Tuesday morning headlines

Market still shaky: Almost 90 minutes into the session, the Dow is up over 100 points. Yipee! We’re back up to 7225.

L.A. home prices keep falling: The Case-Shiller index for December fell 2.5 percent from the previous month and 26.4 percent from a year earlier. That's about what the L.A.-area declines have been looking like in recent months. Meanwhile, quite a few cities fared worse, among them Vegas, Phoenix, SF and Seattle. From the NYT:

Housing prices are now falling so quickly that economists worried that potential buyers will stay on the sidelines and wait for the market to deteriorate further, reinforcing the downward momentum. “It’s a deflationary spiral,” said Dan Greenhaus, an analyst in the equity strategy division of Miller Tabak & Company. “Prices go down, people hold back, prices go down further, people hold back, and so on and so forth.”

Bernanke hopeful:: The Fed chief says the recession should end this year, and 2010 "will be a year of recovery," if government actions lead to some market stabilization. That's a very big if. Meanwhile, check out the lead story in today's NYT:

The government faced mounting pressure on Monday to put billions more in some of the nation’s biggest banks, two of the biggest automakers and the biggest insurance company, despite the billions it has already committed to rescuing them.

[CUT]

All these companies’ mushrooming needs reflect just how hard it is to stanch the flow of losses as the economy deteriorates. Even though the government’s finances are being stretched — and still more aid might be needed in the future — it is being forced to fill the growing holes in the finances of these companies out of fear that the demise of an important company could set off a chain reaction.

Gas prices fall: Not much - just a little over a penny a gallon, according to the government's latest survey. But wholesale gas prices have been falling. The average retail price of regular in the L.A. area is $2.25.

TV viewing at all-time high: The average American watches more than 151 hours a month, or about five hours a day. Keep in mind that Nielsen is counting televisions, computers and cell phones in its calculations. From the LAT:

Television executives (and space aliens) have the recession and the heightened interest in election coverage to thank for the increase in TV watching. People are staying in and watching the boob tube rather than spending money outside the house. "The timing of a lot of things has converged, what with the winter coming on, the darker nights, less money to go around and people entertaining at home more," said Susan Bandura, director of strategy at San Francisco advertising agency Hoffman/Lewis.

Oscar ratings up: Last year was a record low, so the Academy honchos shouldn't get too excited. The awards ceremony scored 36.3 million viewers. From Variety:

The Oscars have become the third major television event this month to post meaningful Nielsen gains. NBC's coverage of the Super Bowl drew a record crowd (98.73 million), and the Grammy Awards on CBS improved by 11% (19.05m vs. 17.17m). The three highest metered-market scores Sunday came from the top three markets -- 34.1/49 in New York, 31.2/46 in Chicago and a 28.1/44 in Los Angeles -- and these cities accounted for 20% of all viewing nationally.

Ticketmaster agrees to wall: Under a settlement with the NJ Attorney General, the West Hollywood-based company won't allow any tickets to be sold on its TicketsNow Web site (a secondary ticket service) until the initial sale begins on its primary Web site. All this stems from complaints about customers being redirected to TicketsNow, which was selling Bruce Springsteen tickets at much higher prices. (WSJ)

Lacter on radio: This morning's business chat with KPCC's Kari Moran (Steve Julian is off this week) looks at the outlook for supermarkets and how Countrywide and IndyMac are being rebranded. Also on kpcc.org and on podcast.