merck. guy to right was mr. general mills. what's happening here is not just people are dump stocks, caterpillar, 3m and saying i'm going to the sidelines. classic rotation. they are going into the car and buying the pfizer and merck -- which, by the way, have the added advantage of just mr. pfizer report ad good number and mr. merck was the stellar number. general mills is -- did a split. we know splits are -- they do call the attention to what's going on well and ken powell is the -- what i'm trying to say is it is not just like a run for the hills. panic, gloom situation. we did that at the top of the show. what i am saying is that there's money going to a sector that's so beaten down that i think it is putting at a bottom. the last three days the drug stocks acted well. i think this was being foretold. this group is getting a rush of money. short-term outlook this is where you go. because i think that the others -- really a butcher block. which means there's a lot of knives coming down. no knives coming down in the drugs i

fellow drug giant merck also swallowed a big merger., merck bought schering-plough for almost $50 billion. that helped sales more than double, with earnings beating estimates. eight of its ten biggest drug groups saw increases. m-r-k stock also bucked the weak trend, even though the low end of its 2010 forecast means results could miss estimates. a couple of other health stocks made some earnings-related moves. mckesson is the biggest pharmaceutical distributor in the u.s. profits were up, thanks to the h1n1 vaccine. the stock rallied 4%. but a light flu season hurt admissions at hospital operator tenet healthcare. earnings were better than expected, but its unpaid patient bills rose. the stock dropped 7%. as if the market didn't have enough to worry about, u.s. anti-trust regulators are looking at apple's licensing agreement with iphone application developers. shares dropped almost 3%, and are now at the same price they hit after reporting that blow- out quarter two weeks ago. the big concern hitting the market today, similar to last w

. >>> on the upside better than expected earnings from drugmakers pfizer and merck. >>> nissan is recalling more than 130,000 infinity g 35 to prevent the air bag from deploying. they're recalling coupes and 05-06 sedans. >>> bud light will soon be the official beer of the nfl again. a deal with anheuser-busch inbev is set. the league's official brew since 2001. >>> keep an eye on news corp. shares were up in late trade after the media giant posted upbeat earnings thanks to avatar's box office success and improving ad sales. >>> and finally a new pole finds that sen tty nurrians are text savvy. they're text messaging while 12% use an ipod. good for them. >>> well, the sharks are on the doorstep, a sports voice is silenced, and a shocking spectator experience. >>> plus, abracadabra, dwight howard and the magic down the hawks. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. >>> our warm spring is going to come to an end as one more shot of cold air from canada is on the way. your regional forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today." >>> good morning. if you're just waking up,

but there you have schering-plough, of course bought by merck. the deal closed in 2001, which is why it's at the top of the list. but still, merck has that exposure now. flowserve, paccar, owens-illinois, pall corp. all of these huge percentages coming from europe. can we actually ignore that headwind? it's a q2 story. we'll see it in the next earnings report, guy. >> it would be foolish to ignore that headwind. and one thing you didn't mention that's been mentioned in the 3:30 hit was an australian resource tax now. all these things by themselves in a vacuum not a big deal. in the aggregate i think they are a big deal. i'll say again, we were looking for the exogenous event to sort of tell us what the top was. i still believe that we will look back in a few months on that friday when the goldman sachs news came out was that event. the markets basically net been lower since. >> over the last couple weeks we've been having debates on this desk of whether valuations have got-tone i appoint where they're too rich. if you look right now, the s&p is b

witness pfizer and merck actually up today.labs, a stock my charitable trust bought right in the middle of the downturn because of its great growth, its bountiful dividend not to mention a stock that's become ridiculously cheap. number two, you can buy the foods, especially general mills, as ken powell, the company's great ceo, wouldn't split the stock unless he's comfortable. hey, you can buy perrigo as a knockoff food and drug play. works fine for me after that great quarter. three, dividend plays. remember nrgy, the propane retailer? report aid good quarter today, yielded 4.7%, nothing to sneeze at. fourth, the oil spill in the gulf and the coal mine explosion in west virginia spell no drilling and no mining which mean those new marcellus gas plays i'm talking about. atlas energy and fuel gas. remember i brought the nfg on? they were really good. fifth you can own the utilities. capacity utilization's going up in the country. check out duke's earnings today. how about dominion? number 6. nike works going into its first analy

