Bye Alan, Hello Ben

Morning News of Note:

• AMGN: Amgen Inc-Roche-RHHBY will delay submission of CERA Shares of Amgen are trading up pre-market after Roche said that it would delay the submission of its CERA until 2009. CERA is potential competition for Amgens drug Aranesp
• WMT: Suit aims to force Wal-Mart to sell pill Morning-after drug falls under Mass. law, women say Three Massachusetts women are planning to file a lawsuit today against Wal-Mart for failing to stock and sell a prescription emergency contraception pill called Plan B. Details of the lawsuit and the names of the plaintiffs were not available in advance of a press conference today, but an attorney representing the three women said the case is based on longstanding pharmacy regulations in Massachusetts. (Full Story) Boston Globe
• TWX: Time Warner 4th-Quarter Profit Rises 21%; Sales Gain Time Warner Inc., the world's largest media company, said fourth-quarter profit rose 21 percent as films including ``Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'' led to the fastest sales growth in six quarters. Net income was $1.37 billion, or 29 cents a share, from $1.13 billion, or 24 cents, a year earlier, Time Warner said in a statement today. (Full Story) Bloomberg
• GOOG: Gurgle Yesterday was busy. The president gave a speech, the Federal Reserve got a new chief, the Supreme Court added a new justice. And Google stumbled. Following the close of trading, the search giant announced earnings that badly missed what Wall Street expected. In after-hours trading, investors sent Google's shares tumbling. A stock that only a few weeks ago threatened $500 a share, now found itself in the measly high $300s. (Full Story) WSJ
• Bulls/Bears: Bulls 52.6 vs 53.7, Bears 25.8 vs 25.3, Correction 21.6 vs 21

Market Comments: The FOMC meeting went pretty much as expected yesterday. I think the Fed dropped a few clues that might have been laying the groundwork for a potential pause in their rate hike campaign.

GOOG reported a shortfall last night, mostly due to a higher tax rate in the quarter, and the stock got whacked. I saw it trading down as low as $360 after-hours, although it has bouned back some to aroung $395 currently.

I am seeing plenty of stocks trading higher, even as bond yields are up at 4.56%. Energy stocks are lower as inventories were pretty much higher than expected this morning.

long AMGN, TWX, WMT