UPDATE 1-Second Twitter hoax in two days smacks another stock

(Adds details, comments from traders, recasts lead)

NEW YORK, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Sarepta Therapeutics Inc became the second company in as many days see its shares plunge as a result of a Twitter hoax on Wednesday after a user posed as an influential short-seller and alleged improprieties at the biopharmaceutical company.

Sarepta Therapeutics shares plummeted 9.9 percent in a matter of seconds after someone with the Twitter user name zcitreonresearc alleged improprieties at the company.

The drop mirrored a similar incident on Tuesday, when Audience Inc fell more than 25 percent following tweets that at a glance looked to be from Muddy Waters, another short-selling firm.

Just as Muddy Waters confirmed it did not send such a tweet about Audience, so too did Andrew Left, the California-based investor who runs Citron, said his company did not send a message about Sarepta.

The twin incidents targeted a pair of Nasdaq stocks that are not among the most actively traded on a daily basis, showing how certain company shares are vulnerable to information posted on social media networks, even if the information is misleading. Sarepta, on average, trades about 1.4 million shares a day; by contrast, average daily volume in chipmaker Intel Corp is about 52 million shares.

"You need a more volatile stock for this kind of manipulation - obviously if you were to try it on IBM it wouldn't work," said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey. "It speaks to the structure of the market where shallow pools of liquidity can be easily pierced on bad news, even if the news is fake."

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had no comment.

Twitter did not respond to an emailed request for comment on the messaging activity, but the zcitreonresearc account has been suspended. The Twitter account zMudd1waters, whose Twitter home page looks like Muddy Waters, was still active.

The tweet, with the user name "zcitreonresearc," alleged that drug trial results from the biopharmaceutical company had been tainted and doctored, according to screen shots of the posting captured by Twitter users. Sarepta was not immediately available for comments on the trading activity or the account, which has since been suspended.

Matt, a trader in San Diego who did not want to give his last name, but who goes by the handle zgiven2tweet on Twitter, said, "There's a real severity to that tweet. It's at the core of what the company is, is this one trial."

Sarepta shares recovered after the brief fall. It was trading up 1.4 percent to $27.56 on volume of about 3.5 million shares in afternoon trading. More than 700,000 shares traded in the one minute when the stock suffered its steep decline.

The company, which has a market cap of about $692 million, is volatile, moving more than 1 percent in six of the past seven sessions. It jumped 477 percent in 2012 alone.

Audience went public in May 2012 and has a market cap of $254 million as of Tuesday's closing price, rising about 15 percent so far this year. The stock's 50-day average daily volume is slightly more than 160,000 shares, but that rose to more than 800,000 on Tuesday.

"Not really an efficient market when fake twitter accounts can crash stocks," Tim McClure, equity trader at SMB Capital in New York, wrote on his Twitter page.

Shares of Audience were briefly halted on Tuesday, but Sarepta shares did not reach a threshold necessary to trigger a halt. A Nasdaq spokesperson was not available for comment.

(Additional reporting by Daniel Bases and Emily Flitter; Editing by David Gaffen and Leslie Gevirtz)

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President Obama Nominates Two to Serve on the US Court of Appeals

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Obama nominated Jane Kelly and Gregory Alan Phillips to the United States Court of Appeals.

President Obama said, “Jane Kelly and Gregory Alan Phillips have proven themselves to be not only first-rate legal minds but faithful public servants.  It is with full confidence in their ability, integrity, and independence that I nominate them to the bench of the United States Court of Appeals.”

Jane Kelly:  Nominee for the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
Jane Kelly has been an Assistant Federal Public Defender in the Northern District of Iowa since 1994, serving as the Supervising Attorney in the Cedar Rapids office since 1999. 

Kelly was born and raised in Greencastle, Indiana.  She received her B.A. summa cum laude in 1987 from Duke University and her J.D. cum laude in 1991 from Harvard Law School.  After graduating from law school, Kelly clerked for the Honorable Donald J. Porter of the United States District Court for the District of South Dakota.  Subsequently, she also clerked for the Honorable David R. Hansen on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.  Prior to becoming an Assistant Federal Public Defender, Kelly worked briefly as a visiting instructor at the University of Illinois College of Law.  Since joining the Federal Public Defender’s Office, Kelly has argued numerous federal appellate cases, tried 14 cases to verdict in federal court, and argued countless motions.  In 2004, she received the John Adams Award from the Iowa Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys, which is given annually to an Iowa attorney who has dedicated his or her career to defending the indigent.

