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Industrial orders in Germany dropped sharply in November as demand from abroad dropped _ nearly erasing a strong gain from the previous month.

Orders were down 4.8 percent compared to the previous month, the Economy Ministry reported Friday. In October, orders rose 5 percent _ a figure that was revised downward from the initial reading of 5.2 percent.

The decline was the largest monthly drop since January 2009 but UniCredit economist Andreas Rees said it was less a “harbinger of a nasty recession” than giving back some ground after October’s “tremendous rise.”

“There is no reason to get overly concerned about the state of the German economy, or even to become panicky,” Rees said. “As a matter of fact, exactly the opposite is true for German industrial companies as indicated by forward-looking sentiment indicators in the last few weeks overnight pay day loans.”

According to the report, foreign orders were down 7.8 percent on the month in November while orders from inside Germany _ Europe’s biggest economy _ declined 1.1 percent.

The sharpest month-on-month drop was in orders for investment goods such as factory machinery, which fell 6.5 percent.

On a less volatile quarter-on-quarter basis, the ministry says figures so far show orders in 2011’s final three months were “slightly under” the level of the third quarter.

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Covidien plc will spin off its Hazelwood-based drug business, turning it into an independent company that may restore the historic corporate name of Mallinckrodt.

Covidien, based in Dublin, makes medical devices and medical supplies in addition to drugs. The proposed spinoff also will have its legal headquarters in Ireland, largely for tax reasons, company executives said in a conference call.

But the spinoff’s U.S. operation will be based in Hazelwood, and its new CEO will work from here. Spokesman Steve Littlejohn said the company has not made a final decision on its name, “but chances are good that it will be Mallinckrodt.”

Covidien’s pharmaceutical business has $2 billion in sales, with two-thirds of that coming in the U.S. market. It turned an operating profit of $318 million this fiscal year.

The drug business is a large provider of acetaminophen, the ingredient in Tylenol, and the largest U.S. supplier of opioids; both are pain medicines. Other lines include contrast products used with medical imagery and nuclear medicine products.

The pharmaceutical operation currently employs about 2,500 people in metro St. Louis. A company spokesman said the move should have no immediate impact on jobs here. Some jobs might be added as the firm sets up its own administrative operation.

Analysts had speculated that Covidien might get rid of the drug operation. Although profitable, it is less lucrative than the rest of Covidien and demands a higher investment in research and development. The drug operation earns a 16 cent operating profit for every dollar of sales, compared with 28 cents for the rest of the company.

The drug operation has a “lumpy” revenue history, notes analyst Aaron Vaughn of Edward Jones in Des Peres. The division is largely a generic drugmaker, and that sector suffered through a price war in past years, he noted.

“We thought they would be getting the business right-sized so that they could spin it off and let it grow on its own,” he said.

Covidien Chief Executive Jose Almeida said the pharmaceutical drug division’s performance had improved in recent years.

“We’re confident the business can now stand on its own,” he said in a conference call Thursday morning.

He said the company had been thinking about shedding the business for several years, citing “major differences” between drugs and Covidien’s other medical products. The operations have different business models, sales channels, customers and capital requirements, and demand different talents, he said.

Separating the operations would allow both to focus on their own strategies, Almeida said payday loans no teletrack. Shareholders also might get more value over the long term, he said.

The drug business “definitely needs some investment,” said analyst Jeff Jonas of Gabelli & Co. in an interview with Bloomberg News. “They need to find new products, invest in the pipeline. That’s a multiyear process.”

Research and development consumes 7 percent of revenue in the drug division, compared with 4 percent in the rest of Covidien.

The spinoff would be in the form of a stock distribution, tax-free to U.S. shareholders, the company said. That tax-free aspect made the option of a spinoff superior to the alternative of selling the unit, company officials said.

The spinoff could take 18 months to complete and would need approval of regulators.

Bloomberg News, citing unidentified sources, reported last summer that Covidien had tried to sell the unit, but talks broke down.

Almeida said he has picked a CEO for the new company, although he didn’t name the person. The person is a ’strong leader” with “broad pharmaceutical experience,” Almeida said, and will join the spinoff from another company.

