22Feb2010
Genzyme says Icahn to nominate four to its board

Genzyme Corp on Monday said it has received notice from billionaire investor Carl Icahn that he intends to nominate himself and three others to the biotech company's board of directors.

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Genzyme said it will evaluate the nominees and make a recommendation 'that is in the best interests of all of the company's shareholders.'

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Shares of Genzyme fell 0.7 percent to $55.60.

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1138 EST 22Feb2010-Fed's Yellen: economy still needs ultra
low rates

The U.S. economy still needs extraordinarily low interest rates, as inflation is 'undesirably low' and growth will likely be sluggish for several years, a top Federal Reserve offical said Monday.

San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Janet Yellen told the University of San Diego's business school that the U.S. economy will likely grow at a pace of about 3.5 percent this year and 4.5 percent next year.

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