INVESTIGATIONS

THESTREET’S JAMES CRAMER SECOND TO BE SUBPOENAED WASHINGTON – A second financial news organization was subpoenaed for records in an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, whose chairman has now put the subpoenas on hold amid controversy.

The financial news Web site TheStreet.com(TSCM) and its co-founder and major shareholder, James Cramer, were served subpoenas by the SEC about two weeks ago in connection with an inquiry into allegations of stock manipulation.

Two columnists for Dow Jones online publications, Herb Greenberg of Market-Watch and Carol Remond of Dow Jones Newswires, also received subpoenas in the SEC investigation related to online retailer Overstock.com(OSTK).

– Associated Press

ENERGY

KINDER MORGAN, SEMPRA TO BUILD $4B WYOMING-OHIO PIPELINE Kinder Morgan Energy Partners and Sempra Energy will proceed with construction of a $4 billion pipeline to carry natural gas from Wyoming to Ohio, the most expensive gas transportation project ever in America.

Kinder Morgan, operator of 40,000 miles of petroleum pipelines in North America, and Sempra, the largest American natural-gas distributor, expect to complete the 1,323-mile line by June 2009, the companies said in a statement.

Shippers such as gas producer EnCana Corporation agreed to use all of the line’s 1.8 billion cubic feet of capacity.

Pipelines taking gas out of the Rockies are at or near capacity, depressing prices in the region. Gas prices at trading points such as Cheyenne and Opal, Wyo., are lower than they are at the benchmark Henry Hub in Louisiana or in the Midwest. – Bloomberg News

TECHNOLOGY

APPLE SHARES FALL AFTER NEW PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENT Shares of Apple Computer fell in trading yesterday after the company unveiled new products that failed to impress investors.

The stock is also taking a hit after a run-up ahead of Apple’s unveiling yesterday. “People wanted to see something really big,” an analyst at American Technology Research, Shaw Wu, said. “I was a little underwhelmed.”

Last week, Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple sent a cryptic e-mail inviting the press to “come see some fun new products from Apple.” Speculation abounded that Apple could unveil everything from a new computer running on Intel chips, to new versions of the iPod, to even an Apple cell phone.

Apple did unveil a Mac mini computer that runs on Intel’s chips and a iPod Hi-Fi home stereo, but those product announcements did little to lift the stock.

The new Mac mini computer, which will sell for between $599 and $799, comes with a remote control and can be hooked up to a television. The iPod Hi-Fi stereo costs $349.

– Dow Jones Newswires

WALL STREET

NYSE SCHEDULED TO COMPLETE ARCHIPELAGO MERGER NEXT WEEK The New York Stock Exchange’s 213-year history as a member-owned stock market will end next week.

The world’s largest stock market set March 7 as the date for completing its merger with Archipelago Holdings and forming NYSE Group, a publicly traded company valued at about $10.4 billion. The deal cleared its final hurdle on Monday when the Securities and Exchange Commission granted approval.

– Bloomberg News

IN THE COURTS

SUPREME COURT RULES JOINT VENTURES HAVE PRICE-SETTING POWER

Joint ventures have broad power to set prices without violating American antitrust laws, the Supreme Court ruled in an oil-industry case, overturning a lower court decision that drew a torrent of objections from companies and the Bush administration.

The justices unanimously threw out a suit yesterday that accused Royal Dutch/Shell Group and Chevron of using two joint ventures to jack up prices to 23,000 service station owners. A U.S. appeals court in San Francisco had let the suit go forward.

“As a single entity, a joint venture, like any other firm, must have the discretion to determine the prices of the products that it sells,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the court in Washington.

Companies said the case had threatened to unleash a wave of litigation, leaving joint ventures vulnerable to multimillion-dollar damage claims. Visa USA, Coca-Cola, Verizon Communications, and Microsoft all filed briefs saying the case had implications for their own joint ventures.

– Bloomberg News

PHARMACEUTICALS

FDA APPROVES SKIN PATCH TO TREAT DEPRESSION WASHINGTON – The first skin patch to treat depression won federal approval yesterday, providing a novel way to administer a drug already used by Parkinson’s disease patients but that belongs to a class of medicines that is rarely a first or second choice antidepressant.

The Food and Drug Administration approved the selegiline transdermal patch, an agency spokeswoman, Susan Cruzan, said.

The drug will be marketed as Emsam, said Somerset Pharmaceuticals, which developed the drug, and Bristol-Myers Squib, which will market it in three sizes as a once-a-day treatment for major depression.

Selegiline, approved in pill form by the FDA in 1989 to help treat Parkinson’s, is a monoamine oxidase inhibitor, or MAOI. Typically, doctors prescribe MAOIs for depression only if patients don’t respond to other antidepressants, including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors like Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil.

– Associated Press

IN BRIEF

JPMorgan Chase & Co. agreed to sell initial public stock offerings and fixed-income securities through Fidelity Investments, the largest American discount broker, to gain more individual investors for its underwriting clients … Fidelity International, a unit of the world’s largest mutual funds company, is expanding in the Middle East amid rising wealth in the region spurred by record oil revenue by offering customers more than 100 mutual funds to take advantage of the growing appetite for global investment in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

– Bloomberg News