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KY

TUESDAYMARCH 6, 2012

B4

MONEY & MARKETS NEXT PAGE

THE TICKER

tS&P 500

1,364.33

-5.30

DOW

tNASDAQ

t2,950.48

-25.7112,962.81

-14.76

Average price pergallon of regulargas in Louisville

GAS COSTSHOWMUCH

4 51 2 3March

$3.65$3.65$3.65$3.66

$3.67

THE COURIER-JOURNAL

SOURCES: AAA (Data from Oil PriceInformation Service withWright Express)

BUSINESS WATCHNEWS FROM THE REGION

Thoroughbred bettingup 7.6% in February

Favorable winter weatherand an extra day helped spur anincrease in thoroughbred wa-gering for February, accordingto statistics released Monday.

The $884 million bet on U.S.races last month increased 7.6percent over the same period ayear ago. The 332 racing datesincreased 6.41 percent over theprior year, while the nearly $71million in purses awarded in-creased 6.41 percent.

Combined with January, the$1.7 billion bet in the first twomonths increased 3.24 percentover 2011. Purses of $136.8 mil-lion are up 8.26 percent, whilethe number of racing dates —647 — is up 0.78 percent.

Apple: Over 25 billionapps downloaded

More than 25 billion appshave been downloaded fromApple’s app store.

A statement from Apple onMonday said the downloadswent to more than 315 millioniPhones, iPads and iPod touch-es. The app store has more than550,000 apps, some of which arefree.

Chunli Fu of Qingdao, China,downloaded the 25 billionth appand won a $10,000 iTunes giftcard.

The app store launched fouryears ago. Apple says the storehas paid out more than $4 bil-lion to developers.

New U.S. agency hearsstudent-loan gripes

The government’s new con-sumer protection agency start-ed accepting complaints Mon-day about student loans.

The Consumer FinancialProtection Bureau said it ex-pects complaints about billing,confusing advertising and col-lection by private student lend-ers. It will relay complaintsabout federal student loans,such as Stafford and PLUSloans, to the Department ofEducation.

Americans owe more to stu-dent lenders than they owe tocredit card issuers or any othercategory of unsecured lender,the CFPB said. Mortgages areconsidered secured loans be-cause banks can foreclose onthe house if a borrower stopsmaking payments.

The CFPB was created byCongress to oversee parts ofthe financial industry that werepoorly regulated before the fi-nancial crisis. It will serve as asingle contact point for con-sumers with complaints aboutmost financial products.

Consumers wishing to lodgea complaint can visit www.con-sumerfinance.gov or call (855)411-2372.

— From staff and wire reports

WASHINGTON — The U.S.economy is improving fasterthan economists had expected.They now foresee slightly strong-er growth and hiring than theydid two months earlier — trendsthat would help President BarackObama’s re-election hopes.

That’s among the findings ofan Associated Press survey latelast month of leading economists.The economists think the unem-ployment rate will fall from itscurrent 8.3 percent to 8 percentby Election Day. That’s betterthan their 8.4 percent estimatewhen surveyed in late December.

By the end of 2013, they pre-dict unemployment will drop to7.4 percent, down from their ear-lier estimate of 7.8 percent, ac-cording to the AP Economy Sur-vey.

The brighter outlook for jobsfollows five straight months ofdeclining unemployment. Onereason the rate has fallen so fastis that fewer out-of-work Ameri-cans have started looking forjobs. People out of work aren’tcounted by the Labor Depart-ment as unemployed unlessthey’re actively seeking jobs.

Many economists have beensurprised that the stronger econ-omy hasn’t led more people with-out jobs to start looking for work.If many more were looking, theunemployment rate would likelybe higher.

On Friday, the government

will issue the jobs report for Feb-ruary. Economists expect it toshow that employers added a net210,000 jobs and that the unem-ployment rate remained 8.3 per-cent.

The AP survey collected theviews of two dozen private, cor-porate and academic economistson a range of indicators. Amongtheir forecasts:

» Americans will save gradu-ally less and borrow more, re-versing a shift toward frugalitythat followed the financial crisisand the start of the recession.

