Wednesday morning headlines

Mixed market: Looks like a lull after two strong days. Dow is down a few points, but S&P is up.

Fiscal cliff update: White House says the president would veto House Speaker John Boehner's "Plan B" proposal to extend tax cuts for those making up to $1 million. Of course, it has zero chance of passing the Senate. (AP)

U.S. to sell GM shares: The Treasury Department will unload its 32 percent stake in the automaker over the next 15 months. Unlike the sale of AIG, the government expected to lose money. From DealBook:

Ultimately, the administration invested about $49.5 billion in G.M., helping guide the company through a relatively quick Chapter 11 filing that shed an enormous amount of its debt load. It re-emerged as a public company in late 2010. Since then, it has performed fairly well, having reported rising annual profits for the past two years. The company's health has improved to the point that it is growing parts of its business, notably by creating a new internal lending arm with two acquisitions worth $7.7 billion.

Fed Ex's modest expectations: The package delivery giant, reporting a smaller-than-expected decline in second-quarter profits, is looking for global weakness in the months ahead. Company is considered an economic bellwether. (AP)

Time Warner Channel drops Ovation channel: The Santa Monica-based arts network is the first of what could be several outlets to be cut by the large cable TV provider. From the LAT:

"Steeply escalating programming costs are forcing us to closely assess each network as it comes up for renewal," Time Warner Cable said Tuesday in a statement. "Ovation is among the poorest performing networks, and is viewed by less than 1% of our customers on any given day." Cable and satellite TV operators are struggling to contain programming costs amid demands for huge fee increases by sports networks, including two new Los Angeles-based channels launched this fall by Time Warner Cable.

Noguez to keep receiving salary: The L.A. County Assessor has been in jail since October on charges of taking $185,000 in bribes from a tax consultant to lower property taxes for his clients. From the LAT:

Elected officials in California typically can't be removed from office unless they are convicted of a job-related crime or voted out in a recall. On Tuesday, the supervisors considered invoking a rarely used provision that would have allowed them to remove Noguez for failing to perform his duties for three consecutive months. After the closed session, Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich said, "My personal feeling is he has not abandoned his job by virtue of choice -- he's been incarcerated for allegations of corruption and until a court of law convicts him of a crime, he's still the assessor of Los Angeles County."