Newspaper wrap-up: Christmas sales fall short of predictions

MAJOR PAPERS:

The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reported that last minute shopping in the days before Christmas salvaged a slight increase in overall retail sales for the season, but the total still fell short of predictions with gasoline-price inflation factored out. According to MasterCard SpendingPulse, total U.S. retail sales, excluding automobile sales, rose 3.6% for the holiday season spanning the day after Thanksgiving to midnight Monday.
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) announced it would pay $4.5 billion for a 60% stake in Marmon Holdings, an industrial conglomerate. The deal, Mr. Buffett said, is Berkshire's largest acquisition outside of the insurance industry, reported the Wall Street Journal.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Toyota Motor (NYSE: TM) said it aims to boost global sales by 5% in 2008 to 9.85 million cars, pulling further ahead of rival General Motors (NYSE: GM). Toyota also said it expects global sales this year of 9.36 million vehicles, up 6% from 2006.

OTHER PAPERS:

Japan's NTT DoCoMo (NYSE: DCM) is in talks with Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) to strengthen its business alliance in a bid to upgrade services for its mobile phone users, DoCoMo officials said Tuesday, reported Bloomberg.

WEBSITES:

Advanced Semiconductor (NYSE: ASX) has laid off over 40 workers at its flip chip substrate plant in northern Taiwan and has reportedly suspended a plan to expand its FC substrate capacity, DigiTimes.com reported.

Tags: ASX, BRK.A, DCM, GM, GOOG, TM