Finances

Thousand Oaks, California based Amgen, Inc. has announced that it will acquire Munich, Germany based Micromet, Inc. for $1.16 billion in cash. The sale price equals $11 per share, a premium of 33% over Micromet's last closing price. Acquisition of the German pharmaceutical maker gives Amgen access to Blinatumomab, an experimental leukemia drug. Yet Amgen's out-going CEO, Kevin Sharer, was quick to emphasize the acquisition is about more than Blinatumomab. "We acquired Micromet," said Sharer. "We didn't [just] acquire Blinatumomab."

Amgen, Inc. also announced its fourth-quarter earnings this week. Earnings for the quarter fell by more than 9% to $934 million. Amgen officials said the biotechnology company's sales of its line of anemia treatment drugs have dropped precipitously with sales of Aranesp falling by 15% to $538 million and sales of Epogen dropping 18% to $486 million. Amgen's newest drug, Denosumab, is used to treat osteoporosis in post-menopausal women. Sales of this drug posted huge gains, increasing by more than $106 million from the same quarter in 2011. For 2011, Amgen's net income fell by nearly 20% to just under $370 billion while revenues increased by 4% to $15.58 billion.

Shares of Amgen, Inc. (AMGN) finished the week upat $68.34. Micromet, Inc. (MITI) finished the week down at $10.90.

Newell Rubbermaid Sees Higher Profits

Newell Rubbermaid, Inc. saw its fourth quarter profits increase more than 6%. Newell Rubbermaid makes many household and commercial products under its Sharpie, Lennox, Rubbermaid, Graco and other names. The company reported profits of $80.4 million or $0.27 per share; $0.02 per share more than the fourth quarter of 2010.

Sales in Newell Rubbermaid's home and family segments rose 1.2% or $628.3 million. Chief Executive Mike Polk believes the company's strong performance in its baby and parenting lines carried the company through to increased profits. Sales in this category were led by increased demand in its baby stroller and accessories lines, Graco and Aprica. Sales of its culinary products also increase in the fourth quarter. For the year, Polk anticipates profits, excluding restricting costs, of $1.63 to $1.69 per share, which happens to match analyst expectations. "We have recovered a little bit of momentum on our baby business," said Polk. "We [still] have a lot of work to do in the baby business to get our businesses in America and Europe into a cadence of sustainable growth.

Shares of Newell Rubbermaid, Inc. (NWL) closed the week at $18.82

Facebook to Go Public

Facebook may take substantial steps to go public as early as next week, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Estimates place Facebook's value between $80 and $100 billion. It anticipated that Morgan Stanley will land the Initial Public Offering while Goldman Sachs will play several key roles. Analysts' suspicions were raised about the IPO filing after reports surfaced concerning a halt in trading of Facebook's privately-held shares on secondary markets. Such moves often portend IPO filings.

Facebook is the world's largest social-networking site with more than 800 million users. Scott Sweet of IPO Boutique said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that "the mere drop of a hint [of an IPO] will cause pandemonium." Officials at Facebook have not commented on the IPO nor released any official information concerning value of the Internet titan.

The Dow started the week at 12,720 and closed at 12,660. The S&P 500 started the week at 1,315 and ended at 1,316. The NASDAQ started the week at 2,787 and finished at 2,817.

Treasurys rose on Friday after reports indicated that the U.S. economy is growing at a slower pace than many analysts expected. The fourth quarter brought only modest growth in the domestic economy, yet the January reading of the University of Michigan/Thomson Reuters report showed improving consumer sentiment with the rating reached 75, up 5.1 December. For the week, 10-year yields have fallen from 2.03%. Two-year notes have slipped from 0.24% while 30-year yields are little changed from last Friday.

Concerns remain high that Greece could default on its debt obligations. Rumors of a pending deal between Greece and its creditors that would allow the country to avoid a disorderly default of its sovereign debt also have swirled around, improving the sentiment of traders. Bond traders listened carefully for any comments from national banks and heads of states at the World Economic Forum in Davos on the situation. It is reported that creditors and Greek officials are attempting to reach a consensus on the steps that need to be taken in order the government to avoid an unstructured default.

Freddie Mac released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey on Thursday, showing the average mortgage rate on the rise following positive information on housing sales and prices. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.98% reversing its previous three-week trend of setting all-time record lows. Despite the slight increase, this marks the eighth consecutive week the 30-year fixed has remained below 4.00%. The 15 year FRM this week averaged 3.24% with an average 0.8 point, up from last week when it averaged 3.17%. A year ago at this time, the loan averaged 4.09%.

"Fixed mortgage rates ticked up this week as the housing market ended 2011 on a high note," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac's vice president and chief economist. "New construction of one-family homes rose 4.4% in December to an annualized rate of 470,000, the most since April 2010. Existing home sales increased 5.0 percent at the end of the year to 4.61 million houses, the largest amount since May 2010. Furthermore, pending home sales in November and December averaged the highest reading since the March and April 2010 period."

The money market fund finished this week at 0.50%. The 1-year CD finished at 0.65%.