Friday morning headlines

Down market: Strong overall earnings at JP Morgan are being overshadowed by big losses in the bank's mortgage and credit card business. Dow is down over 100 points in early trading.

JP Morgan cleans up: Perhaps not so hot for PR purposes, but the banking giant earned $11.7 billion last year, more than double its profit in 2008. Employee compensation, much of it in bonuses, totals $26.9 billion. From the NYT:

The strong results -- coming a day after the Obama administration, to howls from Wall Street, announced plans to tax big banks to recoup some of the money the government expects to lose from bailing out the financial system -- underscored the gaping divide between the financial industry and the many ordinary Americans who are still waiting for an economic recovery. Over the next week or so, Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are expected to report similar surges in pay when they release their year-end numbers.

Latest on Conan: Looks like NBC is prepared to cut a large check and get that guy off its air (talk about your PR nightmares). Announcement might happen as early as today. Meanwhile, in one of the more bizarre comments coming out of this whole mess, NBC honcho Dick Ebersol says that "what this is really all about is an astounding failure by Conan." Like, huh? (Deadline.com, NYT)

J&J accused of kickbacks: The Justice Department alleges that the pharmacy giant Omnicare was paid millions of dollars to purchase and recommend Johnson & Johnson drugs to nursing homes. "We will pursue those who break the law to take advantage of the elderly and the poor," Tony West, assistant attorney general for the civil division of the Justice Department, said in a statement. (press release)

Mixed bag for videogames: Overall sales were $5.53 billion, up 4 percent from a year earlier and the best single month ever, according to NPD. But software sales (the more important local segment because several major publishers are based here) were down 7 percent from a year earlier. (Trade Tech Daily)

Another new Disney hire: Former LivePlanet executive Sean Bailey replaces Oren Aviv as president of production at Mouse House Studios. Also, a bunch of reassignments within the studio division were announced. (The Wrap)

Law firm blues: Revenue at 50 of the nation's 100 largest law firms was down in 2009 by an average of 4 percent. These same firms averaged 7 percent revenue growth in 2008. From the WSJ:

The profit picture would have been worse had firms not aggressively cut expenses, by an average of 7% in 2009, says Dan DiPietro, the advisory head of Citi's Law Firm Group. "Firms cut expenses largely by reducing their head counts, among both lawyers and professional managers," he says. Firms also took a scalpel to travel expenses and entertainment budgets.

E&P lives: New owner of the newspaper industry trade mag is Duncan McIntosh Co., an Irvine publisher (Boating World, Sea Magazine). Some employees will stay on. (AP)

UCLA Extension offers aid: The unemployed can now apply for help in covering the cost of upper-level certificate programs, which can run several thousand dollars. (LAT)