Google’s $12.5 billion deal to buy Motorola will be cleared as early as next week.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the U.S. Department of Justice plans to approve the deal next week.

European regulators have also set a deadline of next Monday to decide whether or not to sign off.

The authorities are worried that Google might use Motorola’s massive patent hoard to block other companies in the mobile space. Earlier today, Google tried to calm those fears by promising it would offer to license those patents before suing.

Once the deal closes, the fun begins: seeing whether Google can actually turn Motorola’s fading business around.

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In his morning comment, Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid writes…

I innocently mentioned being a Liverpool fan in yesterday’s Early Morning Reid and ended up being offered Wembley Cup Final tickets I thought I’d missed out on. So without abusing my position I thought I’d mention this morning that I’ve always wanted to go to Augusta for the Masters and that there could be no better home for Olympic 100m or Wimbledon Finals tickets.

Clever.

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Apple has asked the European Telecommunications Standards Institute to outline the basic rules of how license patents, reports the Wall Street Journal.

In a letter written in November (which surfaced just yesterday), Apple calls out ETSI and says that patent licensing rules are inconsistent.

The company’s beef stems from the idea of “fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory” (FRAND) patent licensing.

If a patent is determined to be an industry standard — WiFi or 3G components, for example — FRAND licensing makes it easier for companies to use that technology to build new products.

Apple goes so far as to suggest that blocking a FRAND patent from being used should be outlawed, and it even proposes a new royalty system for licensing patents in Europe.

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If you’re looking for a data point that shows a shift in compensation culture on Wall Street and you took a quick look at the headline of this Bloomberg article, you might think you’ve found it: “Bonuses Met Wall Street Workers’ Expectations, Survey Shows.”

According to an email survey of 1,006 financial sector employees by eFinancialCareers.com, 56 percent said their bonus met or exceeded their expectations.

So, it sounds like Wall Street is beginning to accept that a different pay scale will be the norm, right?

Not really. The survey only measured expectations. As a result, it speaks more to the lengths Wall Street employees went this year to convince themselves that their pay was going to be terrible than to any absolute measure of satisfaction with that pay.

Is Wall Street really happy with 20 to 30 percent pay cuts, less cash and more restricted stock that vests over a period of years? Probably not.

Do they think that outcome is better than being fired or getting nothing? Yes! And that’s is precisely the news this survey delivers.

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Today was a huge day for the economy. U.S. companies added 243k jobs in January and the unemployment rate fell to 8.3%.

This fueled a major surge in the stock markets, which hit some major milestones.  Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq hit pre-financial crisis levels.  The Dow closed at 12,862, a 4-year high, and the Nasdaq jumped to 2,905, an 11-year high.

The S&P 500, which is arguably the best snapshot of the U.S. stock markets, hit 1,344, a 6-month high.

Here’s a look at some historical charts courtesy of Yahoo Finance.

SEE ALSO: Wall Street’s Sharpest Minds Predict Where Stocks Are Headed In 2012 >

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Forget all the debates about debt monetazation, quantitative easing, and even inflation.

The REAL reason bankers should want Americans to stop getting rid of their debt and keep living off credit boils down to cold hard cash according to Morgan Stanley (via zerohedge).

Look what happens to banker pay when the Debt/GDP ratio rises — cha-ching! And you’ll note that both banker pay and Debt//GDP were really high around the 2008 and around the 1929 Stock Market crash.

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NEW YORK (AP) — The agency building the new World Trade Center says a design flaw could add millions of dollars to the cost of the complex’s signature tower.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said Tuesday that the loading dock under One World Trade Center won’t be finished in time for tenants to move their equipment into the 104-story tower. So it’s building five temporary loading bays above ground.

A temporary station that was built for the Port Authority Trans Hudson subway is blocking access to the underground loading area. The station can’t be dismantled to make way for underground freight areas until crews finish the permanent station.

“Several years ago there was a design miss,” Patrick Foye, executive director of the Port Authority, told reporters Tuesday. “Should it have been caught? The answer is, probably.”

The temporary loading bays will add millions to the cost of One World Trade Center, the glass and steel spire previously known as the Freedom Tower. The building is now 90 stories high.

