Christmas

The holiday shopping season is winding down and shoppers are looking for last-minute bargains. Investors too are looking for bargains as they plan changes to their portfolios before the end of the year. Four possible "stock stuffer" picks come courtesy of Marketfy Maven Tom...

Driving anywhere this Thanksgiving? If so, GasBuddy recently said the price of unleaded gasoline to get there would average about 44 cents per gallon less than it did last year. Related: GasBuddy: Lowest Gas Prices Of 2014 Unfolding Right Now More Turkey For a 16-gallon fill-up...

Deloitte's annual holiday survey is in and paints a positive picture of the U.S. consumer. On October 28, Deloitte released its 29th annual holiday shopping report. The analysts concluded that sales will increase 4.0 percent to 4.5 percent this year, providing retailers with a much-needed...

According to the National Retail Federation, Americans said they planned to spend a whopping $7.4 billion on Halloween in 2014. That’s a 5.87 percent increase over the $6.99 billion spent last year, making Halloween the fastest-growing holiday in America. Utilizing NRF data the University...

As United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) finishes up delivery of packages it failed to deliver for Christmas, some analysts were already talking about opportunities for competitors to “fill the breach.” Following criticism on social media, senior airfreight and logistics analyst, Anthony Gallo,...

Last-minute shoppers and diners enjoyed the luxury of some of the nation’s biggest retailers being open on Christmas day. An estimated fifty 50 million Americans took advantage of these openings, giving the already-inflated retail sector a boost. According to SpendingPulse, retail sales from...

Hoping to boost lagging end-of-year sales, a number of retailers announced a push to attract customers after Christmas. Many big-name stores are taking part – including Macy’s (NYSE: M), Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and even online giant, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN). Some traditional bricks and mortar...

"We're terribly sorry," United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) spokeswoman Natalie Black told CNN. Black’s comments were made in response to numerous complaints from customers who did not receive packages promised for delivery by Christmas. Black blamed recent severe weather in the Dallas area,...

Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) has an interesting way to inform shoppers about which items are gaining attention online. The retailer has launched a list of gifts that are trending on Twitter. The list appears to update in real-time (it changed several times during the production of this slideshow), and...

Black Friday, as the official start of the holiday shopping season, is over. Thanks to a shortened holiday calendar with only four weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas (not to mention the fact Hanukkah begins November 27), many retailers had already planned an early start to this important...

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) wants to know where you are and what you are doing – specifically, what you are buying – at all times. According to Digiday, the company is beta testing a program that registers your visits to bricks-and-mortar stores via your smartphone, provided certain conditions are...

If you are wondering why more retailers are opening on Thanksgiving Day this year, the calendar might have a lot to do with it. Thanksgiving is on November 28, the latest it has been since 2002. That means six fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas and that translates to about $1.5...

Spurred on by this year's shortened holiday shopping season, a number of major retailers have decided to go straight from Halloween to Christmas, with barely a nod towards Thanksgiving. Reuters reports Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT) began its online sales promotions on Friday, one month earlier...

This year, by October 31, 158 million Americans will have spent close to $7 billion on scary stuff. This will include scary decorations, scary costumes, and if you believe most health experts, scary candy. All this according to the National Retail Federation Halloween Spending Survey conducted...

While the holiday season is typically associated with Christmas carols, chestnuts and picturesque snowfalls, investors see big dollar signs and a means to start the New Year off in strong financial standing. With that in mind, there are certain stock picks that perform better than others during...