USB US Bancorp

Among the companies with shares expected to trade actively in Friday's session are BlackRock Inc. (BLK), Regions Financial Corp. (RF) and U.S. Bancorp (USB).

BlackRock Inc. said Friday that profit in its latest quarter rose, as the world's largest money manager benefited from higher inflows during a volatile end of the year. Shares fell 3.23% to $300.00 a share in premarket trading.

Regions Financial Corp. said profit grew in its latest quarter as it cut expenses and increased fee-based income. Shares fell 2.51% to $8.15 premarket.

U.S. Bancorp reported better-than-expected results in its latest quarter as lending and deposits grew and card revenue jumped. Shares fell 3.08% to $38.70 premarket.

Merck & Co. (MRK) on Friday said it had agreed to pay more than $830 million to settle a lawsuit filed by shareholders who argued that the company had misled them by playing down data regarding the former painkiller Vioxx. Shares fell 2.51% to $50.50 premarket.

Fastenal Co. (FAST) on Friday reported its profit dipped 5.5% as the company terminated its manufacturing venture in Brazil and settled several unrelated disputes in the most recent quarter. Shares fell 3.82% to $37.75 premarket.

Heron Therapeutics Inc. (HRTX) on Friday said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration hasn't completed reviewing its long-acting granisetron treatment for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. Shares fell 13.74% to $20.03 premarket.

Chip maker Analog Devices Inc. (ADI) on Thursday cut its first-quarter revenue projection citing weaker-than-expected demand in the company's portable consumer business unit.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (BK) will take a roughly $105 million charge in the fourth quarter tied to a loan at the center of legal proceedings against now bankrupt Sentinel Management Group.

Fastenal Co.'s (FAST) board has raised the company's quarterly dividend to 30 cents a share, a two-cent increase. The yield is 3.1%.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) will pay more than $5 billion to settle civil claims stemming from the sale of mortgage bonds before the financial crisis. Goldman said the agreement will cut its fourth-quarter profit by $1.5 billion after taxes.

Intel Corp.'s (INTC) fourth-quarter profit fell 1.3% amid continued weakness in the personal computer market, still the chip maker's main business. Revenue from Intel's data center group--which includes sales of chips for server systems that help power the cloud computing craze--rose 5% in the period ended in December. Sales for the unit had risen 12% in the third quarter, and most analysts had expected double-digit percentage rates to continue.

TreeHouse Foods Inc. (THS), which expects to close its deal soon for ConAgra Foods Inc.'s (CAG) private-label business, on Thursday raised its earnings forecast for 2015 but said sales declined in its latest quarter on foreign-exchange pressures and weaker coffee pricing.

Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 15, 2016 09:27 ET (14:27 GMT)

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