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Today's headlines include Boeing (BA) considering backing out of atanker deal, Google (GOOG) nears a deal with Verizon, KingPharmaceuticals (KG) makes a bid for Alpharma, and UPS (UPS) maymake an acquisition bid over the weekend. Here is what you need toknow about this morning's news.

 is considering abandoning its effort to win a $40-billion contractfrom the U.S. Air Force  unless the Pentagon agrees to give it 6months to submit a new bid. The contract is to build refuelingaircraft for the Air Force. The head of BA's defense unit, JimAlbaugh, told

The Journal

 that BA has scrutinized the proposal and has concluded that itcalls for an aircraft that can haul more fuel than the plan BAoriginally bid.

Some sources close to the process have noted (to other mediaoutlets, including

Reuters

) that BA has already invested "too much time and money" tooverlook "an unreasonable deadline to prepare a new bid" based on alarger-than-expected tanker.

 BA is slightly higher as we head toward the opening bell,continuing its 4-week run. During this period, the equity hasadvanced 1.6%. Unfortunately, this recent run has done little tostem the tide of BA's burgeoning downtrend. Since the start of theyear, BA has shed 27%; but this downtrend started when the stocklost the support of its 10-month moving average in late 2007. Withthe stock sliding, there is a slight chance for upside from analystupgrades. According to

Zacks