UK online sales this Christmas hit a record £2.8 billion as more than two-thirds of Brits shopped online on Christmas and Boxing Day, figures compiled by online customer experience firm Tealeaf revealed.

Tealeaf said that 44 per cent of adult shoppers increased their online spending as compared with 2009, and nearly 58 per cent of shoppers preferred online shopping as it was more convenient medium.

Fifty-two per cent said 'stress reduction' was the reason for their going online to shop, and the same percentage of shoppers said that they were encouraged by lower prices online.

Intel will pay $1.5 billon rival chipmaker Nvidia to settle all outstanding legal disputes between them.

Under the terms of the deal, Intel will pay $1.5 billon in five annual installments starting 18th of January.

Intel signed a new 6-year deal with Nvidia for the cross-licensing of their technologies. Nvidia’s complete range of patents will be accessible to Intel, while Nvidia will preserve right to use Intel patents, excluding proprietary processors, certain chipsets and flash memory.

Renewable energy accounted for 8.6 per cent of total electricity produced in the UK in the three months to September, according to the latest data released from the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

The contribution is the highest made by renewable energy sector and are close to government’s target for 10 per cent from the sector by 2010. The wind energy grew 36.9 per cent in the third quarter. The proportion of wind, hydro power and other sources grew 23.1 per cent compared to the same period last year.

In an attempt to turn around the fortunes of the UK’s 11,500 branches, the new financial services would be offered through the Post Office. However the businesses and unions are still disappointed since the ministers have reportedly decided against a state-backed Post Office bank.

The Department for Business argued saying that this setting up of such a bank was likely to take too much time and would also not be cost effective.

The Philadelphia-based firm, Market Research Partners (MRP) is due to create as many as 100 jobs in Newry. This US technology Company is said to be creating software which will help the Companies in their marketing and sales.

It is being said, that MRP would go on and recruit some 106 new workers, in the coming next three years to be based in the Quays complex in the city.

Due to an increasing demand in the business travel sector, InterContinental Hotels Group’s revenues raised by 6.7% in the third quarter of this year. 70% of the key hotel operator’s profit comes from the US. The firm reports that their profit from every rented room also increased by 7.9%.

The Labor Department on Friday posted that U.S. employers introduced surprisingly large 290,000 jobs in April, surpassing expectations, outlining that the economy is probably improving at an unceasing and steady pace. However, analysts estimated that the economy would yield 1, 85,000 to 1, 90,000 jobs last month.

The addition has emerged as a strongest hiring burst in four years, depicting that companies are boosting their confidence levels that the economy will continue to strengthen.

People in UAE are more confident and this is also being reflected in consumer confidence. The country is now among the top 10 most optimistic countries in the world, according to a survey. The survey was conducted by Nielsen Group and tracks consumer sentiment across the globe.    

The survey found that people in India were the most bullish and India score highest in the survey. Indonesia and Norway were placed at second and third positions. The survey was conducted in the month of March.   

UK's leading retailers such as Tesco, Argos, Primark and the like are expected to report robust trading figures owing to strong Christmas sales.

Tesco, which is all set to report Christmas season trading figures on Tuesday, is expected to beat city forecast. Tesco launched Clubcard scheme to attract shoppers over Christmas.

Tesco is tipped to post like-for-like sales growth of between 3 per cent and 4 per cent.

Analysts at Shore Capital, who were projecting an increase of 3 per cent in like-for-like sales, now expect better results.

Property in nearly 40 per cent British areas has become affordable for first-time buyers, a fresh study revealed.  

Figures compiled by the Halifax bank showed that average earnings could now afford property in around four out of ten local authority districts.

Earlier in 2007, when property prices were at their peak, average earnings could afford homes in only 6 per cent local authority districts of the country.
Fall in property prices in wake of recession plus lower interest rates improved first-time buyers’ affordability.

Over the past week, much fewer Americans than expected filed claims for unemployment benefits across the country, suggesting that there is a definite improvement in the labor market which will help keep the economic growth intact over the next year.

Deutsche Bank, the biggest money lender in Germany, is expecting a huge profit of more than 10 billion euros on pretax profits for the year 2010. The reason for this seems to be the fact that the bank has been focusing increasingly on investment and corporate banking features and also the various businesses and asset management in the Asian countries.

The bank is confident that its profit would rise in spite of the raft of the new regulations of banking which has been formulated to avert another huge crisis in the financial market.

The worst seems to be over for Sports Direct. The company that owns Sports Direct, Sports World stores and brands such as Slazenger and Dunlop, Newcastle United has forecast its annual earnings to be 'at least' £155 million. The sales figures have begun to pick up, thereby reducing the net debt to £362 million from £431.3 million. UK retail revenues climbed to £687.7 million and international retail sales went up to £63.6 million.

Tesco, UK's giant supermarket chain will be revealing its third-quarter earnings figures on Tuesday, and these are set to give investors a reason to smile. For the first time in almost 2 years, the firm would report a rise in market share growth for the quarter up-to November 12. The figures have been confirmed by TNS Worldpanel figures.

Experts believe that the chain is reaping benefits from its "Double Clubcard Points" promotion scheme, and is also tied with a fierce price battle with all of its rivals, just the festive season chimes in.

Germany's benchmark DAX Index traded at its highest level related to earnings recorded since 2002, resulting in all German stocks fiercely swinging between gains and losses.

As of 10 am local time, the index was little changed and was trading at 5,776.62 points, after yesterday's climb of 2.7%, the biggest since jump recorded since October 6. The rise, which was a whopping 58% since March 6, resulted in all measured being valued at about 64 times their companies' reported earnings. The data has been collected and confirmed by Bloomberg.