U.S. stock indexes climb after holiday
NEW YORK, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- U.S. stock indexes opened after a Presidents' Day holiday layoff with a quick jump upward Tuesday morning.
The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 81.08 point, up 0.66 percent to 12,429.29 points in late-morning trading.
The Standard & Poor's 500 climbed was up 1.13 points to 1,349.99, a 0.08 percent gain.
The Nasdaq composite index also gained, up 10.60 points to 2,332.40, up 0.46 percent.
The 10-year U.S. Treasury note declined 26/32 to yield 3.863 percent.
The dollar lost ground. The euro traded at $1.4727, compared with $1.4659 Monday, while the dollar traded at 107.77 yen, versus 108.18 yen Monday.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei average posted gains, up 122.51 points to 13,757.91, up 0.8 percent.
Similar names added to heparin problems
WASHINGTON, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- U.S. regulators acknowledge the Chinese firm supplying the active ingredient for Baxter Pharmaceutical's heparin was never inspected due to a name mix-up.
The Food and Drug Administration admitted Monday the firm called Changzhou SPL, west of Shanghai, is similar in name to another Chinese drug manufacturer, which had been inspected, The Washington Post reported.
The agency plans to visit the plant this week, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Because of the mix-up, the plant ,which began production of heparin's active ingredient in 2004, was never inspected, the agency said.
The FDA said recently that it annually inspects roughly 7 percent of foreign drug companies.
More than 350 adverse reactions to Baxter's version of heparin have been reported this year and 4 deaths have been associated with the drug.
Rep. John D. Dingell, D-Mich., wrote the FDA last week, decrying the "disastrous state of your agency's foreign inspection program related to pharmaceuticals."
Lack of workers hurting German economy
BERLIN, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- A lack of skilled workers moving into Germany and a drop in foreign students in German universities are dragging down Europe's largest economy.
A recent study indicated that 23,400 workers moved to Germany in 2007, around 30 percent less than the number of workers who moved there in 2006, Deutsche Welle reported. The number of foreign students attending German universities dropped 3,000 to 31,400 in 2007, the report said.
And in 2006, German emigration reached its highest level since 1956.
"When even German's don't want to stay here, it's no surprise that foreign specialists aren't attracted," opposition party parliamentarian Volker Wissing told Deutsche Welle.
Wissing blamed the government's reluctance to embrace modern technology, the country's "under financed," healthcare and the tax system for Germany's decreased attraction to skilled workers.
The government estimated unfilled jobs cost Germany $26.8 million a year. Another study showed that Germany would have a shortfall of 95,000 engineers and 135,000 scientists by 2014.
Pennsylvania sees mom and pop oil return
OIL CITY, Pa., Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Encouraged by the climbing price of oil, prospectors large and small are scouring Pennsylvania's historic oil fields, hoping to revive a lost economy.
The world's oldest oil well is in Pennsylvania and now produces mostly salty water for the Drake Well Museum, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
But mom-and-pop oil companies and one larger firm are hoping the fields yield more.
Ronald Beck drilled his first well in 2004, producing 50 gallons a day for a month before it slowed. But, he told the Journal that he hopes his company, IMOD Oil Production LLC this year doubles what now stands as a 31-well enterprise.
Rock Well Petroleum Inc., a Canadian company, has bigger plans. It plan to dig 800-feet deep holes let the holes fill with seeping oil. It will pump the stuff out of the filling holes, the report said.
Geologists estimate 70 percent of Pennsylvania's oil is still there but hard to get to.
As such, "if Rock Well does what it says, they could pretty much drain everything left in the sands around here," one Pennsylvania oil man told the Journal.
