Wal-mart workers get ready for Black Friday protest

Wal-Mart employees in June joined a rally in Los Angeles to protest what they call retaliation from the nation's largest retailer.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Shoppers and stores around the country are preparing for big Black Friday sales, but a group of Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) workers are getting ready for a protest.

"I'll do whatever it takes to speak out about our concerns -- I'm willing to put my job on the line," says Monique Velasquez, a single mother of five who works in Wal-Mart's photo department in Pico Rivera, California. Velasquez plans to join the protest on Friday.

The union-backed group OUR Walmart, which has helped organize the post-Thanksgiving walk-out, expects thousands of workers around the country to participate. Workers say they are joining the protest to ask the country's largest employer to end what they call retaliation against speaking out for better pay, fair schedules and affordable health care.

In an effort to stop the workers from protesting, Wal-Mart filed a complaint last week with the National Labor Relations Board, claiming that the protesters violated labor laws.

The federal labor agency, which was under pressure to act within 72 hours of getting the complaint, has said that it is "highly unlikely" to have a ruling on the complaint in time to stop the Black Friday protests. Nancy Cleeland, a spokeswoman for the NLRB said the complaint is too complex to make a ruling so soon.

Wal-Mart's complaint claimed that the United Food and Commercial Workers Union and its subsidiary OUR Walmart unlawfully organized picket lines and other demonstrations in the past six months. The retailer said the actions have disrupted business, and that the workers' ongoing actions violate the National Labor Relations Act, which prohibits picketing for any period over 30 days without filing a petition to form a union.

On Tuesday, OUR Walmart filed its own charge with the federal agency, claiming that Wal-Mart tried to deter workers from participating in the protests and interfered with their right to speak up.

The labor agency's Cleeland said that if it finds that Wal-Mart's claims have merit, it will go to court to seek an injunction on behalf of the retailer to stop the union-backed group from organizing the protests.

If the agency doesn't find merit, the charge will be dismissed or withdrawn, she said.

Labor law experts say that Wal-Mart could have a tough time winning this one. That's because the labor laws that prohibit picketing over 30 days applies only to protesters trying to form a union or gain collective bargaining rights, not employees who are protesting against retaliation.

If the employees' claims are true, Wal-Mart could itself be found in violation of the National Labor Rights Act, which protects workers against retaliation for speaking up, according to Angela Cornell, director of the Labor Law Clinic at Cornell University's law school.

For its part, Wal-Mart plans to go full steam ahead on Black Friday. It will start doling out its "doorbuster" deals at 8 p.m. on Thursday, just after shoppers finish their Thanksgiving feasts.

Related: Wal-Mart Black Friday deals

The retailer is offering special deals to customers who are in line inside its stores at 10 p.m., guaranteeing three special offers -- the Apple iPad2, an Emerson 32 inch TV and an LG Blu-ray player.

On Monday, the retailer tweeted: "Don't believe everything you read in the union press releases. We don't think their #BlackFriday activity will have an impact on customers."

OUR Wal-Mart, meanwhile, has more than 30,000 "likes" on its Facebook page, and has collected more than $60,000 in donations to support workers who walk off work in protest on Black Friday.

First Published: November 22, 2012: 12:06 AM ET

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Fitch cuts Sony, Panasonic debt to junk

Sony and Panasonic were downgraded Thursday by Fitch.

HONG KONG (CNNMoney) -- Fitch Ratings downgraded Sony and Panasonic debt to junk status Thursday and said the ailing Japan-based consumer electronic makers both needed radical restructuring to improve their prospects.

Panasonic's rating was cut to BB from BBB-, while Sony was moved to BB- from BBB-, with a negative outlook. Both companies now carry speculative, or junk, ratings.

The downgrades are the latest in a string for Sony and Panasonic, which have been haemorrhaging money and struggling to find positive momentum.

The companies, once the crown jewels of the high-tech Japanese economy, have been hit in recent years by a strong yen and weak demand for televisions. Sony now has a market cap of just more than $10 billion, and hasn't turned a profit in four years.

Its shares are trading near their lowest levels in three decades, and even closed below the 800 yen mark in Tokyo earlier this month.

