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Macy's (M) CEO Terry Lundgren said he's "encouraged" by the level of buying activity at the company's Herald Square store in New York City Friday.

The day after Thanksgiving in the U.S. is nicknamed Black Friday because it's the day when many retailers become profitable for the year. Macy's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Lundgren told DailyFinance that Macy's sales were strong Friday because of the number of people he saw in the store walking around with purchases.

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Thailand is 'in network'? Employers and insurers embrace medical tourism

By Eric Wahlgren | Nov 28th 2009, 6:00AM EST Filed Under: Healthcare

Like some 47 million other Americans, Nancy Sowa (pictured) doesn't have health insurance. So when her doctors last year told her she needed a total hip replacement, the office manager for a non-profit did what a growing number of U.S. citizens are doing: She headed abroad. At Wockhardt Hospital in Bangalore, India, the 56-year-old was put up in a hospital "suite" far swankier than what she would typically find in the U.S., with a computer, fridge, cable TV, sitting area and an extra bed for her travel companion.

More to the point, the two-hour surgery in July, performed by an orthopedic surgeon trained in the U.S. and Australia, was a success. Four months later, the Durham, N.C. resident is feeling like her old self again, going for long hikes and planning her next vacation. The final tab for the procedure, including rehabilitative therapy and round-trip airfare for two? $12,000. That's a fraction of the $45,000 to $90,000 she had been told the surgery would cost at home.

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Entering the nuclear age? A utilities CEO wants federal control on energy

By Mark Svenvold | Nov 28th 2009, 10:00AM EST Filed Under: Energy, Technology, Economy, Green

Will the federal government ever take more control of the nation's energy policy? At the Carbon Economy conference in Washington in mid-November, Duke Energy (DUK) CEO Jim Rogers stole the show when he broached that idea.

Today, each state has tremendous power to manage its own energy needs; governors and state public utility commissioners decide how much electricity is generated, from which sources -- renewable or traditional fossil-fuel -- and how much the electricity will cost. And renewable portfolio standards, which mandate that more electricity come from renewable-energy sources, have been entirely state-run initiatives.

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Can Dubai's energy reserves pay off its $80 billion in debt?

By Peter Cohan | Nov 28th 2009, 1:00PM EST Filed Under: Energy, Economy

The Dubai debt default seems to have inspired a bit of fear in the U.S. But is there any real reason for it? U.S. banks have minimal exposure to Dubai's debts -- most of the banks that would suffer if Dubai defaulted are located in the Middle East. Nevertheless, U.S. markets fell 1.7% Friday during a holiday-shortened trading day -- after futures suggested the market would be down 2.7%. But if Dubai's oil reserves exceed its debts, it could sell oil to repay them.

The extent of Dubai's energy reserves is in dispute. The New York Times reports that Dubai's oil reserves are minimal, noting it "is one of the few member states of the United Arab Emirates [UAE] that has little oil wealth of its own." (Dubai is one of seven emirates that together make up the UAE.) Yet other sources suggest Dubai has significant oil and gas reserves -- worth $311.4 billion at today's prices -- a figure that does not strike me as minimal in light of Dubai's $80 billion in debt

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Investors, stay in the game: Loss aversion causes big losses over long term

By Elizabeth Harris | Nov 28th 2009, 12:15PM EST Filed Under: Investing

When a friend recently told me she wanted to invest more money in bonds, I was surprised. Not just because we rarely discuss specific investments. (I'm uncomfortable giving friends financial advice for obvious reasons). But mostly because she's considering loading up on bonds right now. Wow, bad timing.

So despite my self-imposed rule to not interfere, I couldn't help blurting out, "Are you sure? Don't you already have bonds?" She said she did, but then added how much she appreciates bond funds' regular gains. Of course it's a natural impulse to seek security. But my friend's dilemma illustrates a classic case of what behavioral economists call loss aversion.

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Panic strikes, and investors sell gold and buy dollars -- yet again

By Vishesh Kumar | Nov 27th 2009, 3:30PM EST Filed Under: Economy, Investing

Rattled by concerns about Dubai's debt, investors fled gold for the safety of the U.S. dollar during early trading on Friday. The move comes as the booming appetite for the precious metal among smaller investors has led to near record prices and shortages of American Eagle gold coins at the U.S. Mint.

But as the enthusiasm for gold reaches a fevered pitch worldwide with speculation focused mainly on how high it can go, the sharp drop also serves as a useful reminder: While often thought of as a "safe haven," gold is marked by volatile prices, and it recently sold off sharply when investors truly got nervous.