Gregory Alan Phillips:  Nominee for the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
Gregory Alan Phillips has served as Wyoming’s Attorney General since March 2011.  As Attorney General, he is the chief law enforcement officer of the state and his office represents Wyoming in all criminal appeals and civil suits before state and federal courts. 

Phillips grew up in Evanston, Wyoming.  He received his B.A. from the University of Wyoming in 1983 and his J.D. with honors from the University of Wyoming College of Law in 1987.  After graduating from law school, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Alan B. Johnson of the United States District Court for the District of Wyoming from 1987 to 1989.  In 1989, Phillips joined his father and brother in their general law practice in Evanston, handling a broad range of civil matters.  From 1993 to 1999, he also represented Uinta County in the Wyoming State Senate.  Phillips opened the law firm Mead & Phillips in 1998, where he handled a wide variety of civil litigation and prosecuted Medicaid reimbursement claims on behalf of Wyoming.  In 2003, he joined the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Wyoming and handled criminal prosecutions and appeals on behalf of the government.  As an Assistant United States Attorney, Phillips argued nineteen cases before the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.  He continued to serve in the United States Attorney’s Office until he was selected to serve as Attorney General by current Wyoming Governor Matthew Mead.

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Money In the 'Death Care' Industry

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Roche CEO: Emerging Markets Key to Momentum

"We see strong double digit growth in emerging markets, astable business in the U.S. and price pressure in Europe, we clearly seedifferent dynamics from a regional perspective," CEO Severin Schwan told CNBCWednesday.

He said while the pharmaceutical industry has been facingprice pressures, Roche was bearing up better than most.

"We are less exposed to price pressure then our competitorsdue to the value and differentiation of our products. Specifically, there havebeen 6 percent price decreases in the industry but Roche prices decreasedaround 3 percent – half the industry pressure and reflects the innovation thatwe offer," he said.

Global pharmaceutical and biotech companies are facingincreasing competition from generic drugs as insurance companies and statemedical systems look to reduce costs. But Roche, the world's biggest maker ofcancer drugs, has been spared some of that pain as it doesn't face imminentpatent expiration for some of its key drugs.

Schwan conceded that generics were an accepted part of theindustry and rejuvenating Roche's existing pipeline would be the core strategyfor the drug giant in offsetting generic competition.

"We have a contract with society that we have patents forsome limited time and it's absolutely ok that generics come into the market.Our strategy is all about rejuvenating our pipeline continuously and I'm gladin 2012 we've made major progress in this respect," he said.

The Swiss drug maker post an 11 percent rise in full-yearearnings on the back of strong sales in cancer medicines and improvements inproductivity. Core earnings for 2012 rose to 13.62 Swiss francs per share,compared to 12.30 Swiss francs a year ago. Analysts in a Reuters poll hadforecast earnings of 13.60 Swiss francs.

The Basel-based drugmaker said it hoped sales this year willgrow in line with 2012, when group sales rose 7 percent to 45.5 billion Swissfrancs ($49.35 billion). It is also aiming for core earnings per share to growahead of sales.

This positive assessment contrasts with cross-town rivalNovartis which guided for a fall in profits in 2013 as it grapples withcompetition from cheaper copies of its top-selling product.

Schwan added that he expected to keep Roche's headcountstable but indicated a possible rise in emerging markets as it meets growingdemand.

He indicated no change to the company's strategy on mergersand acquisitions in the coming months.

Last year, the company pulled its hostile takeover attemptfor U.S. genetics company Illumina.

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Virginia Lawmakers Approve Bill Forcing Universities To Fund Student Groups That Discriminate

The Virginia House of Delegates voted 80-19 today to approve HB1617, a bill that would invite any religious or political university student group to discriminate as they please and still require the campus to providing them funding and access to campus facilities. This would make LGBT students particularly vulnerable to discrimination because universities’ protections for sexual orientation are not enforceable under Virginia law. Under this bill, though, even a KKK chapter could hypothetically form, use campus resources, and openly discriminate against non-white and non-Christian students on campus.

