Marks and Spencer MKS (LSE) surprised the British market earlier today with the announcement of a substantial drop in retail clothing and food sales. The well known retailer under the firm hand of Sir Stuart Rose, the company’s CEO and Chairman, saw its shares drop precipitously earlier today after the sales announcement. According to Grame Wearden who a story for the U.K.’s Guardian,

Shares in the group, Britain’s biggest clothing retailer, plunged by almost 25% to 240p today after it warned that profits will be hit by the slowdown in trading, which chief executive Sir Stuart Rose warned could last another two years. Analysts called the statement, which was rushed out this morning, a “significant profits warning”           

…. Today’s plunge puts M&S shares at their lowest level in four years, and wiped around £1bn off its market capitalisation. The company is now worth just over £4bn. Finance director Ian Dyson insisted that M&S is not planning to cut its dividend.

 Rose, Marks and Spencer’s golden boy (CEO), may actually find himself in some trouble now that sales have dropped so much. Last month, I wrote about the criticism the firm and its board received for making Rose the company’s chairman in direct conflict with the UK’s executive governance recommendations. Keep a close eye on Marks and Spencer and what might happen with Sir Stuart Rose.    For more: Reuters BBC  Times Online Financial Times

Yesterday, Starbucks (SBUX) announced that it would be closing 600 stores and cutting 7% of its workforce, as a result of the decline in consumer confidence that have lowered its stock price more than 50% in the last two years.

Analyst David Palmer of UBS predicted this negative trend at Starbucks back in his January interview with TWST, and went into detail with us about what’s gone wrong with the coffee giant. Click here to read the exclusive interview.

Also take a look at TWST’s interview with now CEO of Starbucks back before the current slowing trend. Click here read the exclusive interview with CEO Howard Schultz.

One of the many special features of TWST is our “Off the Record” comments, where we ask CEOs and analysts to give us their personal stock picks anonymously. Our focus this week is on “Investing in Gold”, and the CEOs and Analysts we spoke to recommend the following gold mining companies:

Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. (AEM)

“I think it’s Agnico in the intermediate size area, with a market cap of about $7 billion. It has a very good technical and management team.”"I think it’s Agnico-Eagle unquestionably as they are going to quintuple their production. They are a young team but have been with the company since when Paul Penna was there, so that team is intact.”

Barrick Gold Corp (ABX)

“I think the people at…Barrick have done a very effective job of managing through what has been a difficult time and industry. They have een building new mines and bringing new projects onstream.”

“Surprisingly perhaps, I’ll mention Barrick. When an executive such as Greg ilkins can become ill, the depth of that company, under Peter Munk now, shines through. They have all had much more active involvement now. Their acquisitions have been astute and their moves have been ahead of the curve, so I would rank them high up there.”

For the complete set of Off the Record picks, including other anonymous analyst and CEO recommendations, click here.

For the full Investing In Gold issue, including a complete overview of this space through a panel discussion, and interviews with CEOs of 11 top companies, click here.

Wachovia WB (NYSE), which recently forced its CEO, Kenneth Thompson to retire (see earlier blog), is currently on the hunt for a permanent CEO replacement. According to a story by Anthony Currie in Breakingviews.com Wachovia needs to find a replacement and needs to do it quickly. In the piece, Currie conjectures on potential candidates that might be under consideration. Check it out.

Jeffrey Stinson of USA Today wrote an interesting piece on growing resistance by European policy makers and shareholders as regards to CEO compensation. According to Stinson,

As losses pile up on balance sheets and stock prices drop, Europe is threatening to rein in U.S.-size compensation for its top corporate executives.

From Paris to Amsterdam to Berlin, finance ministers, politicians and government watchdogs are talking of curbing soaring executive pay, bonuses or golden parachutes for CEOs who depart with big severance packages.

… Behind the threats is growing public and shareholder ire with multimillion-dollar compensation packages that are starting to rival American CEO pay at the same time European economies and financial markets are sagging.

Keep a close eye on Europe’s approach to CEO compensation. If they move on the issue, American CEOs will find themselves under even greater pressure as to exorbitant executive compensation packages.

Biotechnology company Myriad Genetics Inc. (MYGN) said yesterday that it will end development of Alzheimer’s treatment candidate, Flurizan, after the drug failed a late-stage trial.

Learn more about Myriad Genetics Inc., and what they’re looking at in our exclusive interview with CEO Peter Meldrum

The company is also discussed in our biotechnology roundtable:

TWST: George, what’s the alternative? Is it looking to Big Pharma to step in nd  make investments and make partnership deals?
Mr. Huang: Yes, that’s certainly our view. We definitely believe partnerships  and putting yourself up for sale, through a bidding process, may be the way to  go here. Partnerships have really funded a lot of the major products in Phase II  and Phase III recently. I think there are mainly two types of deals. One is  technology platform driven, the other is really product driven, late-stage  products. There is definitely money there.  So in terms of partnerships, Synta (SNTA) was able to get $80 million up front from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) because they ran a good Phase II randomized trial in  metastatic melanoma. Looking at other product partnerships, just this week,  Myriad Genetics (MYGN) got $100 million cash up front for an Alzheimer’s drug  that essentially failed Phase II trials. In terms of partnerships, I think Big  Pharma is definitely desperate and with so much cash on their balance sheet, I  think they don’t mind throwing around another $50 or $100 million for  essentially the call on the drug in case it does work out.

For the full roundtable, including  a complete overview of this space and where Big Pharma is heading, click here.