Protests greet shoppers at Walmarts nationwide

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) ? Wal-Mart workers and supporters marched in protest at a number of stores nationwide Thursday and Friday, blasting the wages, benefits and treatment of employees of the world's largest retailer.

The efforts seemed to do little to keep shoppers away though ? Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said it was its best Black Friday ever.

In Paramount, Calif., authorities arrested a small group of protesters Friday outside a Wal-Mart. Elizabeth Brennan of Warehouse Workers United said nine people, including three employees, were arrested shortly after 12 noon for blocking the street outside the store in Paramount. At one point, however, more than 1,000 people blocked traffic outside the store, Sheriff's Capt. Mike Parker told KNBC-TV.

In Lakewood, Colo., shoppers hesitated as they passed dozens of protesters outside a Wal-Mart but entered without incident. Some protesters held signs playing off of the retailing giant's corporate slogan, "Live better," accusing the company of corporate greed and underpaying its workers.

"This is the way you get a fair shake. You've got to fight for it. You've always had to," said protester Charlie May, of the Industrial Workers of the World labor organization.

A union-backed group called OUR Wal-Mart has said that it is holding an estimated 1,000 protests in 46 states. The exact number is unclear. Wal-Mart has refuted that estimate, saying the figure is grossly exaggerated and that the protests involved few of its own employees.

A number of demonstrations and walk-outs occurred last week at stores but were scheduled to culminate on one of the year's busiest shopping days.

OUR Wal-Mart, made up of current and former Wal-Mart employees, was formed in 2010 to press the company for better working conditions.

The retailer filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board last week against the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. The company said that the demonstrations organized by OUR Wal-Mart threatened to disrupt its business and intimidate customers and associates.

Wal-Mart said roughly 50 employees participated in the events Thursday and a "few dozen" employees Friday. Company spokesman Dan Fogleman said that the number of associates who missed their shifts during the two days of events is 60 percent lower than last year.

"It was proven last night ? and again today ? that the OUR Wal-Mart group doesn't speak for the 1.3 million Wal-Mart associates," the company said in a statement.

The union group estimated that "hundreds" of employees participated nationwide.

Victoria Martinez, 29, marched in front of the store in Paramount on Black Friday. The Wal-Mart photo department employee worked her shift on Thanksgiving but skipped work on Friday to "speak out". She said the company shows a lack of respect for employees, noting that she faced retaliation by local managers after speaking out about problems during an open discussion sponsored by the head office.

"I believe that when I started at this company, it was great," said Martinez, who's worked for Wal-Mart for seven years. "They've taken away everything that is great."

Wal-Mart for many years has faced intense scrutiny over its wage and benefit policies and treatment of its workers. Fogleman says that the company provides some of the best jobs in the retail industry and that its wages and benefits typically meet or exceed those of competitors. The retailer maintains that it has many long-term employees and that its turnover rate is below the industry average.

The company, based in Bentonville, Ark., operates 10,400 stores in 27 countries.

____

Robert Jablon in Los Angeles and Peter Banda in Lakewood, Colo., contributed to this report.

Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/protests-greet-shoppers-wal-marts-nationwide-215954311--finance.html

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Stocks close higher on strong tech

14 hrs.

Justin Menza , CNBC.com

Stocks closed broadly higher in a holiday-shortened Friday session, with the major averages all gaining more than 1 percent. Techs led, with big-caps propelling the sector to its first positive week in the last 10.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 1 percent higher, led by tech firms Hewlett-Packard , Microsoft and Cisco.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq ?also closed up, with the Nasdaq gaining 1.5 percent. The S&P 500 had its best five-day winning streak since mid-March.

The CBOE Volatility Index, widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, fell to near 15.

Among key S&P sectors, techs and telecoms were the leading gainers, while utilities lagged.

Retailers were the main focus on "Black Friday" ? often the busiest shopping day of the year.

Matthew Shay, National Retail Federation CEO, told CNBC that the holiday shopping season appears to be off to a great start with consumers flocking to the stores. ?We?re predicting 4.1 percent sales growth this year which would be $585 billion,? he said.

Discount retailers Wal-Mart and Target were among the stores that opened their doors on Thanksgiving evening.?

In a press release, Wal-Mart U.S. said it had its "best ever" Black Friday events, selling 1.8 million towels, 1.3 million televisions, 1.3 million dolls and 250,000 bicycles.

