retail sales

U.S. stocks finished higher on Thursday after a bumpy start to the trading session. “People want to buy the dips now because the market made a bottom after Feb. 3,” Donald Selkin, chief market strategist at National Securities Corp. told Bloomberg. “We got very oversold and now it's believed...

U.S. stocks moved sharply higher today as investors and traders digested positive news about the job market. It is unclear if Thursday's momentum will be carried forward Friday with the release of the January employment survey. The Dow gained 1.22 percent, closing at 15,628.53. The S...

J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP) on Tuesday reported that it has seen a two percent increase in same-store sales during the fourth quarter. J.C. Penney's announcement is significant because it marks the first time since the second quarter of 2011 that it showed a positive comp for the quarter. "While 2013...

Just over a year ago, many analysts were writing off electronics mega-retailer Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) for dead. The company, like many retailers, faced increasing pressure from online retailer Amazon.com and auction site Ebay.com. Things seemed dismal,  despite the fact Best Buy's main...

Major indices reversed Monday's losses and posted strong gains following a better than expected retail sales report and a luke-warm start to earnings season. Related: Stocks Higher, But Dollar Indecisive After Retail Sales Release Philidalphia's Fed chief Charles Plosser said that he wants QE...

Monday's trading session featured a plethora of analyst upgrades and downgrades. With little key economic data released, markets were relatively tame as major indices failing to meaningfully move in any one direction. The Senate appears to be set to officially Janet Yellen to lead the Federal...

The toy and game industry in America has always been very strong -- especially in terms of the companies that have had a stake in the market over the years. The industry’s two leading players, Mattel, Inc. (NASDAQ: MAT) and Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS), are companies that, for the most...

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the Federal Reserve will meet for the last time in 2013. The final policy meeting of the year will provide further clarity on the hotly debated question of when, or if, the Fed will begin to scale back on its $85 billion-a-month bond buying program. In June, the Fed'...

Major indices continued its decline from yesterday as the Dow suffered a triple digit point loss for the second consecutive day. Positive retail sales data added to an otherwise already convincing case that the economy is strong enough for the Federal Reserve to begin tapering. The Fed's policy...

A recently-announced agreement from North American and European retailers – establishing a “common, minimum criterion for fire and strucural inspection safety standards,” in Bangladesh's textile factories – could end up having a ripple effect across not only the stores sellling those garments but...

Investors and traders welcomed news of lower than expected inflation. The U.S. Labor Department monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for October fell 0.10 percent, compared to an estimated flat reading. Year over year, the index is up 1.00 percent, in line with expectations. The Fed's target...

McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) is coming under fire for suggestions it reportedly offered its employees on an in-house, employees-only McResource Line web site, on how to cope with issues like the upcoming holiday financial crunch. According to screen grabs complied by the activist group Low Pay Is Not...

By beating Wall Street estimates with its most recent quarterly results, Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) has again demonstrated why it should be in the portfolio of every family office. A family office is an entity formed to invest for a designated family. Its goals are generally to beat the market...

iPhones, Xboxes, PlayStations -- everything you need to be the ultimate gift-giver this December. While not every hot product has been released yet (Xbox One is still roughly a week away), most are already on store shelves. Some of them, such as Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPad Air, are already on...

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) are locking horns over third party sales by independent retailers – in particular those reportedly selling defective or expired Johnson and Johnson products on the Amazon site. According to The Wall Street Journal, these third-party...