Here’s the text of the bill:

To the extent allowed by state and federal law:

1. A religious or political student organization may determine that ordering the organization’s internal affairs, selecting the organization’s leaders and members, defining the organization’s doctrines, and resolving the organization’s disputes are in furtherance of the organization’s religious or political mission and that only persons committed to that mission should conduct such activities; and

2. No public institution of higher education that has granted recognition of and access to any student organization or group shall discriminate against any such student organization or group that exercises its rights pursuant to subdivision 1.

On most college campuses, student organizations must maintain a constitution that conforms to the university’s procedures, including its nondiscrimination policies. For example, James Madison University requires that all organizations obey the “policies, rules, regulations, and standards of the university,” such as its nondiscrimination policy, which includes sexual orientation. The College of William & Mary offers similar protections and requires student groups be open to all students.

Such policies are key because student organizations receive funding and use campus resources (like meeting spaces) that are funded by fees that all students pay; thus, all students deserve equal access to those campus clubs. Nondiscrimination policies have become a source of contention for conservative Christian student groups, like at Tennessee’s Vanderbilt University and New York’s University of Buffalo, who wish to exclude gay students from membership. In the 2010 case Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, the U.S. Supreme Court narrowly answered this question in favor of nondiscrimination policies, ruling that “all-comers” policies are viewpoint neutral, and thus are no more unfair to Christian groups than any other student groups.

Conservatives have argued, however that nondiscrimination policies allow for “hostile takeovers“ — in which students with opposing views infiltrate and assume power in the organization — but there’s no evidence to suggest that this is plausible, let alone that it ever happened. Members of an organization are still allowed to vote for their group’s leaders, even with discriminatory intent, if all students remain eligible. Any student group that can’t persist on its own merits probably doesn’t warrant use of student fees in the first place.

All 19 votes against the bill were cast by Democrats. It now advances to the Senate for committee consideration.

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Chris Christie Vetoes Help For Homeowners In State Plagued By Foreclosures

Our guest blogger is David Sanchez, a Special Assistant with the Center for American Progress Action Fund’s Economic and Housing Policy Teams.

New Jersey is facing a twin crisis of foreclosures and lack of affordable housing, but Gov. Chris Christie (R) recently vetoed two bills that would have brightened the outlook for New Jersey residents struggling to afford homes.

The first bill would have empowered New Jersey’s Housing Mortgage and Finance Agency to purchase foreclosed homes and transform them into affordable housing. In doing so, New Jersey would combat the crime and blight brought about by vacant homes, while also increasing housing opportunities for low- and moderate-income families.

The bill had support not only from housing advocates, but from a broad swatch of businesses. What’s more, it would have been implemented without requiring state appropriations.

The second bill would have improved New Jersey’s program to help unemployed or underemployed homeowners make their mortgage payments. This program, funded by a $300 million grant from the federal government’s Hardest Hit Fund program, has badly underperformed for years: according to the most recent statistics, the program has denied assistance to more than double the number of applicants it has helped, and it has spent less than one twentieth of the funds available (although changes have recently been announced that may improve the program). The bill would have mandated that the program respond to applicants and issue aid more quickly.

Christie’s decision to veto these bills is puzzling, to say the least, given the challenges facing New Jersey’s housing market and families. While the housing market is improving in most of the country, it’s getting worse in New Jersey. New Jersey’s percentage of homeowners who are not current on their mortgages increased the most of any state in 2012, and delinquencies remain especially elevated in areas affected by Hurricane Sandy.

Likewise, New Jersey has the second highest percentage of homes in the foreclosure process, with as many as 150,000 foreclosed homes soon to be on the market.

At the same time, New Jersey faces a dire shortage of affordable housing units, with half of all homeowners and an even larger number of renters facing cost burdens.

Unfortunately, Christie’s inaction on New Jersey’s housing challenges is nothing new. Instead of helping New Jersey homeowners, Christie used all of the state’s share of the landmark National Mortgage Settlement to fill budget holes in the state’s general fund. Christie is also attempting to weaken the process by which New Jersey guarantees that affordable housing will be built in communities across the state.

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Statement by the Press Secretary on the Visit of Italian President Napolitan

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For Immediate Release January 30, 2013 Statement by the Press Secretary on the Visit of Italian President Napolitan

 

On Friday, February 15, President Obama will host President Giorgio Napolitano of Italy in the Oval Office.  President Napolitano will soon conclude his term in office, following a long and distinguished career of service to Italy, a close ally and friend of the United States. The President looks forward to welcoming President Napolitano to pay a farewell call and further reinforce the strong and enduring bonds between our two countries.

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