Marvel’s Peter Parker in perilous predicament

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — After 50 years of spinning webs and catching a who’s who of criminals, Peter Parker is out of the hero game.

But Spider-Man is still slinging from building to building — reborn, refreshed and revived with a new sense of the old maxim that Ben Parker taught his then-fledgling nephew that “with great power, comes great responsibility.”

Writer Dan Slott, who’s been penning Spidey adventures for the better part of the last 100 issues for Marvel Entertainment, said the culmination of the story is a new, dramatically different direction for the Steve Ditko and Stan Lee-created hero.

“This is an epic turn,” Slott said. “I’ve been writing Spider-Man for 70-plus issues. Every now and then, you have to shake it up. … The reason Spider-Man is one of the longest running characters is they always find a way to keep it fresh. Something to shake up the mix.”

And in the pages of issue 700, out Wednesday, it’s not just shaken up, it’s turned head over heels, spun in circles, kicked sky high and cracked wide open.

Parker’s mind is trapped in the withered, decaying dying body of his nemesis, Doctor Octopus aka Otto Octavius. Where’s Doc Ock? Inside Parker’s super-powered shell, learning what life is like for the brilliant researcher who happens to count the Avengers and Fantastic Four as friends and family.

The two clash mightily in the pages of issue 700, illustrated by Humberto Ramos and Victor Olazaba. But it’s Octavius who wins out and Parker is, at least for now, gone for good, but not before one more act of heroism.

Slott said that it’s Parker, whose memories envelop Octavius, who shows the villain what it means to be a hero.

“Gone are his days of villainy, but since it’s Doc Ock and he has that ego, he’s not going to try and just be Spider-man, he’s going to try to be the best Spider-Man ever,” said Slott.

Editor Stephen Wacker said that while Parker is gone, his permanence remains and his life casts a long shadow.

“His life is still important to the book because it affects everything that Doctor Octopus does as Spider-Man. Seeing a supervillain go through this life is the point — trying to be better than the hero he opposed,” Wacker said.

“Doc has sort of inspired by Peter’s life. That’s what I mean when he talks about the shadow he casts,” he said.

The sentiment echoes what Uncle Ben said in the pages of “Amazing Fantasy” No. 15, Slott said.

Editor Stephen Wacker called it a fitting end to the old series, which sets the stage for a new one — “The Superior Spider-Man” early next year — because it brings Peter Parker full circle, from the start of his crime-fighting career to the end.

“In his very first story, his uncle died because of something he did so the book has always been aimed at making Peter’s life as difficult as possible,” Wacker said. “The book has always worked best when it’s about Peter Parker’s life, not Spider-Man’s.”

And with Octavius influenced by Parker’s life — from Aunt May to Gwen Stacy to Mary Jane — it will make him a better person, too.

“Because Doctor Octopus knows all of those things and will make decisions on what he saw Peter going through,” Wacker said. “In a way, he gets the ultimate victory as he becomes a better hero.”

___

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Stock futures little changed with “cliff” talks to resume

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures were little changed on Thursday with legislators due to return to Washington to restart negotiations over the “fiscal cliff“.

President Barack Obama will attempt to make another push to resume talks on the cliff, a series of tax hikes and spending cuts set to begin on January 1 which may tip the economy into a recession, on Thursday after returning from a shortened Christmas holiday in Hawaii.

In a sign that there may be a way through deadlock in Congress, Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner urged the Democrat-controlled Senate to act to pull back from the cliff and offered to at least consider any bill the upper chamber produced.

The Treasury Department, led by Secretary Timothy Geithner, announced steps essentially designed to buy time to allow Congress to resolve its differences and raise the debt ceiling.

Economic data expected on Thursday includes weekly initial jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. (1330 GMT). Economists in a Reuters survey forecast a total of 360,000 new filings, compared with 361,000 filings in the previous week.

Also due at 8:30 a.m. (1330 GMT) is the Chicago Fed Midwest Manufacturing Index for November.

Later in the session at 10 a.m. (1500 GMT), investors will eye December consumer confidence and November new home sales data. The Conference Board’s main consumer confidence index is expected to show a reading of 70 versus the 73.7 reported in November while new home sales are expected to show a total of 378,000 annualized units.

