U.S. stocks retreat with earnings reports ahead

Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:04:45 -0400
U.S. stocks retreat with earnings reports ahead

U.S. stocks surrender earlier gains as oil prices rise and investors
turn cautious about the earnings outlook after two pharmaceutical giants
postpone reporting their quarterly results.

Rex Nutting: Obama should take on the banks

The disastrous financial deregulation of the past 30 years has left the
American Dream in tatters, but you'd hardly know it from the
presidential campaign so far in 2008. Sen. Barrack Obama has talked
occassionally about reining in the banks with some commonsense
regulations, but he hasn't made it a centerpiece of his campaign. He
should.

B. of A.'s Countrywide deal gets boost from purchase accounting

Bank of America says that its purchase of mortgage giant Countrywide
Financial will add to earnings this year, earlier than previously
expected.

Most of 19 short-protected stocks rise, for now

While most of the shares of the 19 financial institutions protected from
illegal short sales by the Securities and Exchange Commission continued
last week's advance, concerns about the rest of the financial sector
still weigh on the market.

Roche bids $43.7 billion for rest of Genentech

Swiss drug giant Roche Holding AG says it has offered to buy the 44% of
biotech bellwether Genentech it doesn't already own for $43.7 billion.