» Obama deserves little or nocredit for declining unemploy-ment. Only one of the 19 econo-mists who answered the questionsaid Obama should get “a lot” ofcredit. They give most of thecredit to U.S. consumers, who ac-count for about 70 percent of eco-

nomic growth, and businesses.» The economy has begun a

self-sustaining period in whichjob growth is fueling more con-sumer spending, which shouldlead to further hiring.

» European leaders will man-age to defuse their continent’sdebt crisis and prevent a globalrecession. But the economiststhink Europe’s economy willshrink for all of 2012.

» The economy will grow 2.5percent this year, up from theeconomists’ earlier forecast of2.4 percent. In 2011, the economygrew 1.7 percent.

For months, the U.S. economyhas shown signs of steady im-provement. Employers addedmore than 200,000 net jobs in bothDecember and January. The un-employment rate is at its lowestlevel in nearly three years.

Optimism on economy upSurvey: Forecastersmore upbeat about ’12By Christopher S. RugaberAssociated Press

TRENTON, N.J. — Federal reg-ulators have rejected Merck &Co.’s new combination cholester-ol drug, which includes a genericversion of the mega-blockbusterLipitor — at least for now.

It’s unclear how long the rul-ing, announced Monday, mightdelay approval of the drug, as theFood and Drug Administration isrequiring additional study dataon the compound. It combines ge-neric Lipitor, the top-selling drugof all time, with Merck’s choles-terol medicine Zetia.

Approval could boost Merck’ssagging cholesterol franchise byessentially replacing its existingcombo pill, Vytorin, with one like-ly to be seen as more powerful.

Vytorin sales have been dwin-dling for the last few years be-cause of concerns about how wellit works — and now Merck has tocontend with patients possiblydefecting to the generic versionsof Pfizer Inc.’s Lipitor, whichcame onto the market at the endof November.

Merck said Monday that com-pany officials will talk with theFDA to determine the next steps,adding that some new data ex-pected later this year may ad-dress the FDA’s concerns.

Wall Street seemed unfazedby the news, perhaps because theFDA increasingly asks for addi-tional data before approvingmany new drugs.

In morning trading, Merckshares were up 38 cents at $38.31.

The experimental drug,MK-0653C, contains medicinesthat fight high cholesterol in twodifferent ways to reduce risk ofheart attack and stroke.

Sales of Vytorin and Zetiawere hurt when Merck, underpressure from a congressional in-quiry, in early 2008 finally re-leased unfavorable results froma study it’d hoped would bolsterVytorin sales.

Instead, it showed that Vyto-rin was no better at reducingplaque buildup in neck arteriesthan just Zocor, which had beenavailable as a cheap generic since2006. Zetia, also known as ezeti-mibe, is protected by patent inthe U.S. until 2017.

FDArejectsMerck’snew bidCombo cholesterol drugwould replace Vytorin

By Linda A. JohnsonAssociated Press

The Jockey Club announcedMonday that more than a dozenracetracks — including two inKentucky — that participate in ahorse industry racing fatalitydatabase have agreed to releasethe statistics for their proper-ties.

But the four tracks owned byLouisville-based ChurchillDowns Inc. are not among them.

The Kentucky tracks thatagreed to release their data inThe Jockey Club’s Equine Inju-ry Database are KeenelandRace Course in Lexington andTurfway Park in Florence.

A Jockey Club spokesmansaid Churchill was invited to re-lease the data and declined.

Churchill spokesman JohnAsher said that figures for thecompany’s Louisville track areprovided to the Kentucky HorseRacing Commission and that“anyone wishing to review theinformation we disclose can eas-ily obtain it from the KHRC.”

Asher’s statement did notdeal with the availability of theinformation for the other three

states where the company ownstracks. Those tracks are FairGrounds in New Orleans, Caldernear Miami and Arlington Parknear Chicago.

