Tuesday morning headlines

Stocks open higher: Wall Street ignoring some not-so-great bank earnings. Dow is up more than 100 points.

Citigroup's profit falls: The European debt crisis is being blamed, at least in part, on worse-than-expected earnings. (NYT)

Wells Fargo reports higher earnings: The bank set aside less money to cover bad loans. (Reuters)

China's robust economy: Its gross domestic product grew 8.9 percent in the fourth quarter, which is actually a bit slower than a year earlier. (MarketWatch)

More homeless receiving welfare: The number of families in the state's CalWorks program has jumped by 98 percent in the last five years. From the LAT:

The increase shows how difficult it is for people on the lower rungs of the financial ladder to improve their situation in the current tough economy, experts say, especially because the average amount that Los Angeles County families get from the state has shrunk from $560 a month three years ago to $490 last October. "The largest growth has been at that level of need where people are at the ledge of homelessness," said Michael Arnold, executive director of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

Stat of the day: One out of three unemployed Californians have been out of work for more than a year. (OC Register)

Doubts on rail alternatives: Proponents of a California bullet train insist that it would be more expensive to build roads and airports if no high-speed rail is built. But that might not be the case. From the LAT:

Transportation researchers, government officials and watchdog groups are saying the $171-billion claim is based on such exaggerated estimates, misleading statements and erroneous assumptions that it is "divorced from any reality." "There is some dishonesty in the methodology," said Samer Madanat, director of UC Berkeley's Institute of Transportation Studies, the top research center of its type in the nation. "I don't trust an estimate like this."

SpaceX delays rocket mission: The Hawthorne-based company says it needs more time for its mission to the International Space Station. No new date has been set. (LAT)