Business news for Fri, 21 Dec 2007 & with word increased. 8 news.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Schering-Plough Corp. and Johnson & Johnson Inc. unit Centocor Inc. said Friday they revised a 1998 distribution agreement on the anti-imflammatory medication Remicade, and golimumab, a therapy in late development at Centocor. Upon regulatory approval of golimumab in the European Union, the companies said Schering-Plough's rights to sell Remicade in certain markets outside the United States will extend beyond 2014. Centocor will also get an increased profit share on Schering-Plough's sales of both products between 2010 and 2014.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Crude oil rallied more than $2 Friday to over $93 a barrel after a government report showed November U.S. consumer spending increased by the largest margin in more than two years, easing fears that oil demand from the world's largest crude consumer may slow. Crude oil for February delivery ended the session up $2.25, or 2.5%, at $93.31 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The Commerce Department reported Friday that U.S. nominal consumer spending increased 1.1%, the most in two and a half years. Economists had been expecting November's spending to rise 0.9%. At the same time, nominal incomes only rose 0.4% in the same month.

Thanks to more than $245.8 million from federal and local governments, TriMet's net assets increased 14.3 percent in fiscal 2007 to nearly $1.7 billion.

Alabama's unemployment rate increased from its record low of 3.1 percent in October to 3.5 percent in November, and most Birmingham area counties' rates followed suit.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - U.S. consumers spent more than they earned in November, driving the personal savings rate negative for the first time in 15 months but giving a boost to a sagging economy, the Commerce Department reported Friday. Core inflation increased 0.2% for the month, less than the 0.3% expected, but the year-over-year gain accelerated to 2.2%, well above the Federal Reserve's target rate. Nominal incomes rose 0.4%. After taking out taxes and adjusting for the highest inflation since September 2005, real disposable incomes fell 0.3%. Nominal consumer spending increased 1.1%, the most in three and a half years. After adjusting for inflation of 0.6% in November, real consumer spending increased 0.5%.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - Walgreen Co. on Friday said fiscal first-quarter profit rose to $455.5 million, or 46 cents a share, from $431.7 million, or 43 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Net sales rose to $14.03 billion from $12.71 billion. Analysts, on average, expected it to earn 44 cents a share on revenue of $14.11 billion, according to Thomson Financial. Same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least one year, rose 5.4%, while front-end same-drugstore sales rose 4.6%. Prescription sales, which accounted for 66.1% of sales in the quarter, climbed 11.1%. Prescription sales in comparable stores rose 5.9%, while the number of prescriptions filled in comparable stores increased 3.7%. Third party plans now account for 95.1% of all prescription sales, the company said. Walgreen said it faced a tough comparison with the year-ago quarter's profit increase, which resulted in part from the introductions of blockbuster generic versions of name-brand drugs Zocor and Zoloft, and an influx of pharmacy patients after last year's introduction of the Medicare Part D drug benefit. The Deerfield, Ill.-based drugstore operator is targeting store expansion to increase square footage at a rate of about 8% a year through fiscal 2009 and beyond. It expects to exceed the goal of operating 7,000 stores in 2010, and sees a long-term potential for about 13,000 stores in the U.S.

China risks an nvestment rebound in 2008 after new projects increased rapidly this year, an official from the nation's top planning agency said.

GlaxoSmithKline filed for U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for Promacta, which a study has shown sustains increased blood-platelet count during long-term treatment.