Before this week's surge of 4,000 Marines and hundreds of Afghan forces into Afghanistan's southern Helmand province, the issue of how such a bold move would impact Pakistan was already on the minds of top U.S.policy makers.

VOA: standard.2009.07.04

Sprint warns that there could be an impact on makers of handsets that rely on those minerals.

FORBES: SEC Approves Detailed Disclosure On 'Conflict Minerals'

Declining mobile phone pricing could negatively impact mobile phone chipset makers like Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Infineon Technologies and Broadcom.

FORBES: Qualcomm Stock Can Hit $48 Even With Handset Price Slide

In addition, the U.S. health care reforms have had negligible impact on European drug-makers.

FORBES: Euro Drug Stocks: Safe Haven In Troubled Times