The drug operation is now headed by Matt Harbaugh, the drug division’s chief financial officer serving as interim president. Based in Hazelwood, he has led the unit since the previous president left last year.

Besides its Hazelwood headquarters, the drug unit has a research operation in Webster Groves, a nuclear medicine facility in Maryland Heights and a plant just north of downtown St. Louis.

That plant sits on what was the Mallinckrodt family farm. G. Mallinckrodt & Co. was founded there in 1867 and grew up as a chemical and drug firm. It refined uranium for the Manhattan Project, which created the atomic bomb during World War II.

Avon Products acquired Mallinckrodt in 1982. Avon sold the company to International Minerals and Chemical Corp. in 1986, which later changed its own name to Mallinckrodt.

In 2000, Tyco bought the company. After Tyco went bankrupt amid scandals, its health care operations were spun off as Covidien in 2007.

Without the drug business, Covidien would have $9.6 billion in sales. Covidien’s remaining business makes trays, hypodermic needles, retractors, pumps for patient feeding and pain management, and other medical devices.

Covidien stock rose $1.39 to $43.55 on Thursday.

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Federal authorities are investigating a suspected embezzlement of potentially millions of dollars from a St. Louis area medical practice, according to a source close to the investigation.

The FBI and U.S. attorney’s investigation comes on the heels of the termination by Metropolitan Urological Specialists PC of Dunard Morris, who until recently served as its chief executive. The investigation focuses in part on whether money was diverted from the firm’s bank loans, the source said. The amount of missing money isn’t known but could be millions, the source said.

The medical practice also maintains that Morris subleased a $5,475-a-month luxury apartment using company funds without approval of the firm’s board of directors.

During the last two years, the company has shown signs of cash flow problems, including the buildup of about $1 easy payday loans.3 million in delinquent federal, state and local taxes, interest and fees, St. Louis County records show.

Asked about the federal investigation, U.S. Attorney Richard Callahan said Thursday, “I don’t want to prejudge anything, but it is a matter that has our interest.”

Morris did not return phone calls Thursday. One of his lawyers, Patrick Smith at DLA Piper law firm in New York, has declined to comment. “I’m not authorized to talk with you,” he said. Morris’ local counsel, Richard Sindel, declined to comment.

Metropolitan’s attorney, Mayer Klein, said the medical firm “terminated” Morris in mid-September but would not detail why. He did confirm that the company is investigating the missing money.

“There were some concerns with regard to prior management, and we’re working with everyone involved

People are finally replacing the cars and trucks they held onto during the economic slump, giving a boost to sales at Chrysler, GM and Nissan in November.

Chrysler’s sales rose 45 percent from a year earlier, while GM’s climbed 7 percent and Nissan’s 19 percent. The three companies were among the first to report U.S. sales of new cars and trucks on Thursday.

Dealers say they’ve had strong floor traffic all month, with surprisingly high sales for a month that’s normally lackluster because of colder weather and holiday distractions. But this November, buyers went to showrooms because of good deals on leases, more confidence in the economy and a need to trade in older cars, says Ryan LaFontaine, a partner in a six-dealer chain in Michigan.

The activity underscores projections that Americans bought new cars at the fastest pace in more than two years as they replace aging vehicles. Analysts expect that the annual sales rate for November could range between 13.3 million and 14 million cars and trucks. That is far better than the rate of 12.6 million through the first 10 months of the year.

November sales also could approach the 14.1 million annual rate from August of 2009, when the government offered big rebates for drivers to trade in their gas-guzzling clunkers.

Sales at Chrysler Group LLC last month were led by the Jeep Compass small SUV, which had a nearly ten-fold increase in sales. Jeep brand sales rose 50 percent, while Chrysler brand sales nearly doubled on strong demand for its 200 and 300 sedans. But Chrysler also raised its incentives to nearly $3,300 per vehicle, up 6 percent from October.

At General Motors Co., buyers snapped up small cars and pickup trucks. Sales of the Chevrolet Cruze compact rose 54 percent, while the Silverado pickup, GM’s top-selling vehicle, saw sales jump 34 percent.

“We are seeing a broad spectrum of customers return to the market,” says Don Johnson, GM’s U.S. sales chief.

At Nissan, the tiny Versa led sales with a 38 percent increase, but SUV and truck sales also rose 32 percent.