“We and the other concerned stakeholders believe this will be a short-term issue and will not impede completion of the site or tenants moving into the buildings,” Foye said. He spoke after giving a speech to the Association for a Better New York.

The Wall Street Journal on Monday reported that the cost of One World Trade Center has soared to $3.8 billion, $700 million more than the last publicly released estimate in 2008.

Foye said the rising costs will be examined in a review of the agency that is being prepared for the governors of New York and New Jersey. He would not confirm the $3.8 billion figure.

Other problems at the World Trade Center have included a dispute with the foundation that is building a 9/11 museum and financial troubles that have dogged the company that is laying steel.

Foye said One World Trade Center is 60 percent leased by tenants including the Conde Nast magazine company and Vantone Industrial, a Chinese real estate company. But other buildings planned for the complex have struggled to find occupants.

Last week Silverstein Properties Inc., the developer building the 80-story Three World Trade Center, said it is still looking for tenants to fill the first 10 floors of that building, which is already under construction. If it cannot fill 10 floors, Silverstein must stop construction at seven floors under a financing agreement with the Port Authority.

The second-highest building in the planned complex, the 88-story Two World Trade Center, is also on hold because of a lack of tenants.

Foye said the Port Authority still expects to finish One World Trade by the end of 2013.

He said completion of the tower will allow the agency to refocus on its transportation duties, including long-overdue overhauls of its bridges and improvements to its airport terminals.

Tuesday was the deadline for contractors to send proposals to the Port Authority to replace La Guardia Airport’s Central Terminal, which Foye called obsolete.

“It’s got a quaint, nostalgic but unacceptable kind of 1940s, 1950s feel that’s just not acceptable,” he said.

Foye also said about $350 million is earmarked for overhauling Terminal B at Newark Liberty International Airport. Travelers have criticized that terminal because of the way it limits passengers to individual “piers” instead of allowing them to move around the whole terminal.

Later this year, the Port Authority will also ask contractors for proposals to build a new Terminal A at Newark, Foye said.

Delta Air Lines and the Port Authority are also renovating Delta’s hub at John F. Kennedy International Airport’s Terminal 4, mostly through $900 million in special-project bonds.

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JP Morgan’s equity strategist Tom Lee is still bullish on the stock market.  His 2012 year-end target is 1,350.

However, with the S&P 500 up 20% since October, history suggest that stocks could stall for months before rising again.  In a note to clients (via WSJ MarketBeat).

There have been 63 prior instances of a 20% gain in 4 months. Over the next 3 months, markets were flattish with average gain of 1.2% (4.8% annualized) and decline of 5% or more 17% of time…thus, a likely “pause.”

Fortunately for the bulls, the lull doesn’t last very long.  From Lee’s note:

The 6-mo/12-mo returns were considerably better with 6.3%/8.5% further gains and a win ratio of 68%/70%, respectively—thus, resumption of trend.

SEE ALSO: Wall Street’s Sharpest Minds Predict Where Stocks Are Headed In 2012 >

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It’s possible that this will be the biggest news to come out of the State Of The Union.

HuffPo’s Sam Stein reports:

During his State of the Union address tonight, President Obama will announce the creation of a special unit to investigate misconduct and illegalities that contributed to both the financial collapse and the mortgage crisis.

The office, part of a new Unit on Mortgage Origination and Securitization Abuses, will be chaired by Eric Schneiderman, the New York attorney general, according to a White House official.

The lack of a pursuit of pre-crisis “crimes” remains a big, public frustration. We have no idea if this will go anywhere, but obviously this shows that The White House is still aware of this issue, and also shows that it likely wants to put Wall Street on trial (figuratively and perhaps literally) in the runup to the election.

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At the end of the Wall Street Journal’s story on RIM’s CEOs stepping down, “a person familiar with the matter” says, “There is no intent to put the company up for sale.”

Pretty vague language there. Sounds like RIM would sell if it got the right offer. It probably just hasn’t come along yet.

(And from RIM’s perspective, it probably won’t come for a while. New CEO or not, the company still thinks its worth a lot more than what its market cap reflects.)

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