The benchmark S&P 500 index has fallen 1.7 percent over the past three sessions as negotiations over the budget crisis have stalled, its longest losing streak since mid-November.

But the S&P has recouped nearly all of its declines suffered in the wake of the U.S. elections and is up 12.9 percent for the year, putting it on track for its best year since 2009.

S&P 500 futures rose 3.2 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 4 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures lost 0.5 point.

Marvell Technology Group fell 5.4 percent to $ 7.00 in premarket trading, extending its decline in the prior session after a federal jury found the company infringed two patents held by Carnegie Mellon University, and ordered the chipmaker to pay $ 1.17 billion in damages.

European shares steadied early in their first trading session following the Christmas break, with investors focusing on Washington’s last-ditch efforts to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff. <.eu></.eu>

Asian shares rose amid caution ahead of the U.S. fiscal negotiations, while the yen hit a 21-month low against the dollar on the prospect of drastic monetary easing and massive state spending.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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Home Prices Hit a Milestone

Home prices are on track to notch their first yearly gain since 2006, the strongest performance since the housing bust and a development that could accelerate the real-estate rebound even as the broader economy stutters.

The housing market’s revival has had several false dawns in recent years, but a recovery that began in the spring has strengthened throughout the summer and fall. The latest confirmation came on Wednesday, when the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city index showed that prices rose by 4.3% from a year ago in October. Since January, prices are up 6.9% so far this year, the largest year-to-date gain since 2005. A separate index released Wednesday by Lender Processing Services Inc. showed that national home prices were up by 5.2% this year through October.

“The tide has changed,” said Ivy Zelman, chief executive of research firm Zelman & Associates. “People feel it’s OK to go back into residential real estate—it’s no longer taboo—and that change in sentiment could have a very powerful effect.”

Prices have risen this year amid stronger demand and sharp declines in the number of homes for sale. Banks slowed down foreclosures after abuses in processing paperwork surfaced two years ago. Since then, banks have become more aggressive at modifying loans or approving short sales, where the home is sold for less than the amount owed. The decline in new foreclosures has reduced the number of homes on the market that sell for large discounts.

Homeowners who normally would sell their properties have been holding them off the market, leaving inventories of previously owned homes at an 11-year low.

[Click here to check home loan rates in your area.]

Weak home construction in past years also is a factor and has left inventories of new homes for sale near the lowest levels in at least 50 years.

Demand, meanwhile, has picked up, first as investors scooped up perceived discounts on properties that can be rented out or resold quickly for a profit. Traditional buyers—those planning to live in the property and not flip it—also returned to the market, drawn by record-low mortgage rates, rising rents, and steady job gains that are increasing household formation.

“People got tired of living in mom and dad’s basement, and rents have gotten much higher than your mortgage payment,” said Glenn Kelman, chief executive of Redfin, a real-estate brokerage.

To be sure, housing markets are still fragile and face stiff headwinds. Mortgage lending standards are still strict, as lenders scrutinize appraisals and borrowers’ income history to make bulletproof mortgages. Millions of borrowers owe more than their homes are worth or don’t have enough equity to sell their home and make a down payment on a comparable property.

Still, sales of existing homes in November were up 14.5% from a year earlier, putting them on pace to reach their highest level since 2007. On Thursday, the Census Bureau is set to report new-home sales for November.

The upshot is that more buyers have been chasing fewer homes for sale, putting upward pressure on prices. “We’ve been seeing just crazy competition. Supply and demand has tipped in the seller’s favor,” said Nani Luculescu, a real-estate agent in Anaheim, Calif.

Last month, she represented a buyer who made the winning bid—among 52 offers—for a $ 320,000 four-bedroom home in Garden Grove, Calif., last month that sold for 10% more than the asking price.

Frustrated by a lack of inventory, others are instead purchasing new homes. Sonal Basu, a real-estate agent in San Francisco’s East Bay, said in August she noticed that prospective buyers began camping out in tents at the new-home development where she lives in San Ramon, Calif. Some of the “campers,” she says, are being paid $ 250 a day by buyers to wait in line for them.

Since August, every area new-home development has also had campers waiting in line to buy homes, she said. “A year and a half ago, nobody wanted to move out here because they felt it was the boonies,” Ms. Basu said. “Now, they’re not hesitating with this commute.”