"We think there is little headroom for Sony," Fitch's Steve Durose said in a statement.

"Without a radical change to the structure of their businesses it is difficult to see profitability improving enough for [Sony and Panasonic] to regain investment-grade ratings," Durose said.

Related: Something is rotten in Japan

Panasonic seems to be in better shape than Sony, and less dependent on its struggling core electronics business. Sony is the subject of frequent speculation as a possible takeover target, with cash-rich competitors like Apple, Google and Microsoft all reported as possible suitors.

Related: Can Sony be saved?

Sony made a play of its own in recent months, taking a stake in Olympus, the scandal-plagued company embroiled in an epic accounting fraud. But analysts remain skeptical that Sony will be able to achieve a long-term turnaround.

"The future of both companies will depend on their ability to curb loss-making segments and rediscover the kind of technological leadership which historically enabled them to develop must-have products," Durose said.

First Published: November 22, 2012: 5:39 AM ET

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Service sector adds to eurozone gloom

LONDON (CNNMoney) -- Service industry companies in the eurozone are more pessimistic about their prospects than at any time since early 2009, pointing to little chance of a return to growth for the region soon, according to business surveys published Thursday.

Preliminary data showed the weakest reading for service sector activity in 40 months, and expectations for the year ahead were at their lowest since March 2009, with sentiment in Germany, Europe's biggest economy, falling particularly sharply.

Markit's composite purchasing managers' index for November stood little changed at 45.8, compared with 45.7 in October.

A fall in the services index to 45.7 from 46 was partly offset by a slower rate of decline in manufacturing. Any reading below 50 signals contraction. Markit said its surveys pointed to contraction of 0.5% in the eurozone economy in the fourth quarter.

Eurozone gross domestic product shrank by 0.2% in the second quarter, and 0.1% in the third, putting the 17-nation currency area back in recession.

Related: Eurozone risks rising as outlook darkens

"While it is reassuring to have seen signs of stabilisation in some survey indicators, the overall rate of decline remains severe and has spread to encompass Germany, suggesting the situation could deteriorate further in the coming months," Markit chief economist Chris Williamson said.

Jobs were being shed at their second-fastest rate since January 2010 as companies become increasingly anxious about the economic outlook and seek to keep costs under control.

"All this suggests that any swift return to growth is unlikely," Williamson said.

The European Commission forecasts growth of 0.1% for the eurozone in 2013, but with more spending cuts and tax rises to come in countries such as France, Italy and Spain, and the prolonged wrangling over Greece's bailout holding back sentiment, many private forecasters are predicting another year of recession.

Related: No deal for Greece as talks drag

That would undermine many of the assumptions underpinning government budget plans and bailout programs, and could lead to another flare up in the sovereign debt crisis as investors lose faith in the ability of the region to chart a path back to growth.

Bond yields for some of the eurozone's more vulnerable states held steady Thursday, but have risen from lows posted in the wake of the European Central Bank's announcement in September that it was ready to buy bonds of eurozone nations if they signed up for formal bailout programs.

Markit said forward-looking indicators in the manufacturing sector also pointed to continuing weakness in the months ahead, with large falls in the volume of goods purchased and inventories.

Employment across the eurozone fell for the eleventh month in succession, with the rate of decline accelerating in services but easing in manufacturing. German employment dropped at the fastest rate since January 2010, while the eurozone periphery saw the fastest rate of job losses since July.

First Published: November 22, 2012: 7:54 AM ET

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Hostess headed for final closing

A failed effort at mediation is likely to mean the final closing of Hostess Brands at a New York hearing Wednesday.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Time will likely run out for Hostess Brands on Wednesday, after a last-ditch mediation effort by a bankruptcy court judge failed to produce a deal between the company and its striking bakers' union.

Judge Robert Drain, who had essentially ordered the two sides to a mediation effort he himself oversaw, is set to rule on Hostess Brands' motion to wind down the company at a hearing in White Plains, N.Y. He adjourned a hearing on the motion Monday after saying he wanted to take one last shot at saving the 18,500 jobs at the company.