People have been holding onto their vehicles in an unstable economy, and the rate of cars that are scrapped has surpassed sales for several years. The average age of a car on U.S. roads is a record 10.6 years, according to the Polk auto industry research firm.

The sales increases at the three car companies also reflect consumer confidence for November, which rose to the highest level since July, according to the Conference Board. October’s number was the lowest since the recession.

With the increased confidence, car buyers are releasing pent-up demand, said Larry Dominique, executive vice president of data for the TrueCar.com automotive website. “I think consumers are just starting to say `it’s time to start spending money again,’ ” he said.

TrueCar expects November sales to be nearly 12 percent higher than a year earlier, capping six months of sales gains compared with the same month in 2010. Last November, the annual sales rate was only 12.3 million as the auto industry was just starting to recover from the economic meltdown.

Sweet lease deals, helped by low interest rates and high used-car values that make leased vehicles worth more when they’re returned, also are fueling sales. GM, for instance, is offering a Cruze lease $169 per month for 39 months. According to TrueCar, the average industry spending on incentives such as leases and low-interest loans was $2,534 per vehicle in November, up 2.5 percent from October.

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Bistate wage gender gap

The wage gap between men and women yawns wider in Missouri and Illinois than elsewhere, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The average full-time woman worker in Missouri made just 75 percent of the average man’s earnings in 2010. Women in Illinois did a little better at 78 percent. The national average is 81 percent.

The bureau doesn’t blame the gap on state-to-state differences in sexism. Instead, it cites “variations in the occupations and industries found in each state and the age composition of each state’s labor force.”

In Missouri, the median weekly wage stood at $813 for men and $616 for women. Illinois was at $814 for men and $634 for women. The national average is $824 for men and $669 for women. (Jim Gallagher)

Ralcorp in ‘buy’ mode

Whether people celebrate or criticize Occupy Wall Street, the movement has reinvigorated calls for local buying just in time for the manic holiday shopping season.

Buying local and American-made became a battle cry for some in the movement that blames big business greed for shuttering American operations and shipping those jobs overseas.

“Some people talk about buying local and not supporting large chain stores, but really I think we want to encourage people to think consciously about where they shop,” said Zach Chasnoff, 33, of south St. Louis.

Chasnoff has wielded a bullhorn at a few Occupy St. Louis rallies, though he said he couldn’t speak as a representative of a movement. He said he’d been waiting for an opportunity to ignite this particular discussion.

Chasnoff owns a house painting business that fluctuates from two to seven employees during his busy season. When the bottom fell out of the economy in 2008, he was virtually unemployed for about seven months and didn’t know if he’d keep his house, he said. Meanwhile, bank bailouts and news of continued executive bonuses infuriated him. He blames greed for companies’ transferring jobs overseas and cheap foreign goods for undercutting American-made items.

Many economists challenge that logic, saying that free trade ultimately benefits the U payday loans.S.

“It feels almost anti-patriotic to buy goods made elsewhere right now. You are perpetuating the loss of manufacturing jobs,” Chasnoff said, echoing long-standing protests by some against, for instance, buying foreign cars.

Buying local, on the other hand, puts consumers, not corporations, in control, he said.

Would it work?

Steve Farazzi, a professor of economics at Washington University, said that the wage disparity concerns at the root of the Occupy Wall Street movement wouldn’t be solved by shopping at boutiques and farmers markets.

“I’d have a hard time telling people that their holiday shopping patterns will have an important impact on income distribution,” Farazzi said.

If globalization has killed American jobs and driven down wages, then the tool to combat the trend would be higher wages in emerging markets such as China, not necessarily closing operations there. China’s extremely cheap labor is the problem for American workers, not the fact that Chinese workers have jobs formerly held by Americans, Farazzi explained.

Rising global wages would level the playing field for American workers, he said, and it would increase the demand for all goods if we have more people who can afford to buy. But Farazzi acknowledged that a push to boost wages for Chinese workers

More than 2 million new U.S. patients will be eligible to receive a next-generation blood thinner drug called Xarelto, after the Food and Drug Administration approved the medication to treat a common heart problem that can lead to stroke.