Prices are rising in part because the share of “distressed” homes—those selling out of foreclosure or in short sales—has dropped. While 18 of 20 cities posted year-over-year price gains in October, the largest increases have taken hold in some cities hit hard by the bust. In Phoenix, for example, prices have jumped by 21.7% over the past year. Prices gained by 10% in Detroit and 8.5% in Miami.

Economists say many such gains aren’t sustainable and instead reflect prices rebounding from very low levels. “They’re not going to continue at that pace,” said Thomas Lawler, an independent housing economist in Leesburg, Va. He said he expected prices to go up next year, but at a slower pace than this year.

Also, some states where banks have struggled to follow court-administered foreclosure processes have large overhangs of mortgages where borrowers haven’t made any payments in at least a year. Those homes could eventually hit the market, putting pressure on prices if demand isn’t strong. Prices in New York and Chicago, which both have large overhangs, saw prices decline by 1.2% and 1.3% in October from one year ago.

A more immediate concern is how consumer confidence might fare if lawmakers don’t reach a solution to avoid the “fiscal cliff,” a raft of automatic tax increases and spending cuts set to take place in early 2013.

For now, low inventories of distressed properties are finally boosting the fortunes of the nation’s home builders that have long been sidelined by competition from cheap bank-owned properties.

The stock prices of U.S. home builders, as measured by the Dow Jones home construction index, were up more than 75% year-to-date as investors are betting that the housing recovery could be sustainable. Others are plowing money into startups that invest in single-family homes as rentals. That, in turn, is ramping up construction hiring and spending on everything from lumber to cement to air-conditioning units.

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Wall Street flat as "fiscal cliff" talks eyed

To a black ESPN sports analyst, this is the critical question: Is Robert Griffin III, aka RG III, the black rookie sensation Washington Redskins quarterback, "a brother, or is he a cornball brother?" What has RG III done or said to raise a suspicion about his bona fides as a black person? More importantly, what does this have to do with appreciating — or choosing not to appreciate — Griffin as an athlete?

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Peyton Manning, Peterson make Pro Bowl

NEW YORK (AP) — Peyton Manning and Adrian Peterson want to cap their sensational comebacks with Super Bowl appearances. For now, they can be proud of Pro Bowl spots.

So can Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III, one of two rookies chosen Wednesday for the Jan. 27 NFL all-star game.

Manning missed all of the 2011 season with neck and back problems that required several operations. He then signed with Denver as a free agent and has led the Broncos on a 10-game winning streak to take the AFC West.

"I know there's great players out there in the NFL, but there's some great players on this team this year that deserve to go," said Manning, whose 12th Pro Bowl is a record for quarterbacks. He ranks fourth in league passing this year, has thrown 34 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.

Four other Broncos made the AFC roster: DE Elvis Dumervil, linebacker Von Miller, CB Champ Bailey and tackle Ryan Clady. Bailey's 12th appearance is a record for defensive backs.

"My goal has always been to go out and help the team win and play at a high level," Manning added. "Anything that comes along with that, like being honored as a Pro Bowl selection, is very humbling."

Minnesota's Peterson tore up his left knee on Christmas Eve last year, underwent major surgery, then was back for the season opener. He's gone from uncertain to unstoppable, running away with the rushing title with a career-high 1,898 yards and lifting the Vikings toward an NFC wild card.

"Coming into the season after going through the rehab process, I just told myself that I wanted to lead my team to a championship and make sure that I contribute and do my part," Peterson said. "I've been doing it."

Griffin is one of three rookie QBs who had superb debut seasons, along with Andrew Luck of Indianapolis and Russell Wilson of Seattle. Luck and Wilson weren't voted to the Pro Bowl by players, coaches and fans, although their teams are in the playoffs; Griffin can get to the postseason if Washington beats Dallas on Sunday.

"You can't play down those kind of things," Griffin said. "I've always said my whole football career that you don't play for awards. They just come. You don't say you're going to win the Heisman. You don't say you're going to win MVP. You go out and you prove it on the field, and if everyone feels that way then they'll give you that award."

San Francisco had the most players selected, nine, including six from its second-ranked defense. Houston was next with eight, six on offense.

Kansas City, despite its 2-13 record that is tied with Jacksonville for worst in the league, had five Pro Bowlers, including RB Jamaal Charles, who like Peterson is coming back from a torn ACL.

