Amgen is hot this morning

Shares are up 3.5 percent, most likely due to a favorable appeals court ruling. The Thousand Oaks-based biotech giant sued Ariad Pharmaceuticals last year, seeking to invalidate a patent that Ariad might be able to use against two of Amgen's arthritis drugs. A motion to dismiss the suit was denied and a federal appeals court has refused to hear an early appeal. Amgen stock is also being helped by positive notices on its collaboration with Cytokinetics Inc. to develop heart failure drugs. That was announced earlier this week. Also: Bear Stearns upgraded Amgen to Outperform from Peer Perform with a $77 target. It's trading at close to $71.