Wall St. expects same-store sales for December to rise 4.3%. (Reuters)

Returns of holiday online gifts are expect to reach a record. (Reuters)

Venezuela says it will pay Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) only $225 million for its assets in the country, which is only a third of what the U.S. company was awarded in arbitration. (Reuters)

Total will pay Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) $2.3 billion for a stake in its shale oil assets. (Reuters)

Bridgewater Associates says it is still bearish for 2012. (WSJ)

Sarkozy and Merkel will meet ahead of an EU meeting to further to address the region’s debt crisis. (WSJ)

More PC companies to introduce ultrabooks, small computers meant to compete with tablets. (WSJ)

California farmers face an unprecedented drought. (WSJ)

Ohio shuts programs used to dispose of waste water from oil and gas drilling as earthquakes increase. (WJ)

Technology increases the oil yield from Prudhoe Bay. (WSJ)

Italy needs to issue 118 billion euros in the first quarter and Spain to issue 60 billion euros. (WSJ)

A lack of electricity will hurt India’s growth. (WSJ)

Car sales drop significantly in Spain and France, based on figures for December. (WSJ)

Sales of German and French debt this week will indicate the capital market reaction to EU problems. (WSJ)

Fidelity Investments may offer ETFs. (WSJ)

Online gambling could help Facebook, Zynga (NASDAQ: ZNGA), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG). (WSJ)

Consumer debt makes an ongoing rise in consumer spending unlikely. (NYT)

Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) locks out workers in Canada because of a contract dispute. (NYT)

BP (NYSE: BP) says that all of the $21 billion it spent for its Gulf clean-up should be paid by Halliburton (NYSE: HAL). (NYT)

Hedge funds make huge bets against the euro as the year ends. (FT)

Junk bond issuance moves higher sharply in the fourth quarter. (FT)

India removes barriers to a number of foreign investments. (FT)

The funding gap for U.S. corporate pensions rises to $450 billion among S&P 500 companies. (FT)

Electric car sales falter as General Motors’ (NYSE: GM) Volt and Nissan’s Leaf sell poorly. (FT)

The world’s largest economies hold$7.6 trillion in debt. (Bloomberg)

U.S. auto dealers post their best year in the past five. (Bloomberg)

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) and Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) are in an increasing battle for mobile chips. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

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