One other rookie, Minnesota kicker Blair Walsh, was chosen. Walsh has nine field goals of at least 50 yards, an NFL mark.

The AFC kicker is at the other end of the spectrum: Cleveland's Phil Dawson earned his first selection in his 14th NFL season.

"I deliberately tried not to know," Dawson said. "We wanted to watch the show with my kids. I had a really good idea what was going on, but it was a pretty priceless moment when we saw the name flash up on the screen. My kids went nuts 'cause my wife went nuts. That makes these 15 years of waiting worth it."

Another record setter will be heading to Honolulu: Detroit WR Calvin Johnson.

Johnson broke Jerry Rice's single-season yards receiving record and has 1,892 yards with a game left.

Falcons tight end Tony Gonzalez set the record for Pro Bowls at his position by being chosen for the 13th time.

The league's top two sackmasters, DEs Aldon Smith of San Francisco and J.J. Watt of Houston, were first-time selections. Watt has 20 1-2 sacks, one ahead of Smith; the NFL record is 22 1-2.

Other newcomers, along with Griffin, Walsh and Dawson, were AFC players tackle Duane Brown and guard Wade Smith of Houston; safety LaRon Landry of the Jets; kick returner Jacoby Jones of Baltimore; and punter Dustin Colquitt of Kansas City.

For the NFC, first-timers were Giants WR Victor Cruz; Atlanta WR Julio Jones; Seattle tackle Russell Okung and center Max Unger; San Francisco guard Mike Iupati, linebacker NaVorro Bowman and safety Donte Whitner; Chicago cornerback Tim Jennings and defensive tackle Henry Melton; Washington tackle Trent Williams and special teamer Lorenzo Alexander; Minnesota fullback Jerome Felton; Tampa Bay DT Gerald McCoy; and New Orleans punter Thomas Morstead.

Eight teams had no Pro Bowl players: Carolina, Philadelphia and St. Louis in the NFC, Tennessee, Buffalo, Jacksonville, San Diego and Oakland in the AFC.

___

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Climate change: No consensus needed

Lake Cachet II in Aysen, Chilean Patagonia, disappeared because of rising temperatures driven by climate change, experts say.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Tseming Yang: Result of Doha climate change conference less than desirable


• Yang: It's time to abandon the myth that a consensus solution is the best approach


• He says the 25 major carbon emitters should work out an agreement among themselves


• Yang: Smaller, focused discussions may be better than large, U.N.-style gatherings

Editor's note: Tseming Yang, former deputy general counsel at the Environmental Protection Agency, is professor of law at Santa Clara University Law School.

(CNN) -- The Doha climate change conference this year was the most significant in nearly 20 years of gatherings under the U.N. Framework Convention process aimed at staving off future global warming disaster.

Since carbon dioxide emission limits agreed to under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol were to expire at the stroke of midnight on December 31, 2012, it was critical that the international community agreed to extend those obligations and to continue talks about future emission cuts.

But the outcome fell far short of what will be necessary to keep the world's average temperature from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius in the foreseeable future.

Under the Doha arrangement, 17 of the 25 biggest carbon emitting countries (including China, the United States, Russia and India) did not commit to any legally binding emission limits. The countries that did agree to extend and deepen their Kyoto emission reductions, including the European Union, Australia and Eastern Europe, make up only about 15% of the world's emissions. That seems like a rather meager return on the investment of time and effort over the past years.

But there is one silver lining.

The world's top 20 carbon emitters together make up about 77% of emission and account for about 4.3 billion people, which is about 62% of the global population. The remaining 170 or so countries account for just over 20% of emissions.

As often is the case, these negotiations over climate have come to symbolize epic David and Goliath struggles pitting poor developing countries against recalcitrant government officials from rich countries. Lobbying efforts, shaming tactics, and staging public demonstrations have been the slingshots of choice. One result is that more people are paying attention to environmental issues.

Nonetheless, it is time to abandon the myth that a consensus solution is necessarily the best approach. The unfortunate reality is that little can get done right now. It's like having hundreds of cooks with hundreds of different recipes attempting to prepare one meal in the same small kitchen. After two decades of hard work, it is time to consider reducing the number of cooks.

