Wikimedia CommonsAmazon.com Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) challenge to large retailers is not just that it does not need physical stores to do business, nor that it has one of the most visited websites in America.…
courtesy of McDonald'sMcDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) public relations department has been working overtime to show that the fast food chain cares about customer health. In September it announced: McDonald’s is partnering with the Alliance for…
courtesy of NokiaThis month was hardly a good one for any company, other than Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Samsung, to release a new tablet. There is a blizzard of new products. And, the media…
Courtesy Volkswagen AGVW has enough problems in the U.S. It can barely give it cars away with “0% down, 0%” at signing. Research from firms which include J.D. Power and Consumer Reports do not…
ThinkstockThe conventional wisdom about Thanksgiving and Black Friday winners and losers is easy to agree with to some extent. Shoppers will flock to Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) in greater numbers year after year as the…
ThinkstockThe unemployment situation in the United States looked relatively good through the first half of the year. The jobless rate dropped to 7.3% in October from 7.9%% at the beginning of the year. However,…
ThinkstockOctober’s jobs report showed a gain of 204,000 people to nonfarm payrolls. That is a pace of 1.5 million job additions for 2013. Many earlier months have been better. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)…
courtesy of General Motors Co.The General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) Cadillac division can boast that Motor Trend named its new CTS as “Car of the Year.” The accolade does not offset the fact that…
courtesy J.C. Penney Co. Inc.The market was initially impressed that J.C. Penney Co. Inc. (NYSE: JCP) announced a tiny tick up in October same-store sales, a mere 0.9%. The retailer’s stock moved up, but…
courtesy of TwitterTwitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) may have set the share price of its initial public offering (IPO) at $26, the high end of the expect range. However, almost every sign of stock demand…
courtesy of USPSThe U.S. Postal Service (USPS) expects to ship 15 billion pieces of mail and packages between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve. USPS management claims this will be a record. The number represents…
ThinkstockThe National Association of Realtors released its third-quarter home price study. Almost all the news was good. The primary exception is that the cities hit hardest by the recession, many of which were in…
thinkstockForget about opening early on Thanksgiving as a way to draw holiday shoppers. The Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS) division Old Navy will give one shopper $1 million on Black Friday. Clothing retailers with stores…
courtesy of TwitterTwitter Inc.’s (NYSE: TWTR) initial public offering (IPO) could value the company as high as $20 billion, particularly if its price remains above the high end of its $23 to $25 initial…
courtesy of Toyota Motor Corp.There has been a competition for the top position in global car sales for six years, since General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) lost its top spot in global share to…
courtesy of AppleApple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has maintained a lead in smartphone sales in the United States. However, its luck has run out worldwide as Samsung’s models continue a surge in popularity. The trend…
courtesy of XiaomiThe more research that comes out about the smartphone sector, the clearer it becomes that the conventional wisdom is correct. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) holds the top spot, based on most intelligence reports about the sector. More…
courtesy of Tesla MotorsTesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) shareholders got mostly what they wanted from the company’s third quarter earnings. Perhaps what they heard from founder Elon Musk as he spoke on the earnings call was…
ThinkstockKmart and Sears, the two major divisions of Sears Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: SHLD) will join the group of large retailers that hope to move the start of the holiday season closer and closer to…
ThinkstockSpain’s Ministry of Employment and Social Security reported that in October its economy lost 87,028 jobs and the total number of unemployed in the southern European nation rose to 4,811,383. Summer is over, and…