On the eve of “Cyber Monday,” online retailers reported an even stronger start to the holiday shopping season than brick-and-mortar stores.
Research firm comScore reported on Sunday that e-commerce spending jumped 26 percent on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, compared with the same day a year ago. ComScore reported $816 million in online sales for the day, up from $648 million.
The 26 percent growth rate for online sales compares with a 7 percent retail sales increase reported for Black Friday by ShopperTrak, which gathers data from individual stores and shopping malls. At $11.4 billion, the brick-and-mortar sales total still dwarfs the online total.
Gian Fulgoni, comScore chairman, said in a statement that e-commerce enjoyed a banner day, despite some analysts’ predictions that early store openings on Black Friday could hurt online sales.
“With brick-and-mortar retail also reporting strong gains on Black Friday, it’s clear that the heavy promotional activity had a positive impact on both channels,” Fulgoni said.
Thanksgiving is also a big day for online sales, and comScore reported an 18 percent increase this year compared with a year ago, with $479 million in sales.
Online sales also have been strong throughout November pay day loans. Online sales through Saturday rose 15 percent compared with the same period a year ago, according to comScore, which is based on Reston, Va. Through the first 25 days of the month, online sales have totaled $12.74 billion.
ComScore said 50 million Americans visited online retail sites on Black Friday, up 35 percent from a year ago. Each of the top five retail sites reported double-digit gains in visitors, in percentage terms, led by top retail site Amazon. Walmart ranked second, followed by Best Buy, Target and Apple.
Next up is Cyber Monday, when many online retailers run promotions for the first business day of the week following Thanksgiving. Cyber Monday sales topped $1 billion last year, making it the heaviest day of online spending ever. ComScore’s Fulgoni expects another record will be set this year.
ComScore reported online sales for Black Friday two days after another researcher, IBM Corp.’s Coremetrics unit, reported a smaller online spending gain for Black Friday. Coremetrics reported a 20 percent increase, compared with comScore’s 26 percent.
An Egyptian demonstrator was killed early Saturday outside the country’s Cabinet building, where protesters have camped overnight to prevent the entrance of the country’s newly-appointed prime minister, witnesses and a medical official said.
The death came as a wave of protests against military rule was given extra impetus by the Egyptian military’s decision on Friday to appoint a prime minister who served under deposed President Hosni Mubarak.
Hundreds gathered outside the Cabinet to prevent Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri from entering to take up his new post, and clashed with security forces who tried to disperse them.
An Associated Press cameraman saw three police troop carriers and an armored vehicle being chased off by rock-throwing protesters. The security forces fired tear gas in return before leaving the site.
The medical official confirmed that one protester was killed. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Video clips posted on social networking sites showed protesters rushing to rescue a heavily bleeding man. Witnesses say the protester was killed when a police vehicle ran over him.
Officials say more than 40 people have been killed across the country since Nov. 19, when a small sit-in by protesters injured during the Jan. 25-Feb. 11 uprising was violently broken up by security forces.
Thousands of protesters have filled Tahrir Square, a few blocks from the Cabinet building, throughout the eight days.
(This version CORRECTS Corrects to indicate a police vehicle; adds details and background.)
OTTAWA
The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission has come out against the merger of cellphone giant AT&T and T-Mobile USA.
Julius Genachowski made his position known in a document he circulated to fellow commissioners Tuesday.
Genachowski recommended sending AT&T Inc.’s proposed $39 billion takeover of T-Mobile to an administrative law judge for review and a hearing. That’s what the FCC does when it opposes a merger.
According to an FCC official familiar with the matter, an agency analysis concluded the merger would result in higher prices for consumers, less innovation, less investment in the U.S. and fewer U.S. jobs.
The review also cast doubt on AT&T’s claim that only the merger would allow it build out “4G” high-speed wireless Internet access to cover 97 percent of the population, up from about 80 percent. The agency concluded AT&T would likely do so anyway to remain competitive with Verizon Wireless.
The official wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.
AT&T spokesman Larry Solomon said in a statement that the chairman’s action was “disappointing.”
“It is yet another example of a government agency acting to prevent billions in new investment and the creation of many thousands of new jobs at a time when the U.S. economy desperately needs both,” he said. “At this time, we are reviewing all options.”
The FCC would be the second government agency to oppose the deal. The Justice Department filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court in Washington in August to stop it, and that trial is expected to start Feb. 13.
