Among the earnings stories for Tuesday, Nov. 24, from AP Financial News:

By Susan Kelly

Medtronic reported a surprising 59 percent boost in second-quarter profit Tuesday, as increased sales of implantable heart devices defied reports of weakening demand from competitors.

What follows is a roundup of corporate earnings reports for Tuesday, Nov. 24.

A UBS analyst said Wednesday that medical technology stocks are trading at attractive prices, and raised his ratings or price targets on nine of them.

Medtronic said Wednesday it is responding to a warning letter from the Food and Drug Administration about procedures at the Minnesota headquarters of its heart implants division.

When makers of heart defibrillators wanted Medicare to vastly expand the types of patients eligible to receive the devices, which can cost upward of $25,000, agency officials were skeptical. It was not clear how many of those patients would actually need a defibrillator, a device that can deliver a life-saving shock to restore a faltering heart to normal rhythm.

A race is on to develop the potentially next big thing in heart surgery: a replacement valve that can be implanted through thin tubes known as catheters rather than by traditional open-heart surgery.

The Food and Drug Administration is awarding $2 million to spur the development of medical devices for children, who face increased risks during surgery because so few implants are designed for their use.

Severe sleep apnea raises the risk of dying early by 46 percent, U.S. researchers reported Monday, but said people with milder sleep-breathing problems do not share that risk.

Medtronic said on Wednesday that it had paid nearly $800,000 over an eight-year period to a former military surgeon who has been accused by the Army of falsifying a medical journal study involving one of the company’s products.

Drug companies are fighting hard to create new medications and devices to target diabetes amid rising numbers of patients who will need daily drugs or insulin for life.

The economy sank at a 5.7 percent pace in the first quarter as the brute force of the recession carried over into this year.

The number of newly laid-off workers requesting unemployment insurance dropped slightly last week after spiking due to auto layoffs, while continuing jobless claims inched closer to 7 million.

The number of newly laid-off workers requesting unemployment insurance dropped slightly last week after spiking due to auto layoffs, while continuing jobless claims inched closer to 7 million.