Latest News: OfficeMax, Gilead Sciences, Micron

Today’s news includes higher forecasts for OfficeMax, Gilead Science’s Tamiflu is becoming ineffective to a relative bug of the Swine Flu, and Micron’s shares take a beating today.

OfficeMax Inc. (NYSE: OMX - News), one of the leading office supplies retailers, now expects third-quarter 2010 adjusted operating income margin to be just above the prior-year quarter principally due to a favorable settlement of sales tax issues.  However, excluding these settlements, adjusted operating income margin will remain in line with the company's previous guidance of a lower adjusted operating margin for the third quarter compared with the year-ago quarter. OfficeMax reaffirmed that it still expects third quarter sales to be slightly lower than the year-ago quarter, including the positive impact of foreign currency translation. The current Zacks Consensus Revenue Estimate for the quarter is $1824 million, which is below $1,831.9 million delivered by the company in the year-earlier quarter. – Zacks

A swine flu virus infecting a woman in Singapore mutated into a drug-resistant form virtually overnight, doctors reported in a study that they say shows the limitations of using drugs to treat influenza. While the woman recovered, the mutation developed within 48 hours, rendering the infection increasingly resistant to the effects of Tamiflu, the main drug used to fight flu and which is known generically as oseltamivir. "Our data indicate that oseltamivir resistance developed within two days," Masafumi Inoue of the Agency for Science, Research and Technology in Singapore and colleagues wrote in the Emerging Infectious Diseases journal. The H1N1 swine flu pandemic is over, but the virus has joined the mix of seasonal influenza viruses. A distant relative, also called H1N1, developed broad resistance to Tamiflu in 2008, and the drug is now considered useless against it. Tamiflu is made and distributed by Roche and Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD). Researchers know that flu is highly prone to mutation and most strains have evolved resistance against two older flu drugs, amantadine and rimantadine. - Reuters

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) shares took a hit (today) after Goldman Sachs dropped the bullish stance it took on the chip maker's stock back in June. The firm downgraded the stock to neutral from buy and cut its 6-month price target by 35% to $7.85 from $12, saying it anticipates Micron will see weakness in its main DRAM business because of booming demand for tablet computers, which typically have less memory than notebooks or netbooks. MU shares are trading at $6.94, down -4.54% or $-0.33 and volume is currently at 54.11M shares traded. - TheStreet