US stocks: Dow little changed; S&P 500 inches to record

NEW YORK - Wall Street stocks Thursday finished little changed with the S&P 500 inching to a new record following mixed US economic data and a flood of corporate earnings.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 2.83 points (0.02 percent) to 17,083.80, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 1.59 (0.04 percent) to 4,472.11.

The broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.97 (0.05 percent) to 1,987.98, creeping up to a record for the second day in a row.

Sales of new single-family houses fell 8.1 percent in June to an annual pace of 406,000, the Commerce Department said.

On the positive side, new claims for US unemployment insurance benefits slid to an eight-year low last week, dropping 19,000 to 284,000, the Labor Department reported.

Facebook surged 5.2 percent after earnings more than doubled to $791 million. But General Motors tumbled 4.5 percent as second-quarter profit slumped 85 percent to $190 million following a hefty charge for recalls.

Caterpillar fell 3.1 percent as it lowered its 2014 revenue forecast to a range of $54-$56 billion from the previous projection of $56 billion. The company cited a weaker outlook for construction in China, the Commonwealth of Independent States region made up of ex-Soviet countries and Africa/Middle East.

Athletic attire maker Under Armour shot up 14.7 percent after increasing its 2014 profit and revenue forecast following a 34 percent surge in second-quarter revenue to $619 million.

Other companies that reported earnings included American Airlines (-2.7 percent), Bristol-Myers Squibb (+0.3 percent), Celgene (-3.3 percent), Ford Motor (+0.3 percent), Hershey (-1.8 percent), Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide (-5.5 percent), Qualcomm (-6.7 percent) and United Continental (-2.4 percent).

Wal-Mart Stores dipped 0.8 percent as it announced it was replacing Bill Simon as head of its US division with Greg Foran, currently head of Walmart Asia.

Online real estate company Zillow vaulted 15.3 percent higher on a report it wants to buy rival Trulia. Trulia bolted up 32.4 percent.

Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury rose to 2.51 percent from 2.46 percent Wednesday, while the 30-year increased to 3.30 percent from 3.26 percent. Bond prices and yields move inversely. — Agence France-Presse

source: gmanetwork.com

Clean Bandit extend stay at top of UK music chart

LONDON - Clean Bandit have clung to the number one spot in the British music charts, seeing off stiff competition to make it four weeks running at the top, the Official Charts Company said on Sunday.

Midway through the week, their song "Rather Be" was trailing behind new entry "Stay The Night" by Zedd and Hayley Williams, but a late surge in sales secured the top spot for Clean Bandit by a margin of 8,000 singles.

"Stay the Night" was at number two, pushing Pharrell Williams' "Happy" into third. David Guetta's "Shot Me Down" charted at number four.

Londoner Katy B entered the album charts at number one with her second studio album, "Little Red". The album contains the track "Crying for no reason", which rose to number five in the singles chart from seven last week.

Ellie Goulding, London Grammar, Beyonce and Swedish DJ Avicii made up the rest of the top five, pushing aside last week's chart topper, Bombay Bicycle Club. — Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com

Kellan Lutz leaves 'Twilight' to explore 'Legend of Hercules'

Actor Kellan Lutz is shedding the vampire teeth to don the breastplate of Greek demigod Hercules in his newest film, as he leaves the "Twilight" franchise behind to embrace the action genre.

"The Legend of Hercules," in theaters on Friday, will see Lutz exploring the hero's origins. A second film, "Hercules," starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, will focus on the hero later in life, after he completes the legendary 12 labors.

Born to a mortal woman and Zeus, king of the Gods, Lutz's Hercules faces challenges early on in his life from his human father King Amphitryon, who never accepts him as a true son, and his half brother Iphicles, who is jealous of his super strength. Hercules finds himself torn away from his love, Hebe, and sent to war, only to be sold into slavery.

"It's the hero's journey - you have the wizard, you have the antagonist, that's the king, and you have the different missions he has to go through and the love interest in Princess Hebe. Story-wise, it's all there, that's what drew me to it," Lutz told Reuters.

Not that playing a superhero is unfamiliar territory for 28-year-old Lutz, who played Greek god Poseidon in 2011's mythological action film "Immortals" and has been drawn to the larger-than-life heroes from childhood.

"I knew when I saw the superheroes that I wanted to fight against injustice. So from a young age, I always wanted to make the world a better place like Captain Planet would do, or He-Man, or Tarzan or Hercules," the actor said.

"The Legend of Hercules," showing in both 3D and 2D and distributed by Lions Gate's Summit Entertainment, was made for an estimated budget of $70 million, according to film website IMDB.com. It is expected to earn $7 million at the box office this weekend, according to film tracking site Boxoffice.com.

BREAKING OUT OF THE BEEFCAKE MOLD

Lutz rose to prominence as the hunky vampire Emmett Cullen in the "Twilight" film franchise, based on the young adult novels by Stephenie Meyer about a teen romance between a human girl and vampire boy, which has grossed more than $3 billion at the worldwide box office.

As well as playing "Hercules," Lutz will be starring in this year's action extravaganza "The Expendables 3" alongside Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Harrison Ford.

The actor also has a long list of varied roles he'd like to play, from villain Venom in Spider-Man to secret agent MacGyver, animated hero Jonny Quest and of course, the sword-wielding He-Man.

"If everyone saw me as an action guy and gave me action movie after action movie, I'd be fine with it, it's one of those great genres that you always have fun doing," Lutz said.

"I don't care to win an Oscar or anything like that. ... I love doing action movies. I love doing comedies and dramas," the actor added, saying he aspired to a career like Matt Damon's, who has flitted between drama, action and comedy on both independent and big-budget productions.

