Monday morning headlines

Stocks reverse course: New worries from Europe and Intel cuts forecast. Dow is down about 180 points.

Shoppers propping up the economy?: The concern among some economists is whether the spending will continue after the holidays. From the WSJ:

The savings rate, which rose sharply in the wake of the recession, has fallen in the past year, according to the Commerce Department, hitting 3.5% in October, down from 5.3% a year earlier. Revolving credit--which means mostly credit cards--has been trending up. "It's unsustainable," said Bernard Baumohl, chief economist of Economic Outlook Group. "At some point when the bills come due, I expect that we will see a very sharp retrenchment in consumer spending, and that could put the recovery in jeopardy again."

Occupy movement targets Port of Long Beach: Several hundred protesters are marching to a dock facility owned by SSA Marine, a shipping company that's partially owned by Goldman Sachs. It's not clear whether the group will try to disrupt operations, but the Long Beach police are standing by. (AP)

Are Clippers close to Chris Paul deal?: This one would send the All-Star point guard to L.A.'s other NBA team, the LAT is reporting. The Hornets would get center Chris Kaman, backup second-year guard Eric Bledsoe, second-year forward Al-Farouq Aminu, and the No. 1 draft pick they obtained from the Minnesota Timberwolves. From the Times:

Clippers owner Donald Sterling and the NBA have to sign off on the deal. A package from the Lakers for Paul was turned down by the league. The NBA will probably review the Clippers deal Monday. What may actually help the Clippers get the deal done are the young players involved and a potential top-flight draft pick.

Bad notices for Kindle Fire: Amazon's heavily promoted tablet is being picked apart by customers and reviewers. Updates are already in the works, From the NYT:

A few of their many complaints: there is no external volume control. The off switch is easy to hit by accident. Web pages take a long time to load. There is no privacy on the device; a spouse or child who picks it up will instantly know everything you have been doing. The touch screen is frequently hesitant and sometimes downright balky.

Madoff regrets guilty plea: The convicted scamster tells the NYT's Diana Henriques that he had confessed in order to spare his family, but now wishes that a trial had taken place. "If I had known that things would turn out the way they did, with all the harassment of my family anyway, I would have spent the money and gone to trial," Madoff said.

Activision's "Call of Duty" hits $1 billion in sales: The latest version of the popular shooter game took just 16 days to reach the $1 billion mark - less time than for the blockbuster movie, "Avatar." (All Things Digital)

Worst BO weekend in three years: "New Year's Eve" wound up in the top spot with only $13.7 million. Overall revenues were $78 million, the lowest number since September 2008. (THR)

LA Fitness takes over 171 Bally locations: That includes about 40 in Southern California. The $153-million purchase gives the privately held Irvine-based company more than 500 locations nationwide. (LAT)