Thomson Reuters

Christmas finally came for the nation's retailers last month in the form of modest sales increases and a rush of last-minute shoppers. Retailers posted a 2.9% sales increase compared with the same month a year earlier, easily beating expectations for a 2% gain, according to Thomson Reuters' tally of 30 major chain stores released today. But those figures were helped by a miserable December 2008 that was easy to beat, analysts said, and didn't signal the return of free-spending consumers.

Question: What's wrong with Brown Shoe Co.? I am a shareholder. Answer: Sales at its Famous Footwear chain have been as disappointing as the economy. That's why it plans to close about 145 of those stores over the course of this fiscal year that ends in January and into next fiscal year. It will also close its Brown Shoe Closet stores, F.X. LaSalle stores and Sun Prairie, Wis., distribution center. The sale of its And1 athletic shoe brand was recently finalized.

Consumers say they are feeling much less pessimistic in December than they were in November, thanks to widespread holiday sales and a more hopeful outlook on jobs and the economy, according to a study released Wednesday. Consumer sentiment is at its highest point since September, settling at 72.5 on an index from Thomson Reuters and the University of Michigan. The index was up nearly 8% from its 67.4 mark in November, and up nearly 21% from 60.1 in December 2008. But economists warned that although the improvement seems to signal a rebound, similar gains recently have been quickly reversed by a still-volatile economy.

Despite the struggling global economy, investors for the last two years have gotten used to corporate America generating robust earnings gains. But the profit picture now is getting cloudier: Although third-quarter results again were stellar, Wall Street analysts have slashed estimates for the current quarter and the first period of next year. "Earnings growth is very quickly decelerating," said David Rosenberg, chief market strategist at money manager Gluskin Sheff & Associates in Toronto.

The number of people claiming jobless benefits for the first time dropped less than expected last week, evidence that the labor market remains weak even as the economy recovers. The Labor Department said its tally fell by 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 530,000. Analysts expected a steeper drop to 521,000, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.

Warner Music Group Corp. reported online sales growth slowed, losses widened and that it wrote down investments in Internet start-ups Imeem.com and Lala.com. Warner's losses widened in the quarter to $68 million, or 45 cents a share. A year earlier, the company's losses totaled $37 million, or 25 cents. Excluding one-time charges, the loss of 23 cents a share narrowly beat analysts' forecasts of a 25-cent loss, according to Thomson Reuters. Overall revenue fell 17% to $668 million during the quarter.

Home Depot says spending on home projects and storm-related repairs helped boost its third-quarter net income 12 percent. Home-improvement retailers are facing cautious consumer spending and a weak housing market. Atlanta-based Home Depot Inc.'s smaller rival Lowe's Cos. reported Monday its third-quarter net income fell 44 percent on restructuring costs. But Home Depot fared better. Its results beat expectations and the company raised its 2011 earnings outlook. The No. 1 U.S. home-improvement retailer says net income rose 12 percent to $934 million, or 60 cents per share.

Best Buy Co. reported weaker-than-expected quarterly results and cut its profit outlook for the year as shoppers held off on buying televisions and other nonessential items in the anemic U.S. economy. The Tuesday announcement highlighted the fragility of recovery in the world's largest economy. Best Buy said that profit in the year will be as much as $3.45 a share, excluding share repurchases, down from its earlier forecast of as much as $3.55 a share. It still expects revenue of $51 billion to $52.5 billion.

The nation's retailers weathered stock market turmoil and Hurricane Irene in August, managing to post solid sales during the key month of the back-to-school season and offering hope for the crucial holiday shopping period just around the corner. Sales at major chain stores rose 4.4% year over year, according to Thomson Reuters' tally of 23 retailers, offering a barometer of steady consumer spending in an otherwise sluggish economy. The hurricane had a mixed effect on retailers, helping discounters but hurting mid-priced apparel chains and department stores, many of which were forced to close during the storm on the East Coast.

Los Angeles clothing company Guess Inc. gave a disappointing outlook for the rest of the year, sending its shares down 3% in after-hours trading. The company, best known for its jeans, said Wednesday it expects earnings of 71 to 74 cents per share in the third quarter on revenue of $650 million to $665 million. That compares with analysts' average estimate for earnings of 84 cents per share and revenue of $687.9 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. For the full year, Guess forecast adjusted earnings of $3.25 to $3.35 per share on revenue of $2.74 billion to $2.78 billion.

Two recent mergers in the legal industry speak volumes about the forces reshaping the business of law at its highest levels. What's also notable is that neither deal involved large law firms. Thomson Reuters, a media and information-services company, acquired Pangea3, a legal-process outsourcing firm with most of its lawyers in India, in November. A month earlier, Axiom Global Inc., which provides lawyers-for-hire to big corporations, bought another legal staffing company, LawyerLink.

Teen retail chain Wet Seal Inc. announced that its chief executive and president, Edmond S. Thomas, is stepping down after three years. Wet Seal is a specialty retailer of contemporary apparel and accessories for young women. As of July 3, the company operated 503 stores in 47 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico under the Wet Seal and Arden B brands. The Orange County retailer, based in Foothill Ranch, made the announcement Tuesday. The company said Thomas, 57, would step down from both positions Oct. 8, when his employment agreement is scheduled to expire.

How far have we come from the world of Deep Throat and the superhero reporter when the biggest news of the day arrives via a somewhat obscure website, in the form of tens of thousands of documents dumped by an unknown source? It's hard to know how they'll cast the movie version of WikiLeaks' reporting on Afghanistan, but someone should try because journalism has reached a watershed in which massive data files, collected anonymously, can reshape the way we see the world. The only shame is that we have truckloads of needed detail about a war half a world away but only the barest clue about government hanky-panky right under our noses.

In Europe, the unthinkable is about to happen: The Greek government, struggling under a massive debt load, has been forced to seek a bailout from the 15 other countries that share the euro currency. Yet world financial markets, which a few months ago shuddered at the prospect of Greece's woes fueling another crisis of confidence across the global economy, this week largely took the bailout expectations in stride. Instead of fleeing for safety as they did in 2008 and early 2009, many investors have continued to pour money into stocks and bonds — allaying fears that the fiscal crisis in Athens would be the trigger for another round of market mayhem.