A better alternative to a United Nations-style conference would be for the 25 major emitters to come to an agreement just among themselves about their mutual commitments to deal with climate change effectively.

In other words, get the 25 cooks to work together on the main meal. The hundreds of other cooks ought to step out of the kitchen.

Some smaller, focused discussions have already started, such as in the Major Economies Forum. Imagine what kind of deals on cutting emissions would be possible just among China, India and the United States -- the top three emitters in the world respectively. Imagine a deal involving emission sources in China, which has some of the world's most polluting coal-fired power plants, and California, which is on a course to become one of the most stringently controlled states in carbon emissions.

Of course, there are no guarantees for success. But discussions within such a smaller group would allow government leaders to confront the realities of climate change and engage in direct horse-trading without the static of thousands of other voices desiring to load their issues into the deal.

Let's face it -- we are way beyond the time for finding an ideal solution. Every year the world waits to take further concrete steps to cut emissions, the atmosphere will be loaded with millions of tons more carbon dioxide that will stay for a century. And the job of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius will be more out of reach.

At the best, gatherings like the one in Doha dangle a tantalizing mirage of achieving a sustainable future. At the worst, they give cover to governments that would rather avoid the hard choices they ultimately will have to make.

After one more expensive and time-consuming round of talks, it's time to be honest with what can really be accomplished in these U.N.-style gatherings.

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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Tseming Yang.

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Britain’s royal family attends Christmas services

LONDON (AP) — Britain‘s royal family is attending Christmas Day church services — with a few notable absences.

Wearing a turquoise coat and matching hat, Queen Elizabeth II arrived at St. Mary Magdelene Church on her sprawling Sandringham estate in Norfolk. She was accompanied in a Bentley by granddaughters Beatrice and Eugenie.

Her husband, Prince Philip, walked from the house to the church with other members of the royal family.

Three familiar faces were missing from the family outing. Prince William is spending the holiday with his pregnant wife Kate and his in-laws in the southern England village of Bucklebury. Prince Harry is serving with British troops in Afghanistan.

Later Tuesday, the queen will deliver her traditional, pre-recorded Christmas message, which for the first time will be broadcast in 3D.

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Stock futures edge higher ahead of “cliff” talk resumption

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stock index futures edged higher on Wednesday, indicating the S&P 500 may stem its worst two-day drop since mid-November, ahead of the resumption of “fiscal cliff” negotiations.

U.S. President Barack Obama is cutting short his Hawaiian holiday to leave for Washington on Wednesday to address the unfinished negotiations with Congress.

Obama is due to arrive in Washington on Thursday to resume talks on the cliff, a sharp rise in taxes and deep spending cuts due to begin on January 1 that could tip the U.S. economy into recession.

“This is what we’ve come to – the President might get on a plane today and this is what the markets might react to,” said Kim Forrest, senior equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh.

“It’s all about the fiscal cliff.”

A Republican plan that failed to gain traction last week triggered the recent decline in the S&P 500 <.spx>, highlighting market sensitivity to headlines centered around the talks.</.spx>

Investors will also look to housing data for signs of improvement in that sector of the economy, with the S&P Case/Shiller Home Price Index for October expected at 9 a.m. (1400 GMT).

Housing data has shown modest improvement in recent months, and continued strength could help support the sagging economy.

“The data is two months old, so it’s interesting, but I don’t know that people will react to it given these other more timely events,” said Forrest.

S&P 500 futures rose 3 points and were slightly above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures gained 17 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 3.25 points.

The benchmark S&P index is up 13.4 percent for the year, and has recouped nearly all of the losses suffered in the wake of the U.S. elections, when the fiscal cliff concerns moved to the forefront of investors’ focus.

China’s Sinopec Group and ConocoPhillips will research potentially vast reserves of shale gas in southwestern China over the next two years, state news agency Xinhua reported.

An outage at one of Amazon.com Inc’s web service centers hit users of Netflix Inc’s streaming video service on Christmas Eve and was not fully resolved until Christmas Day, a spokesman for the movie rental company said on Tuesday.

In Asian markets, the Nikkei moved to a new nine-month high but shares elsewhere in the region were capped in thin holiday trade, with investors focusing on the fate of U.S. negotiations to avert a budget crunch looming at the end of the year.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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Shoppers disappoint retailers this holiday season

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. shoppers spent cautiously this holiday season, a disappointment for retailers who slashed prices to lure people into stores and now must hope for a post-Christmas burst of spending.

