4 Banks Fail Bringing 2012 Total to Seven (Update 1) Updated with information subsequently released by the FDIC, regarding brokered deposits at First Guaranty Bank and Trust Company and Tennessee Commerce Bank.
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- State regulators on Friday shut down four banks, bringing this year's total number of bank failures to seven.
All four failed banks were previously included in TheStreet's third-quarter Bank Watch List of undercapitalized institutions, based on regulatory data provided by SNL Financial.
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Delta May Make Run at US Airways NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Delta Airlines is reportedly looking to gobble up some of its competition.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the company is doing its homework on possibly making a bid to acquire US Airways, according to unnamed "people familiar with the matter."
The Journal article said AMR Corp., the parent company of American Airlines that filed for bankruptcy protection in late November, could also end up a target of Delta, which is said to be working with Goldman Sachs and Blackstone Group as advisers.
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Cramer's 'Mad Money' Recap: Next Week's Game Plan (Final) Search Jim Cramer's Mad Money trading recommendations using our exclusive Mad Money Stock Screener and watch Jim Cramer's Mad Money Post Game video exclusively on TheStreet.com.
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Today's trading action as nothing more than a healthily pause after a spectacular run high, Jim Cramer told the viewers of his "Mad Money" TV show Friday.
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RJ Reynolds, Phillip Morris to Pay $2.5 Million in Damages SEBRING, Fla. (Courtroom View Network) --The first major tobacco lawsuit of 2012 ended Thursday with RJ Reynolds and Philip Morris International being ordered to pay a combined $2.5 million in damages to a deceased smoker's surviving husband.
Following nearly three weeks of trial testimony, a Highlands County jury found the two tobacco companies responsible for the smoking-related lung cancer of Theo Hallgren's late wife, Claire Hallgren.
After determining Claire Hallgren was 50% responsible for her addiction and awarding $2 million to Theo Hallgren in compensatory damages, the jury went on to order RJ Reynolds and Philip Morris to pay $750,000 each in punitive damages.
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'Mad Money Lightning Round': Autodesk Shines To see the full "Mad Money" Recap, please click here.
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GDP Data Confirms Slow Growth: Dave's Daily
GDP data was released Friday revealing headline economic growth of 2.8% versus consensus of 3.1%. Real economic growth after inflation was only 1.7% for 2011. Negatively affecting the data were lower state and local government spending, private inventory investment and, believe it or not, federal government spending.
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Ron Paul: Las Vegas Here I Come!
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Ron Paul's campaign has gone dark in Florida.
Voters found the Texas Congressman absent from the Sunshine State on Friday as he had turned his attention away from the large and expensive primary, but a brief ride through Las Vegas, Nev. would reveal that Paul has ramped up his campaign there.
Ron Paul
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PharMerica, Amylin: After-Hours Trading NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of PharMerica tumbled in late trades on Friday after the Federal Trade Commission said it's suing to block the hostile takeover of the company by Omnicare.
In a statement on its Web site, the FTC said its complaint against the deal alleges "the combination of the two largest U.S. long-term care pharmacies would harm competition and enable Omnicare to raise the price of drugs for Medicare Part D consumers and others."
Shares of PharMerica were last quoted at $12.25, down 14.3%, on volume of more than 215,000, according to Nasdaq.com. Based on Friday's regular-session close at $14.30, the stock was up nearly 30% in the past year, hitting a 52-week high of $16.15 on Nov. 8.
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J.C. Penney's Silent Treatment NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- There are high hopes for Ron Johnson at JCPenney and why not? He helped build Apple retail's arm into a juggernaut. Next up: a revival of the moribund department store.
But funny things might happen on the way to a resounding comeback and shareholders might be the last to know. That's because when JCPenny announced earnings this week (they lowered costs, which anyone with an MBA and heart as cold as steel could have done, but showed no immediate signs that Johnson was Magic) the company also said that it would no longer give quarterly sales and earnings guidance. They are also throwing in the towel on reporting monthly same store sales.
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Sifting Through Small-Caps for M&A Targets NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The Russell 2000 index has enjoyed a gangbusters start in 2012 but, with correlation on the wane over the past few months, investors need to be in the right names to participate.
Correlation, basically the percentage of individual stocks that move in the same direction as their respective indexes, was a big theme in 2011 as everything seemed to swing in the same direction on a day-to-day basis, making picking individual stocks nearly a moot point.
Credit Suisse though noted on Friday that there's been some serious decoupling going on among the small caps with correlation among Russell 2000 stocks falling from 74% in early September 2011 to just 20% as of late January.
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10 Health Care Stocks to Watch The following commentary comes from an independent investor or market observer as part of TheStreet's guest contributor program, which is separate from the company's news coverage.
NEW YORK (Insider Monkey) -- Health care is a fast-growing industry in the U.S.
Healthcare spending is rising at about 8% per year, with a typical American family of four spent about $18,000 on medical costs in 2010, compared with $16,771 in 2009. Between 2006 and 2010, annual medical costs increased by almost 35%.
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Chevron, Cisco, Exxon Mobil: Dow Movers NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Stocks were mixed Friday following a disappointing read on fourth-quarter gross domestic product.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 74.17 points, or 0.58%, to 12,660.46 Friday. The S&P 500 fell 2.11 points to 1,316.32 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 11.27 points to 2,816.55.
Breadth within the Dow was negative with 27 of the 30 components posting losses. Intel closed flat.
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5 Stocks Hitting 52-Week Highs: ACAT, KLAC, SYNA, ALGT, HNT NEW YORK (TheStreet) - These stocks reached 52-week highs on Friday: Arctic Cat, KLA-Tencor, Synaptics, Allegiant Travel and Health Net.
Each of these stocks got a buy rating from TheStreet Ratings.
Arctic Cat
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Regions: Financial Winner NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Regions Financial was the winner among major U.S. financial names on Friday, with shares rising 3% to close at $5.31.
The broad indexes were mixed after Fitch Ratings downgraded Italy, Spain, Slovenia, Belgium and Cyprus while maintaining Ireland's rating. Italy's rating was cut to notches to A-, and Spain's rating was cut two notches, to AA-.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported early Friday that the total output of goods and services in the U.S. expanded 2.8% during the fourth quarter.
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