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Why China can't make bold carbon pledges: Rogue provinces

By Alex Salkever | Nov 27th 2009, 2:30PM EST Filed Under: Energy, Economy, Green

During his recent visit to China, U.S. President Barack Obama pushed hard for a firm target for cutting carbon emissions from the Chinese government. He had hoped to secure a concrete, detailed proposal from the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases ahead of the pending Copenhagen Climate Summit in December. But China has delivered a watered-down guarantee that the Obama team publicly praised but privately trashed.

According to The New York Times, the Chinese proposed to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emitted per unit of economic output by 40% to 45% by 2020. That would slow the growth rate of carbon emissions for China, for sure. But due to the country's rapid economic growth rate, aggregate carbon emissions would continue to increase.

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Making online media pay: Demand Media vs. The Texas Tribune

By Bruce Watson | Nov 27th 2009, 2:00PM EST Filed Under: Company News, Technology, Economy, Media

This has been a tough year for the media business: as august newspapers and magazines like the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Gourmet have closed their doors for good, other outlets are scrambling to develop strategies that will guarantee long-term economic survival while allowing them to continue producing quality content. This month, Rupert Murdoch entered the fray, going toe to toe with Google (GOOG) over advertising revenues and access to News Corp.'s (NWS) online newspapers. As he tries to work out a revenue-sharing scheme with Microsoft's (MSFT) Bing, it will be interesting to see how the Internet's low-cost distribution structure ultimately affects the production of news and other media.

Traditional newspapers and magazines use three revenue sources -- subscriptions, newsstand sales, and advertising -- to fund highly expensive news-gathering, writing, and editing operations. While some publications like Murdoch's Wall Street Journal have managed to make paid content work, most Internet sites provide content for free, which puts funding solely into the hands of advertisers. The question is whether Internet ads can generate enough revenue to fund media production.

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The Dow dives more than 150 points on Dubai's debt crisis

By Dan Burrows | Nov 27th 2009, 1:10PM EST Filed Under: Economy

U.S. stocks followed the rest of the world lower in a short Friday session after the state investment company of Dubai shocked global debt and equity markets on Thursday by asking for more time to make a loan payment, essentially admitting that it's currently insolvent.

As banks across Europe, the U.S. and the Gulf region scrambled to assess their exposure to the Dubai debt crisis, money whooshed out of stocks in a global flight to safety that pushed up of the value of the U.S. dollar and U.S. Treasurys. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU) lost 154.5, or 1.48%, to close at 10,309.9, while the broader S&P 500 ($INX) retreated 19.1, or 1.72%, to finish at 1091.5. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite ($COMPX) shed 37.6, or 1.73%, to close at 2138.4.

U.S. markets were closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday and, as usual, experienced low volume Friday before an early 1 p.m. Eastern close, which likely helped dampen the effects of Thursday's global sell-off.

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High-speed travel: Employers push one-day business trip to avoid hotel costs

By Eric Wahlgren | Nov 27th 2009, 1:00PM EST Filed Under: Economy

As corporate budgets shrink, so do business trips. Looking to avoid paying for overnight hotel stays, cost-conscious companies are increasingly asking employees to squeeze all their away meetings into one day -- and then turn around and fly home.

Headhunter Marc Lewis, who frequently flies between coasts on his clients' tab to interview job candidates, says the single-day business trip is becoming a familiar drill. "Several clients have suggested to us that if we're ok with it, they would prefer for us to take the red-eye home rather than stay overnight," says Lewis, founder and CEO of Leadership Capital Group, an executive search firm based in Westport, Conn.

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Stocks in the news: AIG, HSBC, Apple, ING

By Melly Alazraki | Nov 27th 2009, 9:20AM EST Filed Under: Company News, Investing, General Electric , JC Penney, Sony, Apple, American International Group, INC., Wal-Mart Stores, Target Corp., Sanofi Aventis, Amazon.com Inc.

AIG (AIG) announced late Wednesday it agreed to settle a long-standing legal battle with the insurance giant's former chairman, Maurice "Hank" Greenberg. The agreement, announced Wednesday, effectively ends years of costly legal battles and barbs between AIG and Greenberg. AIG shares tumbled nearly 5% in pre-market trading.

HSBC Holdings (HBC) tumbled more than 6% ahead of the bell as investors try to figure out its exposure to Dubai's debt, since it is one of the top two lenders in the United Arab Emirates. HSBC has about $15.9 billion in loans to the UAE. Goldman Sachs has estimated in a worst-case scenario HSBC could face a write-down on its commercial and mortgage loans to Dubai of $611 million.

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