Friday morning headlines

Stocks still up: The Dow is up about 25 points in early trading.

Countrywide looking good: Bank of America was derided in some quarters for purchasing the troubled mortgage company, but the bank's loan origination service - much of it coming from the Countrywide assets - is booming. Credit lower mortgage rates and increasing home sales. B of A CEO Ken Lewis says he expects the company to make money for the full year. From Bloomberg:

[Barbara Desoer, head of mortgage, home equity and insurance], wouldn’t discuss the recent performance of home loans already on its books, saying “you know what’s happening with” home prices and unemployment “and the potential impact those can have on borrowers being under stress.” The bank’s mortgage-servicing business has more than doubled its staff that deals with troubled borrowers to 5,000 in the past year. Still, the company hasn’t always provided the best service, in part because of the volume of calls for help, she said.

Stewart vs. Cramer: No contest - the host of "The Daily Show" crushed the host of CNBC's "Mad Money," almost to the point where I almost felt sorry for Cramer. Almost. From ABC News:

"I understand you want to make finance entertaining. But it's not a f****** game," Stewart went on. "You knew what the banks were doing. ... and for now to pretend that this was a crazy once in a lifetime tsunami is disingenuous at best." Cramer couldn't contend. He claimed he was trying, he and the reporters at CNBC "try really hard to report the news" and admitted he "should do a better job at it." "I'm a guy trying to do an entertainment show about business," he said sheepishly toward the end of his stint on Stewart's show. Stewart finished him thusly: "So maybe we could remove the financial expert from the Cramer we trust and start getting back to the fundamentals of reporting as well, and I can go back to making fart noises and funny faces."

Fox shuffle: Peter Rice, the man who helped shepherd the likes of "Slumdog Millionaire," “Juno,” “Sideways” and “Little Miss Sunshine,” becomes chief entertainment executive, replacing Peter Liguori. Parent News Corp. also announced that all production divisions would be combined under a single unit. The speculation has Rice eventually becoming the No 2 guy at News Corp. From the NYT:

Several executives at Fox and the News Corporation said the move was being interpreted internally as an effort by the company chairman, Rupert Murdoch, to reward Mr. Rice with a significant promotion, one that would keep him in the company and not looking for a more prominent position elsewhere in Hollywood. In addition, Mr. Liguori’s role in the network entertainment division had become less well-defined after another experienced network programmer, Kevin Reilly, became president of entertainment in 2007.

Icahn berates Lions Gate: With 14.5 percent of the outstanding shares, he's making noises about the company’s recent $250-million acquisition of TV Guide Network and TVGuide.com ("borders on recklessness"). Cost-cutting has been on Icahn’s agenda at the production studio, though there's a lot of internecine warfare going on. (LAT)

American Apparel near deal: The L.A.-based apparel retailer/manufacturer run by Dov Charney is about to sell a 20 percent stake to private equity firm Lion Capital for $80 million. The NYT reports that AA is on the verge of defaulting on $16 million owed to the tech mogul Michael Dell that comes due a week from Friday. The company announced last month that sales at its stores fell 9 percent, the first monthly drop in American Apparel’s history.

Regulators approve rate hike: Monthly bills for Southern California Edison customers will increase by between $2 and $4. Consumer groups warn that the numbers might be higher. The increase is less than what Edison sought but more than an administrative law judge recommended. (LAT)

Breaking $2: The average price of self-serve regular gasoline in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area is $2.175 per gallon, according to the Auto Club's latest numbers, but there are pockets where $1.99 signs have been popping up.