The Churchill tracks partici-pate in the database — as do allof Kentucky’s thoroughbredtracks — which was launched af-ter the breakdown of 2006 Ken-tucky Derby winner Barbaro inthe Preakness Stakes highlight-ed the lack of reliable fatalitystatistics in racing.

To encourage participationby tracks, the database organiz-ers hadn’t previously disclosedfatality rates for individualtracks.

The tracks whose individualdata is now available throughThe Jockey Club’s Website,jockeyclub.com, agreed to pub-lish their results.

Keeneland, which races pri-marily on the synthetic Poly-track surface, already had madeits statistics public.

James L. Gagliano, presidentand chief operating officer ofThe Jockey Club, said in a state-ment that the database, whichrecently completed its thirdyear, covers 93 percent of NorthAmerican racing days.

Posting the data from indi-vidual tracks “is designed to en-courage other racetracks to fol-low their lead and make publictheir data in a standard, summa-

ry fashion,” he said.Besides Keeneland and Turf-

way, other tracks participatinginclude those owned by FrankStronach’s racing company andthe three major New Yorktracks, Belmont, Aqueduct andSaratoga.

“We are committed to mak-ing our racetracks as safe aspossible for our human andequine athletes,” Greg Avioli,chief executive officer of theStronach Entertainment Group,said in a statement.

The Stronach tracks are San-ta Anita Park, Golden GateFields, Gulfstream Park, LaurelPark, Pimlico Race Course andPortland Meadows.

“Sharing informationthrough the Equine Injury Data-base is an important step in theindustry’s ongoing effort to bet-ter understand the causes of on-track injuries and take neces-sary steps to reduce these inju-ries in the future,” Avioli said.

The Equine Injury Databasewas created and is maintainedby The Jockey Club, through itscommercial subsidiaries In-Compass Solutions Inc. and TheJockey Club Technology Ser-vices Inc., as a service to the in-dustry.

Reporter Gregory A. Hall can bereached at (502) 582-4087.

Churchill Downs personnel try to hold down Eight Belles after the 2008 Kentucky Derby. The horse had tobe euthanized. The Louisville racetrack is not one of those releasing data on fatalities. BRIAN BOHANNON/AP

Tracks to releasehorse fatality dataChurchill notamong themBy Gregory A. Hallghall@courier-journal.comThe Courier-Journal

BRUSSELS — A dozen banks,insurers and investment fundsholding Greece’s bonds will par-ticipate in a massive debt reliefplan for the country, the grouprepresenting private creditors in

the talks said Monday.The statement from the Insti-

tute of International Financecomes amid concern that notenough investors will voluntarilyswap their Greek governmentbonds for new ones with a muchlower face value, longer repay-ment deadlines and lower inter-est rates.

Private creditors have untilThursday night to sign up for the

bond swap, which could slice asmuch as $141.5 billion off Greec-e’s $462.7 billion debt pile. Inves-tors who participate would losearound 75 percent of the value oftheir overall bond holdings.

However, without the debt re-lief, Greece won’t get a second,$172 billion bailout from the othereuro countries and the Interna-tional Monetary Fund and defaulton its debts, likely leaving inves-

tors with much bigger losses.The 12 big investors that have

promised to participate in theplan include German insurer Al-lianz, French bank BNP Paribas,Germany’s Commerzbank andDeutsche Bank, as well as Greec-e’s Eurobank EFG and NationalBank of Greece, the IIF said. Thebanking group did not say howmuch Greek debt these institu-tions hold.

Key investors signed up for Greek debt reliefSome fear not enoughinvestors will join planAssociated Press

Q. What should I look forin deciding on a healthinsurance plan?

A. People shopping forinsurance should first considerhow they used their healthcoverage in the past year andhow they plan to use it in theyear ahead. That will helpdetermine which plan fits best.For example, think aboutwhether you are planning anysurgeries or physical therapy.

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Time: 03-05-2012 21:29 User: dalbrecht PubDate: 03-06-2012 Zone: KY Edition: 1 Page Name: B 4 Color: CyanMagentaYellowBlack