The National Retail Federation expects holiday retail sales to increase 2.3 percent this year, to $447.1 billion, as shoppers start to regain their financial footing.
The trade group’s forecast remains slightly below the 10-year average sales gain of 2.5 percent for the November-December holiday period. But, it marks an improvement from the last two years. Get the full story »
The parent companies of Delnor Hospital in Geneva and Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield said Tuesday they have signed an agreement to merge their operations in Chicago’s northwest suburbs.
The deal comes as the health care overhaul law is being implemented over the next four years, triggering a wave of consolidation of hospitals and doctor practices across the country. Get the full story »
Federal inspectors who were at a Michigan infant-formula plant last winter discovered no significant problems, months before the company found beetles near the production line. North Chicago, Ill.-based Abbott Laboratories recently recalled several brands of Similac formula, although the company said the possibility of bug parts in the products was remote.
AT&T Inc., the No. 2 U.S. mobile service, plans to sell three smartphones from Motorola Inc. based on Google Inc.’s Android software, potentially helping the phone maker depend less on Verizon Wireless, its most important U.S. customer.
The new devices, announced Tuesday, are aimed at a more cost-conscious audience than Motorola’s flagship Droid X device, which Verizon Wireless sells for $200. Get the full story »
Rahm Emanuel’s residency in Chicago is likely to be a legal as well as political issue in the race for mayor, but since he returned last weekend from Washington there is a more simple question: Where is Emanuel living now?
The answer, according to his spokeswoman, is that Emanuel is leasing a condominium on the edge of West Town and River West.
CBOE Holdings Inc., the biggest U.S. options market, will launch its planned second exchange targeted at high-frequency traders between Oct. 15 and Nov. 1, Vice Chairman Edward Tilly said on Tuesday. Get the full story »
The owner of the Little Caesars Pizza chain and Detroit’s baseball and ice hockey teams has opened negotiations to buy the Detroit Pistons basketball team, according to two reports. Get the full story »
Toshiba Corp. plans to release new tablet devices in the U.S., Japan and elsewhere early next year, a top engineer at the company involved in the development of tablet computers told Dow Jones Newswires Tuesday.
“The market for tablets is very hot right now,” said Hideo Kasuya on the sidelines of the annual Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies, near Tokyo. Get the full story »
Three new models crucial to U.S. automakers received four-star ratings in U.S. government crash-safety tests that were toughened in response to concerns voiced by safety and consumer groups.
But the latest version of the Toyota Camry, the best-selling car in North America, earned an average three stars and was outperformed by virtually every other vehicle in a first analysis of fifty-five 2011 models conducted by the Transportation Department. Get the full story »
The U.S. Federal Reserve should do “much more” monetary easing to spur a sluggish economic recovery, a top Fed official said in an interview published Tuesday.
“In the last several months I’ve stared at our unemployment forecast and come to the conclusion that it’s just not coming down nearly as quickly as it should,” Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans told the Wall Street Journal. Get the full story »
Apple Inc. is challenging the verdict in a patent infringement lawsuit that could force the consumer goods giant to pay up to $625.5 million in damages, according to documents filed with a federal court in Texas on Sunday. Get the full story »
It looks like PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay division is giving its SunChips bags another make over — only to make sure they are less noisy.
Frito-Lay hopes to quiet complaints about the chips bags by switching out the biodegradable bags for older packaging on most flavors, AP reports.
The change comes after consumers had grumbled about the loud crackling sound the biodegradable bags made.
The company is switching back to original packaging, which is made of a type of plastic, for five of the six varieties of the chips, AP says.
Ford Motor Co. plans to eliminate more than a third of its Lincoln dealers in large metropolitan areas over the next two years as part of its effort to revive the luxury brand, according to a dealer who attended a closed-door meeting Tuesday. Get the full story »
Neiman Marcus is giving its 2010 Christmas Book an extra boost this year by distributing the famous catalog via Apple’s iPad.
The catalog of extravagant gifts, unveiled Tuesday, is an ode to the return of luxury shopping. And it allows tech-savvy spenders to view and purchase the gifts from their iPad. Get the full story »