But Hostess, maker of such beloved products as Twinkies, Wonder Bread and Drake's snacks, announced Tuesday that the mediation efforts had failed to produce a deal to restart its operations that have been closed since Friday. Its CEO and attorneys had previously said reaching a deal that could restart the company's nationwide network of 33 bakeries and 565 distribution centers would be difficult due to the financial damage done by the strike that started Nov. 9.

Related: Twinkies hoarding begins

The company announced the shutdown of its operations on Friday, and the hearing Monday had been expected to simply confirm the decision to liquidate and start the sale of its assets. Hostess Brands also has asked for approval of $1.75 million in bonuses, ranging from $7,400 to $130,500, to be paid to 19 executives to oversee the liquidation of the company. It said it needs the bonuses to make sure the executives it needs stay with the company through the end.

"The cessation of ... operations is not a simple matter of turning off the lights and shutting the doors," the company wrote in a court filing on Friday.

Unions at Hostess are on record opposing the bonus requests.

The Bakery Workers union did not comment on the failed mediation. It has repeatedly said that mismanagement and the debt placed on the company by its current and past owners were the reasons for the company's failure, not the strike. It said its membership was overwhelmingly opposed to the wage and benefit concessions agreed to by other Hostess employees, including the majority of the 6,700 members of the Teamsters' union at Hostess.

Related: Hostess jobs - 'Great' to 'not worth saving'

The Teamsters issued a statement Tuesday saying the failure of mediation and the likely liquidation of the company was a tragic outcome. It did not comment on who it blamed for the shutdown.

A statement last week blamed poor management for the shutdown, but also appeared to also criticize the bakers' union without explicitly naming it, saying that "not all stakeholders were willing to be constructive."

Assuming Drain approves the company's motion, Hostess will start to sell off its assets, including its iconic brands and recipes, which could return its beloved products to store shelves at some time in the future.

On Monday, private equity firm Sun Capital Partners told Fortune that it wants to buy Hostess as a going concern. It would reopen the shuttered factories, and keep the Hostess workers and their unions. But it's not clear Sun Capital's offer would top those of other bidders who would simply produce the product with the bidders' existing staff facilities, leaving the Hostess workers out of luck.

First Published: November 21, 2012: 7:49 AM ET

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Jobless claims fall following Sandy surge

People wait on line to collect food and water at a distribution point in low-lying Coney Island in the wake of Superstorm Sandy.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Claims for unemployment benefits fell last week following an earlier surge related to Superstorm Sandy.

About 410,000 people filed for first-time unemployment benefits during the week ending November 17, down 41,000 from the previous week, the Labor Department said Thursday.

Revised data show during the week ending November 10 initial claims spiked by 90,000. About 84,000 of those claims came from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut and were primarily due to the storm, the Department of Labor said in a release.

Overall, that marked the largest increase in a single week since September 2005, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Superstorm Sandy hit the tri-state area on Oct. 29, causing widespread and prolonged power outages that resulted in a delay in those filing for first-time unemployment benefits. It also caused temporary layoffs for others as their employers were forced to close.

Hourly and contract workers who weren't being paid while they were out of work could file for unemployment benefits, even if the layoffs were temporary.

It will likely take a few more weeks before initial claims fall back to pre-storm levels. In the four weeks before Sandy, it was common for the states to process an average of 367,000 new claims for unemployment benefits each week.

Excluding the impact from Sandy, it looks as if initial claims would have continued to hover around that level.

"There appears to be little underlying deterioration in labor market conditions in recent weeks. That's the good news," Sal Guatieri, senior economist with BMO Capital Markets said in a research note.

"The bad news is that there has been no improvement, either, which can be blamed partly on uncertainty relating to the fiscal cliff," he added.

The national unemployment rate was 7.9% in October, as 12.3 million people were counted as officially unemployed. However, not all of those people receive benefits.

As of the latest week available, 3.3 million people filed claims for their second week or more of jobless benefits. That's down almost 300,000 from a year ago.

First Published: November 21, 2012: 8:46 AM ET

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Stocks up despite more Europe worries

Click chart for more markets data.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Stocks traded slightly higher Wednesday as the U.S. government's strong report on jobless claims offset new worries over Greece.