Federal health officials approved the drug from Johnson & Johnson and Roche to prevent strokes in patients with atrial fibrillation, a condition that causes the heart’s upper chambers beat chaotically and ineffectively. The irregular heartbeats can cause blood clots which travel to the brain, blocking blood flow and occasionally causing a stroke.

“This approval gives doctors and patients another treatment option for a condition that must be managed carefully,” said Dr. Norman Stockbridge, director of FDA’s cardiovascular and renal products division.

The once-a-day pill was first approved in July to prevent strokes in patients receiving hip and knee replacements. Today’s approval expands the drug’s indication to the much larger group of roughly 2.2 million Americans with atrial fibrillation.

For more than half a century, atrial fibrillation patients have relied on the tough-to-use blood thinner warfarin, sold under the brand name Coumadin. Doctors often have trouble gauging the right dose of the drug for each patient. Too much warfarin can cause dangerous internal bleeding, and too little can result in strokes.

In a setback for the drugs’ developers, the FDA did not approve a manufacturer-requested claim that Xarelto was superior at preventing stroke and blood clots when compared with warfarin. Instead the FDA states that the companies’ 14,000-patient study showed Xarelto and warfarin were about the same in preventing stroke creditreport.

Also, the FDA added a boxed safety warning, the most serious kind, stating that patients should not stop taking Xarelto without notifying their doctors first. Discontinuing the drug can increase the risk of stroke.

Numerous drugmakers have been working to develop an updated alternative to warfarin, one of the most widely-used medications in the U.S. Last year U.S. pharmacies filled 32 million prescriptions for warfarin, according to data tracker IMS Health.

Last October, the FDA approved the first alternative to warfarin for atrial fibrillation _ Pradaxa, known chemically as dabigatran, made by the German company Boehringer Ingelheim. That drug’s label states that the daily pill “significantly reduced” stroke and blood clots in a study of 18,000 patients.

In September a panel of outside advisers to the FDA voted 9-2 to recommend approval for use in atrial fibrillation. The panel’s recommendation came despite questions from FDA scientists about the reliability of some data submitted on Xarelto.

Xarelto is the first in a new class of blood thinning drugs that work by blocking a clotting protein called factor Xa. Older blood thinners, including warfarin, work by preventing blood platelets from sticking together.

Known chemically as rivaroxaban, Xa was discovered by German drugmaker Bayer and co-developed with New Brunswick, N.J.-based J&J. J&J holds U.S. marketing rights to the drug while Bayer markets the drug in the rest of the world.

Eastman Kodak Co. warned Thursday that its survival over the next year hinges on its ability to sell its potentially lucrative digital-imaging patents or raise extra funds by selling debt.

Its cautionary statement in a securities filing came as the embattled photography pioneer posted a wider $222 million loss for the third quarter. Its cash reserves fell almost 10 percent in the quarter.

Revenue tumbled 17 percent in the July-September period, with surging sales of inkjet printers more than offset by slumping digital camera and film revenue.

Kodak trimmed its full-year outlook, warning that revenue could be 1.5 percent to 4 percent lower than expected and losses might drop to the low end of its previous forecast.

Its shares fell 10 cents, or 8.8 percent, to $1.10 in midday trading after sinking as low as $1.07 earlier in the day. It traded as low as 54 cents a share on Sept. 30.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Kodak said it is seeking to raise an additional $500 million in financing that could be used to support “ongoing operational needs.”

Kodak said its ability to continue operations within the next 12 months “is dependent upon the ability to monetize its digital imaging patent portfolio through a sale or licensing” or by issuing additional debt.

Shrinking cash reserves, which fell to $862 million in the quarter from $957 million in June, have intensified investor fears of a looming bankruptcy. The company set a year-end cash target of $1.3 billion to $1.4 billion that excludes any intellectual-property licensing deals, down from a previous forecast of $1.6 billion to $1.7 billion.

“The reports of Kodak’s death, where everybody was expecting Kodak to go bankrupt, are premature,” Ulysses Yannas, a broker with Buckman, Buckman & Reid in New York, had said before the regulatory filing. “They continue to lose a lot of money but they have the wherewithal to become profitable again.”

