Spain’s debt was put on review by Moody’s. (MarketWatch)

The tax cut bill has been sent to the Senate. (Reuters)

The Federal Reserve remains concerned about the economy and said its would continue with its $600 billion bond buying program. (Reuters)

A recent survey of Japanese sentiment shows that businesses are still concerned. (Reuters)

Glassdoor found that Facebook is the best place to work. (Reuters)

Novartis set a better deal to buy Alcon. (Reuters)

Lions Gate elected a new board and turned away an offer from Carl Icahn. (Reuters)

Oil wells and rigs are a threat to spill safety in the Gulf. (WSJ)

A better than expected retail number helped push up stocks and some analyst estimates for GDP. (WSJ)

The US will appeal a ruling on whether parts of the healthcare bill are Constitutional. (WSJ)

The SEC has been hampered by arguments over its budget. (WSJ)

Novartis bought the balance of the shares in Alcon that it did not own for $12.9 billion. (WSJ)

University of Michigan researchers found car crash death fell sharply in the last four years. (WSJ)

The Battelle Memorial Institute says China will spend more than Japan on R&D putting it just behind the US. (WSJ)

A large battle has erupted over market share for mid-level cellphones. (WSJ)

GE (NYSE: GE) expects growth next year. (WSJ)

The prime minister of Italy barely survived a vote to keep him in office. (WSJ)

China moved its inflation target for next year to 4% from 3%. (WSJ)

The ECB told the EU it should increase aid to nations with faltering economies. (WSJ)

GM will try to bring its debt to zero. (WSJ)

Ford Motor (NYSE: F) expects car sales in Europe to hurt results. (WSJ)

French officials said they worry that Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) has too much of the search market in the country. (WSJ)

Problems in the public sector have begun to hurt the recovery. (WSJ)

Weather problems raised the issue of weak wheat supplies. (WSJ)

The value of municipal bonds continued to fall. (WSJ)

The US may suffer from rare earth shortages. (NYT)

Color e-readers will allow pictures to become a larger part of the e-book experience. (NYT)

The amount spent to refine global resources may drive up prices. (FT)

China may keep bank lending high despite inflation. (FT)

The expense of buying airplanes could hurt airline margins. (FT)

Germany has indicated it will not support more expensive aid packages for Europe. (Bloomberg)

Greek strikes shut down some transportation (Bloomberg)

Chinese consumers are more concerned about inflation than at any time in the last decade (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

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