MyrtleBeachOnline.com: Business - Wire
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• Canadians with 'big bucks' head south of the border
  Last year, Canadians might have accounted for half of the holiday weekend shoppers who showed up in the first few hours at the Country Clutter gift store at the Prime Outlets mall in Grove City, Pa. This year, a store manager estimated that number has probably risen to 75 percent.And why not? With the value of Canadian currency up, many consumers there are feeling good. "They're getting more for their dollar," said Nathan Kilmer, who doesn't begrudge the United States' northern neighbors their turn on the better end of the exchange rate.A recent gift-giving survey from Visa Canada found shoppers planning to spend 14 percent more per person than last year -- the highest personal spend recorded in the survey's nine-year history.
• Target says Dec. sales may decline
  Early holiday sales reports are weak, with Target Corp., the nation's No.2 retailer, warning that its sales may have fallen in December.A broad gauge of consumer spending released by MasterCard Inc., which includes estimates for spending by cash and checks, showed a modest 2.4 percent increase in holiday spending, excluding gasoline and auto sales.Women's apparel suffered especially, with spending down 2.4 percent, said Michael McNamara, vice president of research and analysis at MasterCard Advisors. The category had been doing even worse, down 5.7 percent at the middle of the season, before a boost in sales over the past three weeks.
• Last-minute buyers give retailers relief
  Just weeks ago, the holiday shopping season seemed headed for disaster. But in the waning hours before Christmas, the nation's retailers got their wish - a last-minute surge of shopping that helped meet their modest sales goals, according to data released late Monday by research firm ShopperTrak RCT Corp.And with post-Christmas shopping to come, some malls and stores were downright optimistic.While consumers jammed stores at the start of the season in search of discounts and hot items such as Nintendo Co.'s Wii game console, a challenging economy prompted them to hold out until the end for bigger discounts.
• Unpaid credit cards bedevil Americans
  Americans are falling behind on their credit card payments at an alarming rate, sending delinquencies and defaults surging by double-digit percentages in the last year and prompting warnings of worse to come.An Associated Press analysis of financial data from the country's largest card issuers also found that the greatest rise was among accounts more than 90 days in arrears.Experts say these signs of the deterioration of finances of many households are partly a byproduct of the subprime mortgage crisis and could spell more trouble ahead for an already sputtering economy.
• Column: Credit crunch dims '2008 outlook
  Just last summer, analysts were predicting the subprime mortgage mess had been "contained," big bank CEOs were "dancing" over the liquidity flowing in credit markets and private-equity titans yearned in Soprano-like fashion to "kill off" the competition.Times have changed. The housing and mortgage crisis has escalated into a full-fledged credit crunch, which now threatens to throw the economy into a recession. People and places far removed from this mess are finding themselves caught in the fallout.That's why 2007 is ending on a sour note, making it hard to focus on much else that happened in the business world this year.
• Morgan Stanley sets price for China deal
  Morgan Stanley and the Chinese government said Monday that the U.S. investment bank has determined the range of prices to be used when China's international investment fund converts $5 billion worth of securities into Morgan Stanley stock.China Investment Corp. agreed last week to buy Morgan Stanley securities that will be convertible into up to 9.9 percent of the bank's stock in 2010, at a price of no more than 1.2 times the "reference price" that was confirmed Monday.The reference price would be between $48.07 and $57.684.
• No end in sight for soaring art market
  Art is hot. Despite turmoil in the financial markets, there are no signs that the art market is softening. The fall auction season in New York saw robust prices across most categories, with postwar and contemporary works in particular going through the roof. It seemed like a new record was being shattered every time an art auction was held.This record haul generated billions of dollars for auction houses such as Sotheby's, contributing to solid earnings but also exposing auctioneers to volatility when sales didn't go as well as expected.The reason for the art market's strong showing? The weak dollar, expanding world wealth and new buyers from countries not previously associated with the art collecting community, experts say. Over the last five years, wealthy buyers from Russia, China, India and the Middle East have greatly helped fuel the art market.
• Medical clinics expanding care to needy
  An out-of-work David Thomas walked into a Milwaukee food pantry just seeking groceries. Thomas learned he was a stroke waiting to happen and got blood pressure medicine along with his bread.Food pantries have long aimed to help heal hunger. A new project aims to see how well they can help heal high blood pressure, diabetes and other ailments, too.It's part of a growing movement to offer medical care for the poor and uninsured in the places where they regularly gather.
• Laptop project enlivens Peruvian hamlet
  Doubts about whether poor, rural children really can benefit from quirky little computers evaporate as quickly as the morning dew in this hilltop Andean village, where 50 primary school children got machines from the One Laptop Per Child project six months ago.These offspring of peasant families whose monthly earnings rarely exceed the cost of one of the $188 laptops - people who can ill afford pencil and paper much less books - can't get enough of their "XO" laptops.At breakfast, they're already powering up the combination library/videocam/audio recorder/music maker/drawing kits. At night, they're dozing off in front of them - if they've managed to keep older siblings from waylaying the coveted machines.
• High-tech innovations come to retailing
  Red pumps. Silver slingbacks. Bronze flats. Black suede boots. Size 7 1/2, please.Without leaving the customer's side, Macy's sales associate Felicia Dixon uses a small, handheld electronic device that essentially summons the shoes in the right style, color and size, from the stockroom. It is not quite magic: A clerk in the backroom receives the request electronically and brings out the merchandise.The shopper does not have to hunt around for a clerk each time she wants to try on a different style or needs a different size. Better service means happier customers, and that could lead to more sales.
• States eye ways to rein in property tax
  Maurice Gunyon thought he was set for his twilight years.He bought a deteriorating house on Indianapolis' north side, had it torn down and a new one built. The 73-year-old retired from his government job in 2004, thinking he was financially secure. His income included his pension, personal savings, Social Security and rent from the other side of his two-family house.Then he got his property tax bill that had nearly tripled. His bill in 2005 was about $2,900 and was $4,600 last year. This year's bill - $7,568.
• Board: Companies can bar union e-mail
  Employers can prohibit workers from using the office e-mail system for union activities, so long as they prohibit solicitations from any outside organization, the National Labor Relations Board has ruled.The board said its 3-2 decision sets a new labor relations standard that allows employers to prohibit union activity through the company's e-mail system while at the same time permitting office chitchat and personal messages.The decision, released Friday, upheld the management of the Eugene Register-Guard newspaper in a case involving e-mail messages sent by Suzi Prozanski, a copy editor and Newspaper Guild leader, during contract negotiations in 2000 and the warnings the company gave her.
• Stocks extend gains after Merrill deal
  Wall Street advanced sharply Monday, boosted by news that Merrill Lynch & Co. will receive an investment of up to $6.2 billion from two investment groups. The Dow Jones industrial average rose nearly 100 points.Trading volume was light in an abbreviated session - a typical occurrence a day ahead of Christmas. Still, with only four trading days left in 2007 besides Monday, investors were perhaps looking for any opportunity to tidy