But while Lutz is building a portfolio of roles that capitalize on his model good looks and muscular physique - he was part of a 2010 Calvin Klein underwear campaign - the actor said he wants to be taken seriously as a filmmaker as well, writing and producing scripts for upcoming projects.

"I'm a very intelligent man. I went to college for chemical engineering," the actor said.

"A lot of roles have shown off one of my other strengths, my physique, but now that I'm a producer, I can create my own material, so a lot of the books I'm going after, you probably won't even see me topless. ... I don't get offended if people call me a beefcake, they just don't know me." -- Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com

Mid-life stress could be linked to Alzheimer's: study

NEW YORK - Middle-aged women with lots of stress are more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease down the road, a new study suggests.

Why that might be the case is still a mystery, lead author Lena Johansson from the Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology at Gothenburg University in Mölndal, Sweden, said.

It's also difficult to say how important stress may be in predicting dementia compared to many other influences like poverty, diet, smoking and blood pressure, she told Reuters Health. But the link remained after the researchers took those factors into account.

"I have no reason to think that this relation is not the same among men," Johansson added.

The new data come from a large study of Swedish women started in 1968, when participants were at least 38 years old. Researchers surveyed 800 of those women about their mental health and wellbeing at least once every decade until 2005.

For their study, Johansson and her colleagues looked at women's reporting of 18 stressful life events like divorce, widowhood or a relative's illness and how distressed they felt by those events.

They also consulted hospital records and results of neuropsychiatric exams to track which participants were diagnosed with dementia during the study.

By 2005, 153 women had developed dementia, including 104 with Alzheimer's disease, the researchers report in BMJ Open.

They found that for each additional stressor women reported in 1968, their risk of later developing Alzheimer's disease increased by about 20 percent.

Women who reported long-term distress also had a heightened risk of Alzheimer's, regardless of how many stressful life events they had experienced.

The study does not prove cause and effect, and some other factor common to the women might account for their risk of later dementia.

Still, Robert S. Wilson, who studies Alzheimer's disease at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, said, "This is the best evidence by far to date linking psychosocial stressors with dementia. It's really astounding."

He said it was especially impressive that the study was able to link life events, not just how stressed women felt, to later dementia.

Everyone reacts to stressful events differently, but these events seemed to have a similar effect across the board, said Wilson, who was not involved in the study.

"These are low-level chronic stressors that affect virtually every family network," he told Reuters Health.

Still, people who have lost a spouse, been divorced or experienced other stressful events shouldn't necessarily be worried, he said.

"I think these are modest effects overall," Wilson said.

"Stress and stressors are just one of several risk factors," Johansson said. "Not everyone who had stress or stressors developed (dementia)."

By age 85, nearly half of people may have Alzheimer's disease, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"These problems are very common, and they are of definite public health importance," Wilson said. "I think we should be thinking about stress reduction as a more routine kind of healthcare option."

What many people think of as common life events may continue to cause distress for years, he said, and stress reduction techniques like "talking it out" or seeking professional help might be beneficial. — Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com

Oncologists call for industry-led global fund to fight cancer

AMSTERDAM - The world faces a rapidly growing burden of cancer which will overwhelm governments unless the medical and pharma industry takes the lead on a multi-billion dollar private-public fund, oncologists said on Monday.

In a report on how rates of cancer diagnosis and death are rising across the world while access to diagnosis and treatment is extremely patchy, experts described the economics of the problem as daunting and current financing models as broken.

"It is bad to have cancer, and worse to have cancer if you are poor," said Professor Peter Boyle of France's International Prevention Research Institute, a lead author on the "State of Oncology 2013" report.

"Many parts of the world are already unable to cope with the current situation and are totally unprepared for the future growth of the cancer problem," he told a briefing during the European Cancer Congress in Amsterdam.

Boyle, who is also director of the Institute of Global Public Health at Strathclyde University, cited 2009 estimates by the Economist Intelligence Unit that it would cost $217 billion a year to bring cancer diagnosis, care and treatment in poor countries up to the standards of wealthy nations.

"There's no single source of philanthropy, there's no government, there's no company, there's no single institution that can afford that sort of investment," he said.

"The current model of financing is broke. We need to fix it. We need radical solutions."

According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the disease will kill more than 13.2 million people a year by 2030, almost double the number in 2008—and the vast majority of deaths will be in low- and middle-income countries.

In poorer countries, Boyle said, where equipment, expertise and medicines for cancer are scarce and sometimes non-existent, the increasing burden of the disease threatens to cause "devastating damage to entire families".

Boyle's report projected that with growing and ageing populations in some of the world's most populous countries, such as India, China and Nigeria, as well as changing diets and lifestyles, the number of cases of cancer worldwide would reach 26.4 million a year by 2030 and the annual death toll would head towards 17 million.

"It is impossible to avoid the conclusion that there is a need for a major public-private partnership, involving a number of sources from different areas, to make the necessary progress with the briefest delay," he said.

He said such a partnership needed the commitment of the drug companies, as well as industries involved in diagnostic and treatment technology such as scanning and radiotherapy equipment.

Asked how he envisaged such a fund working, Boyle pointed to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, a public-private partnership set up in 2002 which has made impressive progress in tackling epidemics of those three deadly infectious diseases.

The Global Fund, which gets most of its money from OECD governments, this month said it needed another $15 billion to support its next three years' work.

Yet the funds and commitment needed to tackle cancer would far outstrip the Global Fund's size, Boyle said, advocating a new industry-led approach committed not only to giving funds, but donating knowledge, medicines, equipment and training. — Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com