MORNING COFFEE

Senate Approves Healthcare Bill.  The Senate approved President Obama's sweeping healthcare overhaul early this morning.  The bill extends health coverage to more than 30M uninsured and putts an end to refusing insurance to people with pre-existing medical conditions. The bill also gives subsidies to help the underprivileged pay for mandatory health insurance. Critics say the bill will drive up costs and increase the budget deficit.  Legal challenges are already in the works stating that the special deals some states received and the requirement that help get insurance or be fined are unconstitutional.

Warren Buffett buying ResCap?  Unconfirmed stories are circulating that Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA/BRKB) are in talks to purchase the troubled mortgage and loan servicer Residential Capital.  The company whose parent is GMAC has required repeated cash infusions to stay afloat.  Buffett and others are said to have large debt positions in ResCap, which is on the brink of dipping below the net worth of $250M it is required to have to stay in compliance with its loans.

Wells Fargo and Citigroup Pays Back TARP.  Wells Fargo (WFC) and Citigroup (C) repaid a total of $45B and exited TARP.  By doing this the companies will have more say over employee compensation and dividends. The Treasury still holds warrants to buy 110M shares in Wells Fargo. The paybacks bring the total amount of repaid TARP funds to $118B. 

Economic releases due out today are Continuing Claims 5170K est. and Durable Goods Orders +0.5%

The Stock market closes early today for Christmas and will be closed tomorrow.

·         Futures: Dow +0.2% to 10427. S&P +0.4% to 1119.50. Nasdaq +0.3%.
Feb. crude +0.3% to $76.90. Gold +0.9% to $1,104.
Treasurys are flat.
Euro +0.5% vs. dollar. Yen +0.4%. Pound +0.3%.

·         Asia: Nikkei +1.5% to 10537. Shanghai +2.6% to 3153. BSE +0.8% to 17361. Hong Kong was closed.

·         Europe at midday: FTSE +0.3% to 5387. CAC +0.1% to 3915. Frankfurt was closed.