• Score a small victory for John Thain: It appears Bank of America signed off on the former Merrill Lynch chief's decision to hand out $4 billion in bonuses just before the end of the year, a move partly responsible for his ouster. [FT, CS]
• Steel yourself for an ugly week ahead as corporate earnings come in. [CNN]
• ING has announced plans to cut 7,000 jobs at the bank. [NYT]
• Several hedge funds made a fortune as bank stocks crashed last week. [NYP]
• Yes, the nation's banks have collected billions from the government. No, they haven't started lending again. [WSJ]
• A sign of life on Wall Street: Pfizer agreed to pay $68 billion to acquire Wyeth, making it the largest pharmaceutical deal in nearly a decade. [BN, WSJ]
• More bad news: Caterpillar is cutting 20,000 jobs; Home Depot is slashing 7,000; and Sprint Nextel is laying off 8,000 people. [WSJ, CNN, BN]