Bank plans $2 billion stock offering: Capital One Financial Corp. says its second-quarter profit climbed 50% as it made more money from deposits, loans and fees. The financial services company also announced a $2 billion stock offering. The earnings beat Wall Street expectations. The McLean, Va., company says its net income rose to $911 million, or $1.97 per share, compared with $608 million, or $1.33 per share, a year ago. Revenue for the period ended June 30 increased 2% to $3.99 billion from $3.90 billion. Net interest income, the money earned from deposits and loans, rose to $3.14 billion from $3.1 billion. Non-interest income, or money earned from fees and charges, climbed to $857 million from $807 million. The amount of balances the bank has had to write off as uncollectible fell during the quarter as the net charge-off rate dropped to 2.91%. Capital One plans to use proceeds from the stock offering to pay for part of its $9 billion acquisition of ING Direct. The cash-and-stock deal was announced last month.
Could provide shield to disease: Two new studies found that daily pills prevented infection with the AIDS virus in heterosexual men and women in Africa, bringing new hope for someday offering a medical shield against HIV infection. “This is good news. This is a good day for HIV prevention,” says Dr. Lynn Paxton of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who has coordinated the agency’s research into HIV prevention. The first of the new studies, run by the CDC, involved more than 1,200 men and women in Botswana. About half got a daily pill, Truvada, an HIV treatment made by Gilead Sciences Inc. The other half got a fake pill. An analysis of people who were believed to be regularly taking the pills found four of those on Truvada became infected with HIV, compared to 19 on the dummy pill. That suggests the real drug lowered the risk of infection by roughly 78%, researchers said. The second study was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and run by the University of Washington. It involved more than 4,700 heterosexual couples in Kenya and Uganda. In each couple, one partner had HIV and the other did not. The uninfected were given either daily placebos, Truvada pills, or another Gilead treatment, Viread. The study found 13 new HIV infections among those on Truvada, 18 in those on Viread, and 47 of those on dummy pills. So the medications apparently reduced the risk of HIV infection by 62% to 73%, the researchers say.
