Natural gas » Prices have dropped by more than 12 percent in the past month as the country continues to sip at its energy reserves and a balmy November allowed homeowners to leave the heat off.
Retail prices for natural gas, or what many consumers will pay to heat their homes, are expected to be substantially lower this year. Spot prices for natural gas have dropped to almost half of what they were last year, though they've increased slightly this month, according to the Energy Information Administration.
Barnes & Noble » the largest U.S. bookstore chain, said its device for reading digital versions of books, called Nook, sold out its initial production run and won't ship new purchases until the week of Jan. 4. The retailer said last month when it introduced the $259 device that it would ship purchases by Nov. 30. The Nook is Barnes & Noble's entry into the market dominated by Amazon.com Inc. and Sony Corp.
Post Offices » The U.S. Postal Service, which may lose $7.8 billion this year, has cut the number of offices and branches that could be closed to 241. An original list of potential closures included 3,600 of the Postal Service's 37,000 post offices, branches and stations. The agency also has asked Congress for permission to eliminate Saturday delivery and to change a pre-payment requirement for retirement benefits. Postmaster General John Potter said these moves would save far more than the $20 million to $100 million gained closing facilities.
Commercial sales » U.S. commercial real estate deals are likely to fall to $49 billion in 2009, the lowest in records going back to 2001, Real Capital Analytics Inc. said Friday. The total of office, hotel, apartment, retail and industrial sales is less than 50 percent of last year's volume and $80 billion below 2001.
Adidas AG » will start selling a new range of mountaineering jackets next year, average cost $595, muscling in on The North Face's turf as the outdoor-pursuits market grows faster than traditional sporting goods.
The world's second-largest sporting-goods maker wants to become a leading brand for so-called performance-sports gear by 2015, said Rolf Reinschmidt, head of the German company's global outdoor division. Sales of outdoor gear will rise about 0.7 percent in Europe this year, outperforming the declining sporting-goods market, according to the European Outdoor Group. VF Corp., owner of The North Face, leads the $59 billion industry with outdoor-sports sales of $2.74 billion.
Nokia Corp. » the world's largest mobile phone maker, said Friday it is axing 330 jobs at research and development units in Finland and Denmark as it continues to struggle to cut costs. The move is part of the company's efforts to streamline its operations, which employ 17,000 people worldwide.
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