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NEW YORK (AP) — Phone and utilities companies have led U.S. stock indexes lower in afternoon trading as investors sized up the latest company and economic news. Banks led the gainers. Energy stocks also rose as crude oil prices headed higher. Several homebuilders were up following new data on home prices.
KENILWORTH, N.J. (AP) — The second-largest drugmaker in the United States is confirming it's been affected by a cyberattack. In a message sent using its verified Twitter account, Merck confirmed Tuesday that its computer network was "compromised" as part of a global attack. Merck has global locations including in Ukraine, where a new and highly virulent outbreak of malicious data-scrambling software causing mass disruption across Europe appeared to be hitting especially hard.
KENILWORTH, N.J. (AP) — Merck & Co. says a new type of cholesterol drug has been shown to reduce heart attacks, deaths and other complications of heart disease in a huge, late-stage study. The positive result for anacetrapib (an-uh-SEH'-trah-pib) is a surprise. Three major drugmakers — Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Roche — have each seen promising drugs of the same type fail after many years and millions of dollars spent on testing.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Records show the Trump administration's top environmental official met privately with the chief executive of Dow Chemical shortly before reversing his agency's push to ban a widely-used pesticide after health studies showed it can harm children's brains. Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt's schedule shows he met with Dow CEO Andrew Liveris for about a half hour on March 9 during a conference held a Houston hotel. Twenty days later, Pruitt announced his decision to deny a petition to ban Dow's chlorpyrifos pesticide from being sprayed on food.
NEW YORK (AP) — Pandora CEO Tim Westergren has stepped down. The internet radio company says that Chief Financial Officer Naveen Chopra will serve as interim CEO as it looks for a permanent replacement. Pandora has revamped its online radio service and launched a new on-demand service to better compete with Spotify, which has far more paying subscribers. Pandora has been under intensifying pressure from Spotify and Apple Music.
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