Friday morning headlines

Late-year rally?: Low inflation numbers provide encouraging economic news. Dow is up about 50 points.

L.A. inflation takes a dip: November prices actually fell 0.1 percent from the previous month, but were up 3 percent over the last 12 months - largely due to higher gas and food costs. Nationwide, the Consumer Price Index was unchanged in November but rose 3.4 percent in the last year. (OC Register)

Gas prices keep falling: Average gallon of regular in the L.A. area is $3.583, about a nickel lower than last week and a quarter lower than last month, according to the Auto Club. But prices remain higher than normal for this time of year.

SEC sues for former Fannie, Freddie executives: The government accuses them of misleading taxpayers about risky subprime mortgages that the two entities held during the housing bust. From AP:

Those charged include the agencies' two former CEOs, Fannie's Daniel Mudd and Freddie's Richard Syron. They are the highest-profile individuals to be charged in connection with the 2008 financial crisis. Mudd and Syron led the mortgage giants when the housing bubble burst in late 2006 and 2007. The four other top executives also worked for the companies during that time.

Mixed picture at ports. Outbound container traffic at the Port of Los Angeles was up 15 percent in November compared with a year earlier, and inbound traffic was 6.2 percent. But the Port of Long Beach, which lost a terminal operator to L.A., had another weak month.

Zynga begins trading: The SF-based online game developer priced its initial public offering at $10 per share, raising $1 billion. That's the largest Internet-related IPO since Google went public seven years ago. From AP:

With its huge player base and a few loyal spenders, Zynga earned a net income of $90.6 million in 2010, an unusual pre-IPO money maker in the sector. Cowen & Co. analyst Doug Creutz, however, initiated coverage Friday with a "Neutral" rating on the stock. While Zynga is the leader in Facebook gaming, he's concerned that it won't be able to grow fast enough to justify its stock price. Growth in Facebook gaming has slowed, and Zynga's market share has declined from 50 percent to 38 percent of daily active users, he wrote.

Government shutdown averted: Congressional leaders somehow agreed to a spending plan that will keep things running for the next nine months. But they still haven't reached a deal on extending a payroll tax holiday, which expires in another couple of weeks. (NYT)

TV's sports tax:Subscribers pay, on average, $100 a year for sports programming, even if they care little or nothing about sports. From the NYT:

A sizable portion goes to the National Football League, which dominates sports on television and which struck an extraordinary deal this week with the major networks -- $27 billion over nine years -- that most likely means the average cable bill will rise again soon. Those spiraling costs are fraying the formerly tight bonds between the creators and distributors of television. Cable channels like ESPN that carry games are charging cable and satellite operators more money, and broadcast networks are now doing the same, demanding cash for their broadcast signals and using sports as leverage.

Amgen CEO to retire: Kevin Sharer has headed the Thousand Oaks-based biotech company for 11 years. Also retiring is the company's longtime research head, Roger Perlmutter. New CEO is Robert Bradway, who currently is COO. (LABJ)

Downsizing Ontario airport?: With passenger traffic plummeting, officials might shut down one of the two terminals. From the LAT:

A pillar of pride for the Inland Empire, the sprawling facility -- owned and operated by the city of Los Angeles -- lost a third of its 7.2 million passengers during the economic downturn between 2007 and 2010. The airport is on track to have as many passengers this year as it saw in 1987. Nationally, only Cincinnati is shedding travelers at a faster pace.