Wells Fargo agrees to proposed settlement on shareholder actions

(Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co would pay up to $2.5 million in attorneys' fees and implement certain corporate governance changes under a proposed settlement of lawsuits brought by shareholders on behalf of the company, according to a securities filing by Wells on Friday.
The suits were filed in U.S. District Court in Northern California in 2010 on behalf of Wells Fargo and its shareholders against current and former directors and executives largely related to conduct at Wachovia bank, which Wells bought in 2008.
The suits claim that from 2005 to 2008 the former Wachovia defendants disregarded "their fundamental responsibilities" with respect to Wachovia's acquisition of mortgage lender Golden West Financial and other activities at Wachovia, according to settlement documents. The suits also allege that Wells directors did not pursue "valuable claims" that it inherited in the Wachovia acquisition, according to the documents.
Wells bought Wachovia as the lender verged on collapse due to ballooning mortgage losses and a run on its deposits. All the defendants denied wrongdoing and filed motions to dismiss, according to the documents.
A hearing will be held on the settlement on March 5, according to Friday's filing by Wells with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The governance changes include a requirement that the risk committee of the Wells Fargo board hire an outside consultant for three years.
Under the proposed settlement, the defendants would not make any payments to Wells Fargo or the plaintiffs, according to the securities filing. Wells will pay any attorneys' fees.
The cases are Feuer v. Thompson et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 10-0279; and Rogers v. Thompson et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 12-0203.

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California jobless rate dips below 10 percent

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — After a long twilight, business is booming again at Matt Construction as high-end orders come in for hotels and office complexes.
The Los Angeles-area company increased hiring by about 20 percent this year, adding 30 employees as more construction jobs — and bigger ones — piled up.
Such stories are a major reason California's jobless rate dipped below 10 percent last month for the first time since the recession began. The 9.8 percent unemployment rate reported Friday by the Employment Development Department is down from 10.1 percent in October.
The last time the unemployment rate was in single digits was in January 2009, when the number was 9.7 percent.
The improvement, led by a surge in technology jobs that have spurred a wave of new construction, comes as something of a surprise. Leading economists had predicted that California's unemployment rate would remain in double digits through 2013.
Al Matt, executive vice president of Matt Construction, said his Santa Fe Springs-based company has seen a strong recovery from the height of the recession in 2009, when revenues dropped by half.
"Overall, our revenues are up in 2012 by a substantial amount, as much as 30 percent," he said. "It looks like next year will be a similar sort of increase."
There are other positive signs. The number of unemployed Californians dropped to 1.8 million, also the lowest number in nearly four years. The state has added more than 564,000 nonfarm payroll jobs since the economic recovery began in 2010.
"The job gains have been fairly widespread," said economist Jerry Nickelsburg, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. "We're finally seeing an increase in construction, particularly single-family housing."
He added that such signs are "continued evidence that California's economy is growing and is recovering."
Experts say growth in single-family housing and construction are good indicators of recovery because they signal increased wealth, relatively high-paying blue-collar jobs, and general optimism.
The danger of a downturn still lurks, however, most immediately in the form of the impending "fiscal cliff." Business and government officials have warned that fallout from ongoing budget negotiations at the nation's capital could halt California's recovery.
Without a deal, automatic spending cuts will slash local government budgets and raise tax rates for workers as the nation struggles to get over the effects of the Great Recession. Also, unemployment benefits for 400,000 Californians would expire next month without an agreement from Congress and the president.
Also, despite the gains indicating one of the nation's fastest growing economies, California still lagged behind the national unemployment rate of 7.7 percent.
About 14.4 million Californians were working last month, and the recovery varied significantly across the state. Imperial County had a whopping 26.6 percent unemployment rate, while rates in many inland counties remained in the double digits.
Expansion in high-paying technology jobs helped the San Francisco Bay Area remain the state's growth leader, said Stephen Levy, a senior economist at the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy.
The unemployment rate was 5.8 percent in Marin County, while San Francisco and San Mateo counties hovered above 6 percent.
The information sector, meanwhile, showed the biggest percentage gain in jobs over the last year, up nearly 6 percent.
Growth in San Diego County also has been strong, Levy said. Los Angeles County and others nearby also have joined the recovery, while the Central Valley is slowly regrouping.
The capitol region, where government is a large employer, still is lagging, Levy said in an email.
Government employment showed the biggest losses in Friday's report, down 34,500 jobs in the last year, indicating an overall decline in spending.
The contraction has meant less money for public projects like road construction, said Skip Brown, owner of road contractor Delta Construction Co. in Sacramento.
Brown said he hasn't taken a paycheck from his own company in five years, and his salaried employees have eaten pay cuts up to 40 percent.
Meanwhile, stricter air pollution standards mean most of his heavy diesel equipment will be illegal to use in California in coming years. Brown said if he can't sell the 69-year-old firm started by his father, he'll close the doors once he can no longer operate his paving and grading equipment.

