The business headlines, with CNBC's Bertha Coombs.   Santa made an early visit to Wall Street today, with stocks closing higher across the board, with Fritz Meyer, AIM Investments; Michael Panzner, Wall Street trader; Jim Awad, WP Stewart Asset Mgmt.; and CNBC's Michelle Caruso Cabrera.   The business headlines, with CNBC's Bertha Coombs.   The new year could be an expensive one for drugmaker Merck as it starts writing checks for the $5B Vioxx settlement, and one of them could be made out to Mark Lanier of Texas, reports CNBC's Mike Huckman.