Tuesday morning headlines

Stocks open higher:The Dow is up about 85 points in early trading. Some decent economic news and fading concerns about Dubai might be playing a role.

GE-Vivendi deal: The two companies could announce something this week, but the early word is that General Electric will buy out Vivendi's stake in NBC Universal for $5.8 billion. That would set up another deal that would give control of NBCU to Comcast. (WSJ)

Strong Cyber Monday: Sales were up 14 percent from a year ago and shoppers bought nearly 30 percent more items per order versus last year, according to Coremetrics. From CNNMoney.com:

An average of 4.2 million consumers per minute visited shopping Web sites throughout the day Monday in North America, according to Internet monitoring firm Akamai, which tracks traffic trends to more than 270 e-tailers. The firm, which monitors North American visitors to sites such as American Eagle Outfitters, Overstock.com, QVC.com and eBags.com, said traffic peaked at about 9:30 p.m. ET, reaching 5.1 million visitors per minute.

Buying up planes: L.A. billionaire Steven Udvar-Hazy is coming up with a plan to buy back part of the aircraft lease business he sold to AIG. Under the plan, he and a group of investors would purchase about $4 billion worth of planes. From the WSJ:

ILFC, one of AIG's most prized assets, had been on the block for almost a year, as part of AIG's efforts to raise cash to repay government aid. ILFC is saddled with more than $30 billion in debt and has been frozen out of short-term credit markets by AIG's woes.ILFC is the world's largest aircraft lessor by fleet value and the largest customer for both Boeing Co. and Airbus. It owns about 1,000 aircraft and has remained solidly profitable despite the downturn in the global airline business.

Latest on Saab: GM is considering a plan to close down the brand and sell off the operations to a Chinese company. The board will be talking later today. (Bloomberg)

Another dip in gas prices: An average gallon of regular in the L.A. area is down two cents, to $2.976. (EIA)

Ex-Endeavor executive sues: John Ferriter, the former head of reality television at the William Morris Agency, is accusing Ari Emanuel, Richard Rosen and Mark Itkin for unlawful termination, fraud, defamation and slander. He is asking for damages of $25 million. Ferriter was the only WM board member to vote against its merger with Endeavor. (LAT)

New effort at mortgage relief: The Obama administration will fine lenders that fail to increase the number of homeowners receiving permanent loan modifications. From the NYT:

The move is the government's latest endeavor to reinvigorate a $75 billion program that promised to stem foreclosures and help hundreds of thousands of struggling homeowners with their mortgages. So far, however, only a small percentage of eligible Americans have had their mortgage payments reduced, and many are encountering difficulties as they try to make the cuts permanent.

Dobbs talking to CNBC?: That's what the NYT's Brian Stelter is hearing. Up to now, speculation about the former CNN anchor's future has centered on Fox and/or a Senate run.

Lacter on radio: This morning's business chat with KPCC's Steve Julian looks at a possible new auto plant in Downey and this week's L.A. auto show. Also on kpcc.org and on podcast.