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Wall Street ends lower after "fiscal cliff" setback

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks finished lower on Friday after a Republican plan to avoid the "fiscal cliff" failed to gain sufficient support on Thursday night, draining hopes that a deal would be reached before 2013.
Still, stocks managed to rebound from the day's lows near the end of the session, and for the week, the three major U.S. stock indexes still ended higher, with the S&P 500 gaining 1.2 percent.
Trading was volatile because of waning confidence in the prospect of a deal out of Washington, and in part, as the result of the quarterly expiration of options and futures contracts. The CBOE Volatility Index <.vix> or VIX, the market's favorite barometer of investor anxiety, finished below its session high.
Republican House Speaker John Boehner failed to garner enough votes from even his own party to pass his "Plan B" tax bill late on Thursday. It was the latest setback in negotiations to avoid $600 billion in tax hikes and spending cuts that some say could tip the U.S. economy into recession.
"The failure with Plan B was disappointing, if not terribly surprising, but now there's a real lack of clarity about what will happen, and markets hate that," said Mike Hennessy, managing director of investments for Morgan Creek in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> dropped 120.88 points, or 0.91 percent, to 13,190.84 at the close. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> fell 13.54 points, or 0.94 percent, to 1,430.15. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> lost 29.38 points, or 0.96 percent, to 3,021.01.
"Amazingly, this sharp decline today may not actually change the technical picture much - unless the decline gets worse," said Larry McMillan, president of options research firm McMillan Analysis Corp, in a research note.
For the week, the Dow gained 0.4 percent and the Nasdaq climbed 1.7 percent.
On Friday, Herbalife dropped for an eighth straight session. Investor Bill Ackman recently ramped up his campaign against the company. The stock skidded 19.2 percent to $27.27 and has lost more than 35 percent this week.
Plan B, which called for tax increases on those who earn $1 million or more a year, was not going to pass the Democratic-led Senate or win acceptance from the White House anyway. But it exposed the reality that it will be difficult to get Republican support for the more expansive tax increases that President Barack Obama has urged.
Still, the declines of about 1 percent in the three major U.S. stock indexes suggest that investors do not believe the economy will be unduly damaged by the absence of a deal, said Mark Lehmann, president of JMP Securities, in San Francisco.
"You could have easily woken up today and seen the market down 300 or 400 points, and everyone would have said, 'That's telling you this is really dire,'" Lehmann said.
"I think if you get into mid-January and (the talks) keep going like this, you get worried, but I don't think we're going to get there."
Banking shares, which outperform during economic expansion and have led the market on signs of progress on resolving the fiscal impasse, led Friday's declines. Citigroup Inc fell 1.7 percent to $39.49, while Bank of America slid 2 percent to $11.29. The KBW Banks index <.bkx> lost 1.19 percent.
Volatility on Friday was exacerbated in part by "quadruple witching," the quarterly expiration of stock index futures and options, stock options and single stock futures contracts.
About 8.59 billion shares changed hands on major U.S. exchanges, more than the daily average of 6.47 billion daily in 2012, in part because of the "quadruple witching" expiration.
The day's round of data indicated the economy was surprisingly resilient in November; consumer spending rose by the most in three years and a gauge of business investment jumped.
But separate data showed consumer sentiment slumped in December. The S&P Retail Index <.spxrt> fell 1.2 percent.
U.S.-listed shares of Research in Motion sank 22.7 percent to $10.91 after the Canadian company, known as the BlackBerry maker, reported its first-ever decline in its subscriber numbers on Thursday alongside a new fee structure for its high-margin services segment.