Terry Lundgren, Macy's chairman & CEO, told CNBC that the flagship Macy's store in New York City had a record crowd for its midnight opening. "It was a record crowd last year but that crowd was exceeded at this (Herald Square) store certainly this morning," he said.

Apple also kicked of a Black Friday sale, cutting prices on iPads, iPods and MacBooks.

Gap , Nordstrom , Bed Bath & Beyond and Dollar General were all higher.

?Earlier in the week was so surprising,? Matthew Cheslock of Virtu Financial told CNBC. ?You had one of the biggest accounting scandals possibly, we had an insider trading scandal and the markets still went higher. Now we?re focused on retail, which is kind of a nice story. Maybe this gives us a nice little lift."

European stocks had their best week so far this year, boosted on Friday by strong German business confidence data and growing expectations Greece will receive more aid.

Greece said the International Monetary Fund had relaxed its debt-cutting target for the country, suggesting lenders were closer to a deal for a vital aid tranche to be paid. But other sources involved in the talks cautioned the funding gap was far bigger than Greece has suggested, according to Reuters. (Read More: Greece?s Lenders Move Closer to Deal on Funding.)

Turning to stock news, Blackberry maker Research In Motion was the subject of bullish analyst comments about the soon-to-be-released BlackBerry 10.

SAP , the German business software giant, is considering listing its stock in Shanghai.

After the close on Wednesday, General Motors announced that its financing arm will pay about $4.2 billion for the European and Latin American auto lending operations of Ally Financial.

In deal news, the Wall Street Journal reported that Baxter International is in talks to buy Swedish medical-equipment maker Gambro for about $4 billion in a bid to boost its kidney dialysis business.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/stocks-close-higher-strong-tech-1C7226146

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Black Friday Real Estate Deals: They Do Exist, If You Look Hard ...

Today is the biggest shopping day of the year, and almost everyone will be filling malls and stores to hunt down Black Friday deals. Not so many, though, are shopping for homes this time of year, and prospective homebuyers who don't have their head in the game during the holidays could be missing out on some serious real estate steals.

Of course, the question is: Is there such a thing as a Black Friday for real estate? Well, not officially, but many sellers and Realtors have found a way to capitalize on the Black Friday phenomenon -- and the spirit of holiday sales in general -- to offer serious incentives to homebuyers. And you won't believe some of the things you could score with your home purchase.

"Sellers will be a little more aggressive with price drops," said Sunny Banka, a Denver-area Realtor with Metro Brokers.

Related: Looking for a Black Friday deal? Search AOL Real Estate's listings

She said that over the holidays, it's typical to see some sellers drop the asking prices on their homes by $2,000 to $10,000. That's because, since homebuyer traffic is so low in winter, it's usually only the very serious sellers that keep their homes on the market over the holidays. And they're so serious that they're willing to go the extra mile -- including lowering their asks -- to sell their homes, Banka added.

In a recent Realtor.com survey, 67.7 percent of Realtors who responded said that they perceived Black Friday sellers to be serious to very serious about selling their homes; 40.1 percent of respondents said that those sellers would likely accept an offer during that time. That may be a sign that buyers have some serious bargaining power.

"This is a great time to be looking," Banka said.

There are also some extra goodies you could score with your holiday home purchase. It's not terribly uncommon for sellers to throw in bonus items with the purchase of a home -- to entice buyers. Some of them can be big-ticket items (a pre-paid $1,000 bar tab, perhaps?).

Banka said that she has seen cases in which sellers include washers/dryers and refrigerators with a home purchase. But it only gets crazier from there. She recalled one seller throwing in a car, and others have handed over big-screen TVs at no extra cost. But the one that takes the cake, she said, was a seller who offered a weekend time-share for ski trips.

Throwing in extras with a home purchase isn't a practice that's exclusive to the holiday season, but the gift-giving spirit likely holds more sway for buyers during this time.

Banka warned, though, that getting "gifts" as part of a home purchase is tricky: Lenders often look down on such freebies when it comes to their underwriting guidelines.

Still, Sean Schellsmidt, a RE/MAX agent who sells homes with his wife, Blanca, in Minnesota, tempts holiday homebuyers with all kinds of extras. (Separately, he owns an electronics company which carries most brands, and he offers a customized electronics package to buyers who purchase one of his homes -- at deep discounts.) Recently, he's been giving away a Sonos music system and a Samsung tablet for free with the purchase of a home that costs at least $200,000. (A couple of his clients are pictured above using a tablet.) But it can get way more elaborate than that.