Sales of electronics, clothing, jewelry and home goods in the two months before Christmas increased 0.7 percent compared with last year, according to the MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse report.

That was below the healthy 3 to 4 percent growth that analysts had expected — and it was the worst year-over-year performance since 2008, when spending shrank sharply during the Great Recession. In 2011, retail sales climbed 4 to 5 percent during November and December, according to ShopperTrak.

This year’s shopping season was marred by bad weather and rising uncertainty about the economy in the face of possible tax hikes and spending cuts early next year. Some analysts say the massacre of schoolchildren in Newtown, Conn., earlier this month may also have chipped away at shoppers’ enthusiasm.

Retailers still have time to make up lost ground. The final week of December accounts for about 15 percent of the month’s sales, said Michael McNamara, vice president for research and analysis at MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse.

Still, this season’s weak sales could have repercussions for 2013, McNamara said. Retailers will make fewer orders to restock their shelves, and discounts will hurt their profitability. Wholesalers will buy fewer goods and orders to factories will likely drop in the coming months.

Steep discounts weren’t enough to get people into stores, said Marshal Cohen, chief analyst at the market research firm NPD Inc.

“A lot of the Christmas spirit was left behind way back in Black Friday weekend,” Cohen said, referring to the traditional retail rush the day after Thanksgiving. “We had one reason after another for consumers to say, ‘I’m going to stick to my list and not go beyond it.’”

Holiday sales are a crucial indicator of the economy’s strength. November and December account for up to 40 percent of annual sales for many retailers. If those sales don’t materialize, stores are forced to offer steeper discounts. That’s a boon for shoppers, but it cuts into stores’ profits.

Spending by consumers accounts for 70 percent of overall economic activity, so the eight-week period encompassed by the SpendingPulse data is seen as a critical time not just for retailers but for manufacturers, wholesalers and companies at every other point along the supply chain.

The SpendingPulse data released Tuesday, which captures sales from Oct. 28 through Dec. 24 across all payment methods, is the first major snapshot of holiday retail sales. A clearer picture will emerge next week as retailers like Macy’s and Target report revenue from stores open for at least a year. That sales measure is widely watched in the retail industry because it excludes revenue from stores that recently opened or closed, which can be volatile.

In the run-up to Christmas, analysts blamed bad weather for putting a damper on shopping. In late October, Superstorm Sandy battered the Northeast and mid-Atlantic states, which account for 24 percent of U.S. retail sales.

Shopping picked up in the second half of November, but then the threat of the country falling off a “fiscal cliff” gained strength, throwing consumers off track once again.

Lawmakers have yet to reach a deal that would prevent tax increases and government spending cuts set to take effect at the beginning of 2013. If the cuts and tax hikes kick in and stay in place for months, the Congressional Budget Office says the nation could fall back into recession.

Shopping over the past two months was weakest in areas affected by Sandy and a more recent winter storm in the Midwest. Sales declined by 3.9 percent in the mid-Atlantic and 1.4 percent in the Northeast compared with last year. They rose 0.9 percent in the north central part of the country.

The West and South posted gains of between 2 percent and 3 percent, still weaker than the 3 percent to 4 percent increases expected by many retail analysts.

Online sales, typically a bright spot, grew only 8.4 percent from Oct. 28 through Saturday, according to SpendingPulse. That’s a dramatic slowdown from the online sales growth of 15 to 17 percent seen in the prior 18-month period, according to the data service.

Online sales did enjoy a modest boost after the recent snowstorm that hit the Midwest, McNamara said. Online sales make up about 10 percent of total holiday business.

___

Daniel Wagner can be reached at www.twitter.com/wagnerreports.

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Wall Street inches up as Obama to return to "cliff'"debate

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks edged higher on Wednesday as President Barack Obama cut short his vacation and readied to return to Washington a day ahead of last-minute talks to avert a series of tax increases and government spending cuts set to begin next week.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> gained 22.33 points, or 0.17 percent, to 13,161.41. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> gained 1.68 points, or 0.12 percent, to 1,428.34. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> dropped 0.30 points, or 0.01 percent, to 3,012.30.

(Reporting By Edward Krudy; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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