China expects 10.5 percent yearly growth AP
China's economy should expand by 10.5 percent this year as an investment boom surges ahead despite tightening government controls, the country's top planner said in comments reported Monday by state media. Total economic output should exceed 20 trillion yuan ($2.5 trillion), said Ma Kai, chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission. The government reported economic growth of 10.7 percent for the first nine months of the year.

SABRE IS on the block wsj
The travel-booking company could be sold as early as this week for a premium to its $3.75 billion market cap.

Three companies join Nasdaq 100 Index in reshuffle Reuters
Level 3 Communications Inc., Infosys Technologies and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. are joining the Nasdaq-100 Index (.NDX), in the exchange's annual re-ranking of the index.

China's Shifting Growth May Alter Its Taste for Foreign Investment wsj
When China won the WTO's seal of approval in late 2001, it was a signal to the world that Beijing wasn't going to turn its back on capitalism. That sent a flood of foreign investment sweeping into China, surging from roughly $40 billion annually in the years before 2002 to more than $70 billion last year.Even though it is much more open now, imports still account for only about 11% of the country's gross domestic product. The equivalent figure for China was 29% last year.

Diamond mines are forever CNN Money 
The $60-billion-a-year diamond industry looks very different from Sierra Leone, where the average man earns $220 a year and dies at age 39. A Fortune image gallery

Holiday shoppers hold out for deals CNN Money
A recent survey indicates that more Americans plan to wait until after Christmas to shop; Wal-Mart sales look flat. Britt Beemer, chairman and founder of America's Research Group, said that he expects comparable store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year -- a key indicator of retail health -- to rise 2.7 percent this holiday season, down from a forecast for 3.1 percent growth he gave in early November.

Hewlett-Packard's and CA's Lobbying Gains Research Tax Break Bloomberg 
Hewlett-Packard Co. and CA Inc. are among the companies that will soon be able to reclaim a research tax credit they have sought for a decade because of a measure enacted by the U.S. Congress last week. The $16.3 billion incentive is a cornerstone of broader tax, trade and health-care legislation approved Dec. 9 in the final hours of the Republican-controlled Congress.

Wii sales soar; PS3 sales stumble CNN Money 
Nvember sales data gives Nintendo a 2-1 sales advantage over Sony. Sony sold just 195,000 PS3 units in its first 13 days on shelves, according to analysts quoting preliminary numbers from The NPD Group, which tracks video game sales. That's well short of the 400,000 the company had projected. Nintendo's Wii console, another hot holiday item, sold 476,000 units - a more than 2-1 sales advantage.

Five Macroeconomic Myths wsj 
...we should expect 3% real growth, based on 2% increases in productivity and 1% population growth. This economy is fundamentally sound.The five pillars of contemporary conventional wisdom that have current standing, and see how well they hold up.

• Myth No. 1: Monetary policy causes booms and busts.
• Myth No. 2: GDP growth was extraordinary in the 1990s
• Myth No. 3: Americans don't save
• Myth No. 4: The U.S. government debt is big.
• Myth No. 5: Government debt is a burden on our grandchildren