For his last client who bought a house, Schellsmidt threw in a complete home theater package -- surround sound speakers, TV wall mount, high-quality receiver, cables and Blu-Ray DVD player (installation of all items included) -- for $1,200 less than the going retail rates.

Even though that would excite any buyer, "the value is not that I give away a bunch of stuff," Schellsmidt said. "The value is that I make buyers excited about my listings."

There are other less obvious ways that homebuyers could save money on a Black Friday home purchase. As online listing site Trulia notes, snapping up homes at a "holiday discount" price translates into lower property taxes, which are often determined by the amount you pay to buy the home. Also, lenders may be willing to offer a discount on closing costs, and some sellers might splurge and offer to cover some or all of the buyer's fees.

It's clear that some serious Black Friday deals can be had on real estate purchases, so if you're in the marker for a home right now, you might want to skip the mall and go to an open house.

See also:
Homes for Sale at the National Median Home Price
Homeowner Tax Break Set to Expire
Hurricane Sandy Batters Home Sales in Storm-Affected Areas

More on AOL Real Estate:
Find out how to calculate mortgage payments.
Find homes for sale in your area.
Find foreclosures in your area.
See celebrity real estate.

Follow us on Twitter at @AOLRealEstate or connect with AOL Real Estate on Facebook.

Source: http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2012/11/23/black-friday-real-estate-deals-they-do-exist/

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South Korea says IEA wants its nuclear sector to be more transparent

SEOUL (Reuters) - The International Energy Agency (IEA) wants South Korea to bring more transparency to its nuclear power sector and strengthen the independence of regulators to increase trust in the safety of its plants, the economy ministry said on Friday.

The agency, which advises industrialized nations and represents 28 oil importing countries, was due later on Friday to unveil a report on South Korea's energy policies for the first time since 2006.

South Korea, Asia's fourth-largest economy, depends heavily on oil and gas imports but has 23 nuclear reactors that supply a third of its power. The country plans to add 11 more by 2024.

Its nuclear sector has been involved in a series of minor incidents and a scandal over forged certificates for parts used in what the government insists are non-essential operations - events that have caused two reactors to be shut.

Concern over nuclear safety in South Korea and worldwide has also been raised by last year's Fukushima disaster in Japan.

"The IEA suggests that adding reactors is a practical and efficient policy, and an excellent example to other countries, considering the situation that South Korea does not have many alternatives for other energy resources," the ministry statement said.

"However, the IEA proposes that it is necessary to secure trust by raising transparency and enhancing regulators' independence and roles, as safety concerns have heightened since the Fukushima crisis."

In Japan, only two of 50 commercial reactors are operating. The timetable for further restarts is unclear as a new nuclear watchdog tightens safety regulations to restore public confidence in the sector, lost after the meltdowns at the Fukushima plant caused by last year's earthquake and tsunami.

The South Korean government has been criticized for a lack of transparency over safety in its nuclear program and for the dual supervisory and promotion roles of its regulators.

South Korea is the world's fifth-largest crude oil importer and second-largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) buyer.

Friday's ministry statement also quoted the IEA as saying more consumers should be given the choice of buying gas at proper market prices from other sources and not just from state-run Korea Gas Corp (KOGAS), the world's largest corporate buyer of LNG.

(Reporting by Meeyoung Cho; Editing by Anthony Barker)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/south-korea-says-iea-wants-nuclear-sector-more-210435077.html

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NFL Communications - Baltimore Ravens Safety Ed Reed ...

Safety ED REED of the Baltimore Ravens has been suspended without pay for one game for repeated violations of the rule prohibiting hits to the head and neck area of defenseless players.

The suspension was imposed by NFL Vice President of Football Operations MERTON HANKS.? Reed may not practice this week nor play in the Ravens? game this Sunday against the San Diego Chargers.? He may not be at the team practice facility or stadium for any other activities during the suspension.? He will be reinstated on Monday, November 26.?

For the complete release, click here

Source: http://nflcommunications.com/2012/11/19/baltimore-ravens-safety-ed-reed-suspended-one-game-for-repeated-violations-of-player-safety-rules/

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