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Obama tries to rescue fiscal talks for post-Christmas deal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Friday tried to rescue stalled talks on a fiscal crisis after a Republican plan imploded in Congress, but there was little headway as lawmakers and President Barack Obama abandoned Washington for Christmas.
In remarks before flying to Hawaii for a break, Obama suggested reaching a short-term deal on taxes and extending unemployment insurance to avoid the worst effects of the "fiscal cliff" on ordinary Americans at the start of the New Year.
"We've only got 10 days to do it. So I hope that every member of Congress is thinking about that. Nobody can get 100 percent of what they want," said Obama.
Obama said he wanted to sign legislation extending Bush-era tax cuts for 98 percent of Americans in the coming days.
The Democrat appeared to be offering bickering lawmakers a way to fix the most pressing challenge - tax cuts that expire soon - while leaving thorny topics such as automatic spending cuts or extending the debt ceiling for later.
Obama called on lawmakers to use the holiday break to cool off frayed nerves, "drink some eggnog, have some Christmas cookies, sing some Christmas carols," and come back next week ready to make a deal.
Negotiations were thrown into disarray on Thursday when House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner failed to convince his fellow Republicans to accept tax cuts for even the wealthiest of Americans as part of a possible agreement with Obama.
"How we get there, God only knows," Boehner told reporters on Friday when asked about a possible comprehensive fiscal cliff solution.
If there is no agreement, taxes would go up on all Americans and hundreds of billions of dollars in automatic government spending cuts would kick in next month - actions that could plunge the U.S. economy back into recession.
Obama spoke to Boehner on Friday and held a face-to-face White House meeting with the top Democrat in Congress, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Before his defeat in Congress, Boehner had extracted a compromise from Obama to raise taxes on Americans making more than $400,000 a year, instead of the president's preference of those with income of $250,000 a year.
But with talks stalled on the level of spending cuts to which Obama would agree, Boehner attempted a backup plan to raise taxes only on those making more than $1 million a year - amounting to just 0.18 percent of Americans.
BAD DEFEAT FOR BOEHNER
Boehner's reverse in the House was worse than first thought. A key Republican lawmaker said Boehner scrapped the vote when he realized that between 40 and 50 of the 241 Republicans in the House would not back him.
Obama and his fellow Democrats in Congress are insisting that the wealthiest Americans pay more in taxes in order to help reduce federal budget deficits and avoid deep spending cuts. Republicans control the House and Democrats control the Senate.
Stocks dropped sharply early Friday on fears that the United States could go fall back into recession if politicians do not prevent it.
But major indexes lost less than 1 percent, suggesting investors still held out hope that an agreement will be brokered in Washington.
"I think if you get into mid-January and (the talks) keep going like this, you get worried, but I don't think we're going to get there," said Mark Lehmann, president of JMP Securities, in San Francisco.
Boehner, joined by his No. 2, Eric Cantor, at a Capitol Hill news conference, said the ultimate fault rests with Obama for refusing to agree to more spending reductions that would bring down America's $1 trillion annual deficit and rising $16 trillion debt.
"What the president has proposed so far simply won't do anything to solve our spending problem. He wants more spending and more tax hikes that will hurt our economy," Boehner said.
Democrats responded with incredulity.
House members, heading to their home states for the holidays, were instructed to be available on 48 hours notice if necessary.
"They went from 'Plan B' to 'plan see-you-later,'" Obama adviser David Axelrod said on MSNBC on Friday morning.
The crumbling of Boehner's plan highlights his struggle to lead some House Republicans who flatly reject any deal that would increase taxes on anyone.
Republican Representative Tim Huelskamp criticized Boehner's handling of the negotiations, saying the speaker had "caved" to Obama opening the door to tax hikes. Huelskamp, a dissident first-term congressman from Kansas, said he was not willing to compromise on taxes even if they are coupled with cuts to government spending sought by conservatives.
Fiscal conservatives "are so frustrated that the leader in the House right now, the speaker, has been talking about tax increases. That's all he's been talking about," Huelskamp said on MSNBC on Friday morning.
(Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton, Richard Cowan, Rachelle Younglai, Thomas Ferraro and Matt Spetalnick; Writing by Steve Holland; Editing by Alistair Bell and Lisa Shumaker

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Wall Street Week Ahead: A lump of coal for "Fiscal Cliff-mas"

