Wall Street has been cheered by the deal to forge stronger ties between most of Europe's economies. For the major averages, it is the second straight weekly gain. The Dow added 186 points, or 1.6 percent, to 12,184. The S&P was up 21 and the Nasdaq rose 50 points on the trading session.
- Congressional negotiators have tentatively settled on a relatively small $5 billion increase for the
Pentagon's non-war budget as a massive spending bill takes shape behind closed doors on Capitol Hill. The 1 percent increase would give the Pentagon $518 billion to cover everything except direct war spending.
- The National Labor Relations Board has dropped its high-profile challenge of Boeing's decision to open a nonunion aircraft manufacturing plant in South Carolina. The move came after unionized machinists approved a contract extension with Boeing, and agreed to withdraw its charge that the company violated federal labor laws.
- A private California company will attempt the first-ever commercial cargo run to the International
Space Station in February. NASA's announcement comes a year and a day after Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, became the first private business to launch a capsule into orbit and return it safely to Earth.
- Hewlett-Packard says it will make its webOS mobile operating system software available as open-source so that, like Google's Android, anyone can use it and modify it for applications. HP got webOS when it paid $1.8 billion in 2010 for failing smartphone pioneer Palm.
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