Business

Two St. Louis-based companies are reporting lower earnings for the first quarter of this year compared to the same period last year.

Philip Morris USA and other major tobacco companies won a favorable verdict Friday in a lawsuit filed by 37 Missouri hospitals seeking more than $455 million for treating sick smokers.

Philip Morris USA was one of six tobacco companies involved in the lawsuit.

The hospitals had claimed cigarette companies delivered an "unreasonably dangerous" product and were seeking reimbursement back to 1993 for treating patients who had no insurance and did not pay their bills.

The U.S. Embassy in New Delhi says that two American makers of fighter jets are out of the running for a multibillion dollar contract for the Indian air force.

The defense arm of one of the two American companies, Boeing Co., is based in St. Louis.

Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin were both bidding for a slice of the $11 billion Indian deal for 126 fighter jets.

A statement from U.S. Ambassador Timothy J. Roemer says that the news from India's Defense Ministry was "deeply disappointing."