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street traders are going to have to pack their tablets and work computers in their holiday luggage after all.
A traditionally quiet week could become hellish for traders as politicians in Washington are likely to fall short of an agreement to deal with $600 billion in tax hikes and spending cuts due to kick in early next year. Many economists forecast that this "fiscal cliff" will push the economy into recession.
Thursday's debacle in the U.S. House of Representatives, where Speaker John Boehner failed to secure passage of his own bill that was meant to pressure President Obama and Senate Democrats, only added to worry that the protracted budget talks will stretch into 2013.
Still, the market remains resilient. Friday's decline on Wall Street, triggered by Boehner's fiasco, was not enough to prevent the S&P 500 from posting its best week in four.
"The markets have been sort of taking this in stride," said Sandy Lincoln, chief market strategist at BMO Asset Management U.S. in Chicago, which has about $38 billion in assets under management.
"The markets still basically believe that something will be done," he said.
If something happens next week, it will come in a short time frame. Markets will be open for a half-day on Christmas Eve, when Congress will not be in session, and will close on Tuesday for Christmas. Wall Street will resume regular stock trading on Wednesday, but volume is expected to be light throughout the rest of the week with scores of market participants away on a holiday break.
For the week, the three major U.S. stock indexes posted gains, with the Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> up 0.4 percent, the S&P 500 <.spx> up 1.2 percent and the Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> up 1.7 percent.
Stocks also have booked solid gains for the year so far, with just five trading sessions left in 2012: The Dow has advanced 8 percent, while the S&P 500 has climbed 13.7 percent and the Nasdaq has jumped 16 percent.
IT COULD GET A LITTLE CRAZY
Equity volumes are expected to fall sharply next week. Last year, daily volume on each of the last five trading days dropped on average by about 49 percent, compared with the rest of 2011 - to just over 4 billion shares a day exchanging hands on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and NYSE MKT in the final five sessions of the year from a 2011 daily average of 7.9 billion.
If the trend repeats, low volumes could generate a spike in volatility as traders keep track of any advance in the cliff talks in Washington.
"I'm guessing it's going to be a low volume week. There's not a whole lot other than the fiscal cliff that is going to continue to take the headlines," said Joe Bell, senior equity analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research, in Cincinnati.
"A lot of people already have a foot out the door, and with the possibility of some market-moving news, you get the possibility of increased volatility."
Economic data would have to be way off the mark to move markets next week. But if the recent trend of better-than-expected economic data holds, stocks will have strong fundamental support that could prevent selling from getting overextended even as the fiscal cliff negotiations grind along.
Small and mid-cap stocks have outperformed their larger peers in the last couple of months, indicating a shift in investor sentiment toward the U.S. economy. The S&P MidCap 400 Index <.mid> overcame a technical level by confirming its close above 1,000 for a second week.
"We view the outperformance of the mid-caps and the break of that level as a strong sign for the overall market," Schaeffer's Bell said.
"Whenever you have flight to risk, it shows investors are beginning to have more of a risk appetite."
Evidence of that shift could be a spike in shares in the defense sector, expected to take a hit as defense spending is a key component of the budget talks.
The PHLX defense sector index <.dfx> hit a historic high on Thursday, and far outperformed the market on Friday with a dip of just 0.26 percent, while the three major U.S. stock indexes finished the day down about 1 percent.
Following a half-day on Wall Street on Monday ahead of the Christmas holiday, Wednesday will bring the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index. It is expected to show a ninth-straight month of gains.
U.S. jobless claims on Thursday are seen roughly in line with the previous week's level, with the forecast at 360,000 new filings for unemployment insurance, compared with the previous week's 361,000.

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National Geographic marks anniversary with "Exploration" of Titanic, Lighting Strikes, Genghis Khan

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - The National Geographic Channel is celebrating the 125th anniversary of the National Geographic Society with a new "Night of Exploration" on Fridays that will look at Titanic, Stonehenge, Easter Island, and more of the world's fascinating places and mysteries.

Beginning January 11, the network will air programs about exploration every Friday night from 8 to 10 p.m. On that night, it will premiere of "A New Age of Exploration: National Geographic at 125," which will feature such explorers as storm chaser Tim Samaras as he tries to film a lightning bolt the moment it hits the ground.

The special will also feature research scientist and engineer Albert Lin, who believes he's located the burial ground of Genghis Khan, and James Cameron and Bob Ballard as they plunge the ocean's depths. NGC will also re-air "Titanic: The Final Word With James Cameron" on January 11.

Subsequent Friday-night programming includes re-airings of "The Human Family Tree," "Stonehenge Decoded" and "Easter Island Underworld." Other re-airings include "Drain the Ocean," "King Tut and the Lost Dynasty," and "King Tut's Final Secrets."

