Thursday morning headlines

Stocks picking up speed: Strong earnings for Motorola, Time Warner Cable and Starwood Hotels & Resorts, along with more dealmaking (HP's purchase of Palm), has Wall Street upbeat this morning about the economy. Dow is up about 100 points.

Greece deal nears: An official with the European Union said he was confident that a bailout agreement will be wrapped up in the next few days. That's eased pressure on the world financial markets, although the unions in Greece aren't happy because any deal will likely involve more austerity measures. (AP)

Roubini: Bailout won't work: The downbeat economist tells CNBC that financial institutions holding Greek debt - mostly European - will have massive losses, and that the contagion will spread to Portugal, Spain, Italy and Ireland.

Highest foreclosure rates: Five of the top 10 cities are in California, but Vegas was in front of everyone, with one filing for every 28 households. Nationwide, it was one for every 138 households. (RealtyTrac)

Goldman may soon settle: The Wall Street giant wants to cut a deal with the SEC rather than go to court on fraud charges, reports the NY Post.

After 11 hours of accusations by members of the Senate Subcommittee on Permanent Investigations, people close to the bank said Goldman is mulling closing the SEC fraud-case chapter on the belief the firm's reputation, already damaged, might not endure a street fight with the Wall Street watchdog. "It's almost a certainty that there will be a settlement," said a source.

Goldman employees lie low: Guess that thrashing the other day has had some effect. From the WSJ:

According to employees, Goldman managers have urged them to keep a low profile, think carefully about the restaurants and parties they attend and watch how they behave in public. Some employees are even reluctant even to go out to lunch with co-workers for fear of being overheard talking about Goldman, said one person familiar with the matter.

Arizona not all bad: The NYT calls it a land of contradictions:

Arizona is home to some of the toughest prison sentencing laws in the country, and one of the cleanest campaign finance laws, too. Voters overwhelmingly re-elected Janet Napolitano, a Democrat, as governor the same year they returned the conservative senator Jon Kyl to Washington. The current Republican governor signed this law, but is also pushing for a tax increase.

Sempra settles claims: The San Diego-based energy company will pay out $410 million in connection with claims that it manipulated California's deregulated energy market, starting in the summer of 2000. Sempra admitted no wrongdoing. (SF Chronicle)

Oxy earnings nearly triple: The L.A.-based energy company was helped in the first quarter by oil prices that were 83 percent higher than a year earlier. (LAT)

New film permit process: The paperless system will allow for the Bureau of Street Services and the Department of Transportation to better coordinate street closures. (Daily News)

Chase adds more branches: Almost 50 new locations are planned for Socal, pushing the statewide total to more than 800. The bank's big push into California began in 2008 with the purchase of Washington Mutual. (press release)