Short-term bills' interest mixed

Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills were mixed in the government's auction with rates on three-month bills edging down while rates on six-month bills climbed to the highest level in more than five years.
The Treasury Department auctioned $21 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 4.50 percent, down from 4.51 percent last week. Six-month bills totaling $19 billion were auctioned at a discount rate of 4.60 percent, up from 4.58 percent last week.
The three-month rate was the lowest since these bills averaged 4.450 percent on Feb. 21. The six-month rate was the highest since 4.770 percent on Feb. 20, 2001.
Separately, the Federal Reserve said that the average yield for one-year Treasury bills, a popular index for making changes in adjustable rate mortgages, rose to 4.74 percent last week from 4.72 percent the previous week.
Associated Press
NBC Universal set to buy iVillage
General Electric's NBC Universal became the latest “old media” company to make a further foray into the fast-growing world of online advertising, announcing plans to acquire the women's Web site company iVillage for about $600 million.
The agreement signals an expanding strategy for NBC Universal, home to television network NBC, Universal Pictures and cable channels Bravo and USA Network. It also reflects the larger push among traditional media companies to not get left behind as more consumers shift to the Internet for news, entertainment and shopping.
NBC agreed to pay $8.50 in cash for each share of iVillage, which describes itself as “the Internet for women” with sites including Astrology.com, GardenWeb.com and gURL, a Web site aimed at teenage girls.
Associated Press
Attorneys clash in Vioxx case
The legal fight over Vioxx returned to a New Jersey courtroom with lawyers for two men who blame their heart attacks on the pain reliever telling jurors that manufacturer Merck & Co. knowingly concealed its risks from consumers.
Merck's lead attorney dismissed those claims, attributing the heart attacks to other health problems while saying Vioxx was rigorously studied for more than seven years and complied with government requirements for new drugs.
Mark Lanier, attorney for Thomas Cona, 59, said the use of Vioxx made people with risk factors for heart disease “walking time bombs,” but Merck executives purposely withheld information about the drug to make more money selling it.
Robert Gordon, a lawyer for plaintiff John McDarby, 77, told the eight-woman, two-man jury that McDarby – a diabetic – would never have had Vioxx prescribed for his arthritis pain if Merck had properly warned of its dangers.
Associated Press
Halozyme enrolls five for trial
Halozyme Therapeutics, a San Diego-based company developing recombinant human enzymes, said that it has completed enrollment of five patients in a Phase 1 clinical trial using its product Chemophase to improve delivery of chemotherapy drugs in people with bladder cancer.
The trial was designed to evaluate Chemophase with the widely used anti-cancer drug mitomycin.
GM to reduce holdings in Suzuk
General Motors will sell a 17.4 percent stake in Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp. for $2 billion, scaling down its share in an effort to gain much-needed cash, but the partnership between the automakers will continue.
GM, which is embarking on a massive turnaround effort after losing $8.6 billion last year, will maintain a 3 percent stake in Suzuki, dropping to seventh largest shareholder from top shareholder.
Suzuki plans to purchase all of the 92.36 million Suzuki shares that GM will sell in a buyback program.
Associated Press
Northwest pilots face pay cut
Pilots at Northwest Airlines will take a 24 percent pay cut and forgo raises for at least two years under a tentative contract reached with the bankrupt carrier last week.
The terms, spelled out in a summary of the agreement sent to pilots, include a 1.5 percent wage increase starting in 2008. The union's top council approved a plan Saturday for balloting by its 5,700 members. The group won't suggest how members should vote until a March 14 meeting. The agreement may spare Northwest from a strike by pilots that the airline has said would threaten its survival.
Bloomberg News
More Mexican cement due in U.S.
U.S. officials signed an agreement that will boost shipments of Mexican cement into the United States, resolving a 16-year trade fight. The agreement, which will take effect April 3, will allow imports of Mexican cement to rise to 3 million tons annually, up from what U.S. contractors estimate was 2.2 million tons of cement imported from Mexico last year.
The U.S. trade barriers are designed to be eliminated as part of a deal in which Mexico will open up its market to U.S. and other foreign cement manufacturers.
The United States began imposing penalty tariffs in 1990 after a finding that Mexican cement was being sold in the United States at unfairly low prices, a practice known as dumping.