merck gaining 1.5% after beating profit estimates and pfizer adding 2% on a huge jump in first quarterenue. that's it from cnbc. now back to "hardball." >>> it will be interesting to me, and i'm not trying to introduce a conspiracy theory. but was this deliberate? you know, you have to wonder -- >> sabotage? >> if there was sabotage involved. >> what better way to head off more oil drilling, nuclear plants, then by blowing up a rig. i'm just noting the timing here. >> welcome back to "hardball." those are some of the comments from people on the right about the oil spill in the gulf yesterday on neil cavuto's show. former fecal director, michael brown, said this. >> only now is the president appearing to be engaged. and i think the delay was this -- it's pure politics. they don't say these things without it being coordinated. so now you're looking at this oil slick approaching the louisiana shore. according to certain noaa and other places, if the winds are right, it will go up the east coast. this is exactly what they want. because now he can pander to the environmentalists and say, i'

in the two cases that i've focused on so far that have come jones case the merck case and jones case, in both cases the court has ruled in favor of the securities plaintiff and has done so unanimously in both cases. in the merck case there are difference ins reasoning and analysis, but the bottom line is both cases 9-0 rulings in favor of the securities plaintiff. so i think that these cases while surely not proving that roberts court is a hostile court to business, go a long way to showing that you can't paint with too broad a brush and that it really depends about the specific nature of the issue before the court. at the end of the day, most business cases are statutory interpretation cases. and so the result in these cases is probably going to have more to do with the business orientation of this congress that passed the statute than the business orientation of the supreme court that decides the case. >> so irwin? >> just real briefly, i think what's most notable is the increasing number of business cases on the docket. because you've already talked about antitrust patent securitie

in the merck case there are difference ins reasoning and analysis, but the bottom line is both casesurities plaintiff. so i think that these cases while surely not proving that roberts court is a hostile court to business, go a long way to showing that you can't paint with too broad a brush and that it really depends about the specific nature of the issue before the court. at the end of the day, most business cases are statutory interpretation cases. and so the result in these cases is probably going to have more to do with theusiness orientation of this congress that passed the statute than the business orientation of the supreme court that decides the case. >> so irwin? >> just rea briefly, i think what's most notable is the increasing number of business cases on the docket. becausyou've already talked about antitrust patent securities. there are several bankruptcy cases on the docket this term whereas for many years the court wasn't hearing bankruptcy cases. and i think this is a reflection of john roberts as chief justice, that i think he spend most of his career before going ont

merck downgraded to neutral off the conviction buy list at goldman sachs. it is weaker here today.ey think this stock is headed still to $42 a share, which is far ahead of where it is right now. they downgraded the whole pharmaceutical sector as well. did you see hertz this morning, down sharply about 5%, 6%. and this after rival avis sent a letter to dollar thrifty, which is in a $41-per-share takeout deal with hertz. they said, yeah, we're open to substantially higher bids. there's some back-and-forth language about this was wrong, that was wrong, but the fact remains is you come with a strong offer and we will listen to it. erin, back to you. >> all right, thanks very much to you, matt nesto. >>> now let's talk about volatility. we gave you that headline that volatility was up 14% now. i'm just checking at every instant. all the major indices fell more than 2% yesterday. as you can see, cboe volatility is up, but i want to highlight the dow, which had initially dropped 100 points and now has recovered about a quarter of that. so, we're now down only about 73. how do you trade vo

merck doesn't make money when you start exercising but that probably has more benefit for you. you don't see it on tv. you don't see it in the drugstore. but that's really a good direction to go in. and clearly for these illnesses, the return on investment for that is huge. and the risk margin is substantial lower. so the idea was trying to get patients to set their own goals preferable to telling them what to do. ... >> well, we have to develop and expand our non-amt staff. in a community based market risk practice that's called overhead. we recognize and other forms of health care system, it's understood somebody has to support the operating room in which you work. it's understood somebody has to support the cost of that instrument and the table on which the patient is lying. in primary care we have a very well specified what that infrastructure is. technology and teams i think are a big piece of it and we need support to make that happen. so we hired a health educator. i just got her job as 50% wholesale and 50% retail. the real deal part is the mother to you, sitting down o