Genachowski’s proposed order recommends the administrative law judge begin the hearing after the trial is done.
The deal announced in March would vault the combined No. 2 carrier AT&T and No. 4 T-Mobile into the top spot ahead of Verizon.
Dallas-based AT&T has about 101 million wireless subscribers. T-Mobile, the Bellevue, Wash.-based subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG of Germany, has 34 million. Verizon Wireless, a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC, has about 108 million, while Sprint Nextel Corp. has 53 million.
The European Commission, the EU executive, believes that the joint issuing of eurobonds by the 17 euro nations would be the most effective way to tackle the financial crisis, according to a draft paper seen Monday.
The study by the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, will be presented Wednesday and could intensify a rift with Germany, which rejects eurobonds as a viable option at the moment because it would expose its taxpayers to weaker countries’ bad debt. Germany already funds the bulk of the existing bailouts.
The draft, published by the Financial Times and confirmed by the Commission, said replacing national bonds with one jointly-backed bond would have to be matched by tight financial and budgetary coordination. It also says discipline woul be needed to make it impossible for profligate nations to live on the back of budget-concious member states.
Since Greece pushed the eurozone into its ever-worsening financial mess last year, many member states have seen their cost of government borrowing rise to record levels. Germany’s borrowing rates, meanwhile, have dropped sharply as investors buy up its bonds as a safe haven. That has created a huge imbalance in debt markets within a zone ruled by one currency.
Germany has long been reluctant to bail out member states like Greece, Ireland and Portugal, insisting it was up to their governments to live by sound economic principles and win investor confidence.
The situation worsened dramatically over the past weeks, when Italy was put under such intense market pressure that Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi had to resign to make way for a government of experts led by former EU commissioner Mario Monti.
As the EU’s third-largest economy with debt approaching euro1.9 trillion ($2.5 trillion) and 120 percent of its gross domestic product, Italy is seen as too big to bail out. Faced with a breakup in their currency union, the euro nations have been scrambling for new solutions.
The eurozone currently has a bailout fund, the so-called EFSF, but it still lacks the firepower and nimbleness to support Italy’s finances if it were to be frozen out of bond markets.
The European Central Bank for now is limiting bond market pressures by buying up the government bonds of weak countries like Italy guaranteed cash advance. That has helped keep Italy’s key borrowing rates below the crucial 7 percent threshold that has eventually caused Ireland and Portugal to need bailouts.
But the ECB says its bond purchases are limited and temporary. To materially lower eurozone borrowing rates to sustainable levels, the ECB would have to embark on a massive program of bond purchases.
Germany _ and the ECB, which is heavily influenced by Berlin’s policies _ opposes such a massive bond program, saying it is up to governments to get their finances straightened out.
As a result, the EU study is pushing for eurobonds _ or Stability Bonds, as it calls them _ instead of national bonds as the best way to avoid financial disaster.
“In this way, the severe liquidity constraints currently experienced by some member states could be overcome and the recurrence of such constraints would be avoided in the future,” the draft of the study said.
EU Commission officials were due to pore over the study on Monday but no fundamental changes were expected.
The draft said that eurobonds would “provide the global financial system with a second safe-haven market of a size and liquidity comparable with the U.S. Treasury market.”
The political difficulty, however, would be to impose the same fiscal rigor across the 17 euro nations and fundamentally change the balance of power between the European Union and the national capitals.
The draft says that such fundamental changes would “almost certainly require” changes in the treaty underpinning the EU. In the past, any treaty change has proven to be a tough political task.
On Monday, the issue will almost certainly come up when Greece’s new Prime Minister Lucas Papadimos meets with top EU officials to discuss Greece’s financial difficulties.
Italy’s Premier Mario Monti will visit EU headquarters on Tuesday to discuss similar issues. On Thursday, Monti is to join German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicholas Sarkozy in Strasbourg for what he calls a permanent club of the eurozone’s three largest economies to confront the debt crisis.
There was a time not so long ago that seeing a single wind turbine spinning in the distance was a novel experience for most people.
Not so much any more. There are now hundreds of wind turbines scattered across the province, representing 1,700 megawatts of wind capacity in Ontario alone
The U.S. Justice Department expanded an investigatioin into Puerto Rican shipping Thursday, announcing a $14.2 million fine for a Florida-based company and a criminal charge against its former president.