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Joss Whedon's "S.H.I.E.L.D." pilot adds 'Nashville' star Chloe Bennet

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Chloe Bennet is moving from "Nashville" and into far stranger territory.

Bennet, who has a recurring role on the ABC drama "Nashville" as Hailey, has been cast in Joss Whedon's superhero pilot "Marvel's S.H.I.E.L.D.," which is being written by "Avengers" writer-director Whedon, his brother Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen ("Dollhouse").

Bennet, who also goes by the name Chloe Wang but is billed as Chloe Bennet on "Nashville," will play Skye, a young woman who's fascinated with superheroes and the organizations that spring up around them, an individual with knowledge of the casting told TheWrap.

The actress joins a cast that also includes "ER" alum Ming-Na, who'll play agent Melinda May, and Clark Gregg, who played S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Agent Coulson in "The Avengers."

The Whedons and Tancharoen will also executive-produce the project, along with Jeffrey Bell and Jeph Loeb of Marvel Television, if it goes into production, and Joss Whedon is also attached to direct, schedule permitting.

The project comes from ABC Studios and Marvel Television.

Hollywood Reporter first reported the news of Bennet's casting.

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Twilight Zone" reboot in the works from Bryan Singer, CBS Television Studios

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Bryan Singer is about to enter "The Twilight Zone."

The "X-Men" director is working on a reboot of Rod Serling's television series with CBS Television Studios, a spokeswoman for CBS Television Studios told TheWrap. Singer will develop and executive-produce the project, and could direct.

The project is currently in the very early stages.

The original "Twilight Zone" ran on CBS from 1959 to 1964, and the network revived the series in the 1980s. Most recently, the UPN ran a revival of the series, with Forest Whitaker hosting. That version, which launched in 2002, lasted one season.

Singer was also involved in the revival of another classic television series earlier this year, with NBC's "The Munsters" revamp, dubbed "Mockingbird Lane." Initially conceived as a series, "Mockingbird Lane" aired as a Halloween special for the network.

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Michael Kors replaced by Zac Posen as "Project Runway" judge

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Michael Kors is out at "Project Runway."

Fashion designer Kors will not be a judge on the Lifetime reality competition when it returns for its 11th season on January 24, Lifetime said Tuesday. Instead, designer Zac Posen will join Heidi Klum, Nina Garcia and Tim Gunn as a featured judge.

Lifetime told TheWrap that Kors is vacating his judge's position due to scheduling conflicts.

"Due to the back-to-back film schedule for seasons 10 and seasons 11 this summer, Michael was not able to commit to all the dates required for filming season 11," a Lifetime spokeswoman said in a statement. "Always part of the 'Project Runway' family, Michael will be seen in the future on the show, and we are excited to confirm that Michael will be back as a judge for the season 11 finale."

Kors' departure isn't the only change that's coming to "Project Runway" for its upcoming season. This cycle, the competing designers will be made to work together for every challenge, where they will have to work together while ensuring that their creations stand out on the runway. It's hoped this will lead to riveting combination of collaboration and backbiting.

Guests judges for the upcoming season include Bette Midler, Susan Sarandon, Miranda Lambert, John Legend, Emmy Rossum, Kristin Davis and others.

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Anderson Cooper Reveals He's Gay

After years of speculation about his sexuality, Anderson Cooper has revealed that he's gay.

The 45-year-old CNN anchor came out in an email to the Daily Beast's Andrew Sullivan that was published on Sullivan's blog this morning. Cooper was responding to an Entertainment Weekly article about how gay public figures are increasingly coming out in more restrained ways than in the past.

"The fact is, I'm gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn't be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud," Cooper writes.

Cooper explains that he kept his sexuality private "for professional reasons" but had "begun to consider whether the unintended outcomes of maintaining my privacy outweigh personal and professional principle." Instances of gay bullying made him "believe there is value in making clear where I stand."

While Cooper doesn't go into the specifics about romantic relationships, he writes, "I am also blessed far beyond having a great career. I love, and I am loved."

He concludes his email, "I still consider myself a reserved person and I hope this doesn't mean an end to a small amount of personal space. But I do think visibility is important, more important than preserving my reporter's shield of privacy."

In addition to anchoring CNN's primetime news show "Anderson Cooper 360°," Cooper hosts a daytime talk show, "Anderson."

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