“You’ve got a challenge here,” countered Shannon Cross of Cross Research in Livingston, N.J. “Kodak’s at a point where one of two things have to happen _ either they have to raise more money or they have to complete the sale (of digital-imaging patents). Otherwise, they’re not going to be able to continue.”

Kodak typically generates the bulk of its cash during the run-up to the holiday season. But worries that it’s burning through cash escalated in late September when it drew $160 million from a revolving credit line and enlisted the help of restructuring firms. Kodak insisted it had no intention of filing for bankruptcy protection.

Its third quarterly loss in a row _ its ninth such loss in the last three years _ amounted to 83 cents per share in the quarter. That compares with a loss of $43 million, or 16 cents per share, a year earlier.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected a smaller loss of 42 cents a share for the latest quarter.

Revenue dipped to $1.46 billion from $1.76 billion a year ago, with shrinking film group sales falling 10 percent to $389 million. Consumer digital-imaging sales tumbled 38 percent to $408 million as Kodak shifts to pricier camera models to try to offset intense competition from smartphones and video cameras.

The company said it posted modest patent royalties in the quarter but didn’t specify how much. Its year-ago results were lifted by a $210 million licensing deal with an undisclosed digital-camera competitor.

Since 2005, Kodak has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into new lines of inkjet printers that are finally on the verge of turning a profit. Home photo printers, high-speed commercial inkjet presses, workflow software and packaging are viewed as Kodak’s new core.

Revenue from those businesses rose by a combined 13 percent in the quarter, fueled by 89 percent growth in packaging solutions and 44 percent growth in home printers and ink. Kodak said it expects the consumer printer to become profitable in the current quarter.

The four businesses remain a bright spot in the 131-year-old company’s long and painful drive to recast itself into a reliably profitable player in the turbulent digital-imaging arena. Kodak is hoping they will more than double in size by 2013, accounting for 25 percent _ or nearly $2 billion _ of all sales.

In the meantime, mining its inventions for revenue has become indispensable. Since July, Kodak has been hawking a portfolio of 1,100 digital-imaging patents that many analysts think could fetch $2 billion to $3 billion.

A sale represents a sharp tactical shift. Kodak picked up just $27 million in patent-licensing fees in the first half of 2011 after amassing nearly $2 billion in the previous three years.

Based in Rochester, N.Y., Kodak turned picture-taking into a hobby for the masses over a century ago. It developed the world’s first digital camera in 1975 but failed to capitalize quickly on its new-wave know-how in digital photography.

Its workforce has plunged to 18,800 from 70,000 in 2002.

Kodak now expects segment losses in 2011 to be closer to $300 million, which is within its previous forecast range of $100 million to $300 million in losses. It expects revenue to be $6.3 billion to $6.4 billion, down from a previous forecast of $6.4 billion to $6.7 billion

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A unit of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has bid $3.25 billion for insurer Transatlantic Holdings.

Berkshire’s National Indemnity Co. is offering $52 per share in cash for Transatlantic. That tops the price the company would get in its agreement to be bought by Allied World Assurance Co.

In a letter released by Transatlantic on Sunday, National Indemnity said its offer isn’t subject to due diligence or financing conditions. The company said it expects a formal response from Transatlantic no later than the close of business Monday.

If the offer is accepted, National Indemnity would want a $75 million break-up fee if the transaction did not close by the end of the year.

Transatlantic’s board said it would carefully weigh the latest offer by National Indemnity and asked shareholders to wait until it has a chance to judge it before taking action. But the company also said that it reaffirmed its recommendation of the deal with Allied World Assurance, which is based in Switzerland.

Under that deal, Transatlantic and Allied World would combine in what the companies are calling a merger of equals. Shareholders of Transatlantic would receive 0.88 of an Allied World share for each share they hold of Transatlantic.

The companies say the deal, which calls for Transatlantic shareholders to receive a 58 percent stake in the combined company and for Transatlantic to name 6 of the 11 board members, will put them on better competitive footing because of the combined company’s larger size.

Allied World CEO Scott Carmliani would head the combined company and Transatlantic CEO Robert Orlich would retire.

Last month, Transatlantic rejected a hostile takeover bid from fellow insurer Validus Holdings Ltd. The board also adopted a one-year stockholder rights plan, commonly called a “poison pill,” a move used to avoid hostile takeovers.

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