May 17, 2005 Early in the session today, stock market investors sold the market off, following data that showed increasing inflation. With an hour and a half left to trade, the government released a report indicating it would not confront China over the value of the yuan. From there, it was off to the races, with all indexes bouncing off their lows. The S&P 500 managed a gain of .70%, and Nasdaq was up .49%. Biotech was not so euphoric, barely sneaking back into positive territory. The Centient Biotech 200 closed about 2 points higher at 3299.77, a gain of just .05%. Aastrom was up 15% based on early results from its stem-cell derived therapy, Serono has licensed two monoclonal antibodies from NovImmune, Lexicon will get $22.5 million from Organon for helping them find drug candidates, Centocor won the ninth indication for Remicade, Biogen Idec has a lead toward repairing nerve damage that causes multiple sclerosis, and Millennium has data showing Velcade works as a first-line therapy for multiple myeloma. More details...
