Early holiday promotions and rising online shopping took a toll on in-store U.S. sales during the Thanksgiving weekend as shoppers on average spent 6.4 percent less than they did a year earlier, according to data released Sunday by an industry group.
North America
Fed welcomes energy drop, shrugs off disinflation threat
The Federal Reserve is welcoming the sharp drop in global energy prices, with two influential policymakers on Monday cheering the boost it should provide American pocketbooks and shrugging off any pressure on already low inflation.
Oil jumps as much as five percent from five-year low; focus on shale
Crude oil markets jumped as much as 5 percent on Monday, rebounding from five-year lows with their biggest daily gain since 2012, on fears that the high U.S. shale output blamed for the global oil glut may be shrinking.
Apple tumbles three percent in one minute of trading
Apple Inc (AAPL.O) shares tumbled in early trading on Monday, briefly suffering their largest price drop in at least three months on an unusual spike in volume.
Intel acquires Canadian IT security firm PasswordBox
Intel Corp said on Monday it has acquired PasswordBox, a Montreal-based identity management service that gives users a convenient way to log into websites and applications from any device without having to type or remember passwords.
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British boy band One Direction became the only group to score four consecutive No. 1 debuts on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday, ousting Taylor Swift from her chart-topping reign.
Blistering sales this week of Latin American art set auction records for 31 artists spanning three centuries, ranging from creators in the Spanish colonial period to living artists like Colombia's Fernando Botero.
Procter & Gamble Co (PG.N) is working with Goldman Sachs (GS.N) to explore the sale of its Wella hair care business that could be worth around $7 billion, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, as the world's largest consumer products company streamlines its business.
President Barack Obama and his teenaged daughters, Sasha and Malia, went to an independent book store in Washington to buy books as a way to promote Small Business Saturday, an event aimed at boosting small businesses.
U.S. shoppers spent slightly less money at brick-and-mortar stores on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday than across the same two days in 2013, while online sales surged to record highs, data showed on Saturday.
Technology startups in Canada are seeking to lure back expatriates from Silicon Valley with the promise of executive roles, generous stakes and the chance to stamp their mark on a nascent industry.
Leading U.S. CEOs, angered by the Obama administration's challenge to certain "workplace wellness" programs, are threatening to side with anti-Obamacare forces unless the government backs off, according to people familiar with the matter.
Barack Obama last year told a cheering crowd in Cape Town that a $7 billion plan to "Power Africa" would double electricity output on the world's poorest continent and bring "light where currently there is darkness".
The Federal Reserve's latest market proposal could help it smoothly raise interest rates and bring far more banks into direct contact with the U.S. central bank in a way that another tool, unveiled last year, could not.
