Before the bell: Futures higher following bank news, ahead of housing dataAmazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) disclosed its "Best of 2007" lists, which include the bestselling, most positively reviewed, most-wished-for and favorite gift products. While during Christmas the best selling computer was Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) Mac laptop, it was the Nokia Internet tablet PC that was overall best seller in 2007. The MacBook Pro notebook PC, however, was best reviewed and most frequently purchased as gift. The iPod, too, was most frequently purchased as gift and most wished for in the Electronics category. The Nintendo Wii was the best selling game, Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) Office Home and Student 2007 was best selling software and Starbucks's (NASDAQ: SBUX) assortment gift basket by Wine Country Gift Baskets was best selling in the Gourmet category.
And which book was the best selling? Need I even answer? Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling of course.
A few days after comScore released its November U.S. internet search ranking, Nielsen Online released its own report Thursday. Google Inc.'s (NASDAQ: GOOG) online search engine increased its lead in the U.S. Internet search market in November over October, with 4.25 billion searches, representing 57.7% of U.S. online searches, up from 55.5% in October. The, by now eternal second, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) share was 17.9%, down from October's 18.8%. Microsoft's share also declined from 13.8% of the search market in October to 12% in November. Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) came in fourth place and IAC/InterActiveCorp's (NASDAQ: IACI) came in fifth.
Wal-Mart Store Inc. (NYSE: WMT) has closed its online movie download store, abandoning a digital market it entered last February. No explanation was given, but perhaps the competition with Apple's iTunes was too much.
The American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine reported a study saying that lung-disease patients taking GlaxoSmithKline PLC's (NYSE: GSK) asthma inhaler Seretide have better survival benefits than those taking a rival product.
Checkpoint Systems Inc. (NYSE: CKP) reaffirmed its 2007 guidance Thursday, issued an upbeat outlook for 2008 above Wall Street's expectations and named Robert van der Merwe president and CEO.
According to SEC filings, Dubai World on Friday disclosed that it's taken its stake in MGM Mirage (NYSE: MGM) to 6.5% from 4.9%, buying 5 million shares at $84.50 each from the Lincy Foundation, Kerkorian's philanthrophic vehicle.
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Corrections, seasonality and Santa Claus
