Congress passed the Obama tax program. (Reuters)
Global M&A moved above $2.2 trillion in 2010. (Reuters)
Moody’s cut Ireland to Baa1. (Reuters)
NSA’s Information Assurance Directorate, which protects US data, assumes that any data base can be hacked (Reuters)
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) may have unusually strong holiday sales (Reuters)
Level 3 (NASDAQ: LVLT), a competitor to cable companies, said it wants restrictions on the NBCU/Comcast deal. (Reuters)
Xe Services, formerly Blackwater, will be sold to new investors. (NYT)
The EU put together plans for a new bailout fund, but it did not calm markets. (WSJ)
The Administration said Americans should have a “privacy Bill of Rights” to protect online data. (WSJ)
A rebound in tech spending sent Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) shares higher. (WSJ)
Profits at Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) rose sharply. (WSJ)
Roche says its drug Avastin will be restricted for breast cancer use. (WSJ)
Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) said a bribery charge against it has gotten bigger. (WSJ)
General Mills will raise prices on more products. (WSJ)
Amazon’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) online music store appears not to have hurt Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iTunes. (WSJ)
The Senate failed to act on a $1.1 increase in government spending. (WSJ)
National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling said sand meant to block oil from the shore of the Gulf did not work. (WSJ)
The Agriculture Department may restrict the use of biocrops. (WSJ)
China and India plan to sharply increase trade between them. (WSJ)
Some analysts still expect a break-up of the eurozone. (WSJ)
The European Central bank said it will increase its subscribed capital to $14.23 billion. (WSJ)
Oracle profits rose 28%. (WSJ)
Consumer Reports says Sprint-Nextel’s (NASDAQ: S) customer satisfaction rating rose. (WSJ)
Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) set an arrangement to continue to sell ads on News Corp’s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace. (WSJ)
Increases in Treasury yields pushed mortgage rates higher. (WSJ)
The Bank for International Settlements said banks will face a $763 billion capital shortfall under Basel III regulations. (WSJ)
Nokia (NYSE: NOK) sued Apple for more patent infringements. (NYT)
Obama will try to get private capital back into the mortgage markets. (FT)
US court decisions could sharply increase costs of the BP plc (NYSE: BP) oil spill. (FT)
Spain’s banks may have sharp drops in revenue. (Bloomberg)
The lapse of incentives in the Chinese car market could help GM. (NYSE: GM) (Bloomberg)
Massey may takeover International Coal. (Bloomberg)
Douglas A. McIntyre
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