Sea Star Line LLC agreed to the fine and a guilty plea to one felony count of conspiring to fix prices on cargo moving in and out of the U.S. island territory, the Justice Department said in a statement.
A federal grand jury in San Juan indicted the company’s former president and chief operating officer, Frank Peake, on a charge of conspiring to fix prices on Puerto Rico routes from late 2005 until April 2008. Peake, a New Jersey resident, is now a shipping company executive with a company affiliated with Sea Star.
Sea Star, based in Jacksonville, Florida, issued a statement apologizing to its customers, and noted the agreement provides that the Justice Department will not bring criminal charges against its parent companies, Saltchuk Resources Inc. and American Shipping Group Inc.
Sea Star employees engaged in the price-fixing scheme in violation of company policies, but the company is still responsible for the conduct under antitrust law, said Anthony Chiarello, President of American Shipping Group Inc.
“We extend sincere apologies to all of our loyal customers and the consumers who were affected by this conduct,” Chiarello said in the statement. “It was contrary to everything that Sea Star stands for and will not be tolerated in the future.”
He said by email that he was unable to answer questions because he was traveling.
David Oscar Markus, a lawyer for Peake, said his client denies wrongdoing and expressed confidence his client will be cleared of a charge that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
“Frank is innocent. He is never going to do a day in jail because he didn’t do the things they said he did,” said Markus, based in Miami. “It’s a real shame that the government is wasting its resources on something like this.”
Peake is accused of meeting with unidentified others in his industry to allocate customers and set prices for freight services for government and commercial clients, according to the indictment.
As part of the agreement, which is subject to court approval, Sea Star admitted conspiring to set prices and rig bids between May 2002 and April 2008, according to court papers.
Last April, the investigation brought a $15 million fine for Horizon Lines LLC of Charlotte, North Carolina. Five former executives of Sea Star and Horizon have received fines and jail sentences stemming from the probe.
Peabody Energy Corp. said Wednesday that it has increased its stake in Australia’s Macarthur Coal Ltd. beyond 90 percent — the point that it can require other stockholders to tender their shares.
The St. Louis-based coal producer is also raising its offer for Macarthur as previously agreed to do if its stake in the mining company exceeded the 90-percent threshold, bringing the total value of the deal to almost $5 billion.
Peabody will now pay 16.25 Australian dollars for each Macarthur share, a slight bump from its previous offer of 16 Australian dollars bad credit payday advance.
Gregory H. Boyce, Peabody’s chief executive, said acquiring 100-percent of Macarthur “brings clear strategic and financial benefits.”
Peabody “looks forward to completing operational improvements, accelerating the realization of synergies and advancing Macarthur’s growth pipeline,” Boyce said.
Fierce competition for top-tier credit card customers appears to be leading some banks to look in elsewhere for new business: borrowers with spotty credit histories.
Data shows that more new cards went to consumers with less-than-stellar credit scores in the third quarter, while fewer new cards went to those with the best scores.
In the three months ended Sept. 30, credit reporting agency TransUnion found that 25.2 percent of the new card accounts went to consumers with a score below 700.
That was up from 23 percent of cards going to riskier borrowers in the same quarter of 2010.
That translates into almost a quarter million more cards going to consumers who have had some trouble with credit in the past, according to Ezra Becker, vice president of research and consulting in TransUnion’s financial services business unit.
And since TransUnion found that the overall number of cards opened during the quarter was essentially flat from a year ago, that means those were cards that did not go to more creditworthy consumers. In fact, the number of new card accounts opened by borrowers with scores of 800 or better slipped to 45.9 percent, from 49.7 percent a year ago.
The findings were based on the VantageScore system for measuring creditworthiness developed by TransUnion and its peers Experian and Equifax as an alternative to the better-known FICO score. VantageScore says its system, which uses a scale of 501 to 990 and awards higher scores to the least risky borrowers, is used by the top five credit card issuers in the country.
Like FICO, VantageScore’s ratings are based a number of factors regarding an individual’s past use of credit, including their history of making on-time payments, keeping balances below credit limits and the length of their credit history.
Scores around 700 would merit a “C” on the VantageScore scale, which implies that those borrowers had some problems making payments or ran up balances in the past.
Opening up new credit to struggling consumers is an important step. A year ago, TransUnion said about 8 million people had left the credit card market in the prior 12 months, either by choice or because their cards were shut down.