European finance ministers failed to finalize the details of a debt-reduction package for Greece before the close of their meeting Wednesday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq traded up between 0.2% and 0.4%. But trading volume is expected to be light ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday.

The inability of finance ministers to reach a deal over Greece has reignited worries about European sovereign debt, but European stocks also held up Wednesday.

Britain's FTSE 100 and the DAX in Germany edged up 0.1% and France's CAC 40 rose 0.3%. European finance ministers had been expected to agree to release the funds for Greece so it would be able to make its December payments.

In the U.S., new jobless claims totaled 410,000 last week, impacted by storm conditions in the Northeast, but better than the 423,000 analysts had predicted.

In corporate news, Deere (DE, Fortune 500) dipped 3% after the equipment maker released quarterly results. Shares of jewelry maker Zale (ZLC) dropped nearly 30% after the company reported a steep quarterly loss. Publisher Scholastic's (SCHL) stock dropped after it lowered its forecasts for next year.

U.S. stocks ended flat Tuesday, amid a sharp sell-off in Hewlett-Packard (HPQ, Fortune 500) shares after the company reported a massive loss. HP's shares were flat Wednesday.

Fear & Greed Index

World markets: Asian markets closed higher. The Shanghai Composite gained 1.1%, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong rose 1.4%, and Japan's Nikkei posted a 0.9% gain.

Economy: At 10:00, the University of Michigan will release the final version of its consumer sentiment index for November.

Currencies and commodities: The dollar was higher against the euro and the Japanese yen, but slipped versus the British pound.

Oil for January delivery rose 68 cents to $87.42 a barrel. Turmoil in the Middle East has contributed to oil price volatility in recent days, with ongoing violence between the Israeli military and the Hamas leadership of Gaza.

Gold futures for December delivery rose $1.10 to $1,724.70 an ounce.

Bonds: The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury edged lower, pushing the yield up to 1.68% from 1.59% late Tuesday.

First Published: November 21, 2012: 9:44 AM ET

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Best Buy: Earnings 'clearly unsatisfactory'

Best Buy reported disappointing third quarter earnings Tuesday, building on the growing sentiment that the electronics retailer may have a hard time reviving itself.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Embattled electronics retailer Best Buy is coming up on the holiday season with a lot of ground to make up, after reporting third-quarter earnings and sales Tuesday that CEO Hubert Joly calls "clearly unsatisfactory."

The Minneapolis-based company said that it earned $12 million, or 3 cents a share, from continuing operations in the quarter ended Nov. 3. That was down 97% from a year earlier. Sales at stores opened last year dropped 4.3%, and revenue declined by 3%.

The company also lowered its full-year guidance, saying that it expects to generate free cash flow in the range of $850 million to $1.05 billion, compared to the $1.25 billion to $1.5 billion range it reported in August.

The earnings were below even the lowered expectations on Wall Street, following the company's warning last month that third-quarter profit would drop by at least 10%.

Shares of the company were down more than 4% in premarket trading.

The company's stock was already down 42% so far this year, as investors lost faith that the company will be able to revive itself.

In recent years, Best Buy has struggled in the face of competition from online retailers such as Amazon (AMZN, Fortune 500), and big box stores such as Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) and Target (TGT, Fortune 500).

One of its greatest obstacles, particularly as online shopping continues to take over a larger share of personal spending, is that Best Buy has become somewhat of a showroom for online retailers. Customers can see items they want to purchase in person at Best Buy before going home to buy them at lower prices online.

Related: The Best Buy-out just got harder

The challenge to keep up with these deep discounters becomes particularly hard as retailers pull out all the stops to win over customers this holiday shopping season.

The company has also had a management shakeup to deal with. In August, Best Buy hired former travel executive Hubert Joly as its CEO. The company has gone through months of uncertainty, triggered by the abrupt departure of former CEO Brian Dunn in April after an internal investigation into his relationship with an employee.

Last month, Best Buy also announced that its head of U.S. business and executive vice president of U.S. operations were leaving the company. It appointed Shawn Score to lead the U.S. retail stores business.

First Published: November 20, 2012: 9:15 AM ET

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