COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY

DELL TO START USING AMD CHIPS Dell Incorporated, the world’s largest personal-computer maker, will use Advanced Micro Devices Incorporated chips in some servers, ending its exclusive use of Intel Corporation products after 22 years.

Advanced Micro’s Opteron microprocessors will be used in a new line of server machines to go on sale by the end of the year, Round Rock, Texas-based Dell said yesterday in a statement. The company said it will cut $3 billion in costs this year.

– Bloomberg News

AOL BUYS COMPANY THAT INSERTS VIDEO ADS AOL LLC, signaling the importance online video will play in drawing visitors to its ad-supported Web sites, has purchased a small company that specializes in inserting advertising into video clips.

With the technology from Lightningcast Incorporated, AOL would be able to run targeted ads within video and even change ads from time to time without replacing the entire video file. Lightningcast’s technology also can insert ads into audio clips.

– Associated Press

PHARMACEUTICALS

CERVICAL CANCER VACCINE RECOMMENDED FOR APPROVAL A vaccine that blocks viruses that cause most cervical cancer is safe and effective and should be approved, a federal panel recommended yesterday.The drug maker said the vaccine could slash global deaths from the no. 2 cancer in women by more than two-thirds.

A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee voted 13-0 on five separate times to endorse Merck and Company’s Gardasil. The anticipated cost of the vaccine, administered in three shots over six months, is $300 to $500 – a possible impediment to widespread vaccination campaigns.

The drug protects against the two types of human papillomavirus (HPV) believed responsible for about 70% of cervical cancer cases. The vaccine also protects against two other virus types that cause 90%of genital wart cases. All four virus types are sexually transmitted.

– Associated Press

STUDY: VIOXX RISKS STARTED WITHIN MONTHS TRENTON, N.J. – Unpublished data from the Merck & Company study that led the drugmaker to halt sales of Vioxx appear to show the blockbuster painkiller raised the risk of heart attack and stroke within just a few months – not after at least 18 months’ use, as Merck has consistently argued.

The company disputed that yesterday, saying it is “not scientifically appropriate” to draw conclusions based on a key graph in a 108-page report on the data.

– Associated Press

ENERGY

NEW YORK GAS PLUMMETS TO 15-MONTH LOW AMID SOARING INVENTORIES

Natural gas fell to the lowest in 15 months in New York amid surging inventories that may fill American storage to capacity after mild winter and spring weather cut demand.

Supplies last week rose by 91 billion cubic feet, continuing a trend of biggerthan-normal increases that began in April. Analysts and options traders had predicted an increase of 84 billion. American stockpiles topped 2 trillion more than a month before they reached that mark last year, stoking concern that utilities and manufacturers will run out of places to stow it.

– Bloomberg News

EARNINGS

GAP 1Q PROFIT DROPS 17 PERCENT TO $242M SAN FRANCISCO – Gap Incorporated’s first-quarter profit fell by 17%, dragged down by a deepening sales slump that has underscored the clothing retailer’s inability to keep up with fickle fashion tastes. Investors shrugged off yesterday’s bleak report and embraced management projections of a sales recovery during the second half of this year, helping to lift Gap shares by more than 3%.

“We remain confident in our turnaround strategy in each of our businesses,” Gap’s chief executive, Paul Pressler, told analysts during a conference call.

– Associated Press