The uptick in lending to consumers who have had trouble with payments in the past “counteracts everything that’s been happening in the last few years,” said Bill Hardekopf, CEO of the card comparison site LowCards.com. He noted that demand is high for consumers in that group because of the dearth of available credit in recent years.
Meanwhile, card companies have been pushing ever-more-enticing offers to consumers with the best scores _ beefing up rewards, trimming interest rates and lengthening the time for no- or low-interest balance transfers. About 80 percent of all new card offers go to those with the top credit scores, according to market research firm Synovate.
But those same top-tier borrowers aren’t trying to open as many new accounts or increase their balances faxless payday advance. “They have plenty of credit available to them,” Becker said, noting that card users have been paying down their balances. In the third quarter, TransUnion found the average combined balance on bank-issued credit cards _ MasterCard, Visa, American Express and Discover_ fell 4.1 percent to $4,762, from $4,964 last year.
Data from credit card companies also shows that while the most affluent consumers are using their cards more, they’re also paying off their balances in full each month.
That means that to increase profits in their card businesses, banks need to find new borrowers who will pay higher interest rates and are more likely to carry balances each month.
“If financial institutions are going to grow, eventually they’re going to have to dip their toes into the water of riskier borrowers,” said Greg McBride, senior financial analyst for Bankrate.com, which tracks credit offers.
Another factor that’s likely playing into more willingness to lend to consumers with lower scores is that there are more individuals on the riskier end of the scale due to the lengthy economic downturn, high unemployment and ongoing foreclosure crisis, noted Bruce McClary, a spokesman for ClearPoint Credit Counseling Solutions. “Sooner or later the people who got bumped out of the credit world have to start re-establishing credit,” he said.
One problem is that the increase in higher-risk borrowers also had an immediate impact on the rate of late payments during the quarter.
TransUnion found that the rate of payments late by 90 days or more _ known in the industry as the delinquency rate _ rose to 0.71 percent, from 0.60 percent in the second quarter.
That’s still down from 0.83 percent in the third quarter a year ago, and a long way off from the 1.32 percent peak in delinquency recorded in the first quarter of 2009.
Although the delinquency rate in the third quarter was still below the historical norm _ the second-quarter rate was the lowest seen since 1994 _ it marks the first quarter-over-quarter increase in almost two years.
“When you have such low delinquency, there’s generally only one direction you can go,” Becker observed. Plus, lenders must take risks if they want to earn anything. If lenders wanted to achieve zero delinquency, he said, they would have to stop lending.
The expansion of new card offers to riskier borrowers also present an interesting bit of timing for the industry, notes Hardekopf.
Card companies “want to get these cards in their hands so they have the ability to use them during the holiday season,” he said. “The time when we all put more on our cards is the fourth quarter.”
As the Occupy Wall Street protests draw attention to the struggles of young adults, among others, some parents are determined to spare their children the burden of college loans.
Many worry about the college funds they’ve been able to build. Last quarter, the average mutual fund that invests in stocks lost 17 percent. The average 529 college savings plan, which invests in a mixture of stocks and bonds, lost 8.9 percent, according to a recent Morningstar 529 plan study.
But if you’ve been worried about your losses, you may have more control than you think about the outcome if you pay attention to a few details.
For example, some 529 plans charge high fees and give you little in return. And some require you to get help from a financial adviser, but often parents and grandparents can do better on their own simply by investing directly in a top-quality 529 plan.
As consumers become savvy about their 529 college savings options, they are moving money from expensive and weak 529 plans into those that grow money more effectively. During a recent 12-month period, plans sold by advisers, which are often more expensive, lost more than a percentage point of market share relative to those sold directly to individuals, according to Morningstar cash advance companies.
But how do you know if you are getting a good deal on a 529?
Start your analysis by finding out from your state’s department of education if your home state offers a 529 and whether you get a tax break by investing in it.
Some states will allow you to invest in any 529 outside your state and get a break on your taxes. But most give you a tax benefit only if you choose the 529 in your state. The usual benefit: You can subtract the amount of money you invest in a 529 from your taxable income when you do your tax return. That’s a good deal.
Some states, however, are even more benevolent. Indiana gives its residents a credit of 20 percent on the first $5,000 they invest a year in their state 529. People from Indiana can save up to $1,040 on a $5,000 investment, said Morningstar. Maine gives residents a $500 grant if they open a 529 before their child’s first birthday. Other states such as Illinois offer less
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