The Ticker

Twitter up 4.8 percent in continuing surge

Twitter stock jumped 4.8 percent yesterday to close at $73.31 a share on optimism by investors that the company has room to expand sales in advertising.

The stock has surged 32 percent over the past five days, 76 percent this month, and has nearly tripled since the microblogging social network went public at $26 a share in November.

Obama signs bipartisan budget deal

President Obama signed a bipartisan budget deal yesterday easing spending cuts.

Although the budget deal falls short of the grand bargain that Obama and congressional Republicans once aspired to, it ends the cycle of fiscal brinkmanship — for now — by preventing another shutdown for nearly two more years. But the rare moment of agreement may be short-lived.

Hanging over the start of the year is a renewed fight over raising the nation's borrowing limit, which the Treasury says must be resolved by late February or early March to avert an unprecedented U.S. default. Both sides are positioning behind customary hard-line positions, with Republicans insisting they want concessions before raising the debt limit and Obama insisting he won't negotiate.

McDonald's closes employee website

McDonald's Corp. has shut down a website intended to provide employees with work and life guidance after it generated negative publicity for the fast-food company.

The McResource program has been criticized for creating unrealistic budgets and offering advice that was out of touch with its workers' pay. The website, which was run by an outside company, also reportedly discouraged workers from eating fast food.

Amazon: Growth in Prime numbers

Amazon said yesterday it had signed up more than 
1 million new customers last week for its Amazon Prime membership program, which for $79 a year provides free two-day shipping on many items and a free streaming video service.

The company said the program continues to grow, with "tens of millions of members worldwide."

THE SHUFFLE

• Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in New England announced that it has hired Kevin Dumont, left, as a field trainer. He will serve as a trainer instructing affiliated sales associates in Southern Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
• J Barrett & Co. announced that Andrea O'Brien, a full-time real estate agent, has joined the agency in its Beverly Farms office. O'Brien has extensive business experience in customer service, including management.
• M/A-COM Technology Solutions Holdings Inc., a supplier of high performance RF, microwave and millimeter wave products, announced the appointment of Robert J. McMullan as its chief financial officer.

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Weekly US jobless claims drop 42K to 338K

WASHINGTON — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits dropped by 42,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 338,000, the biggest drop since November 2012. But economists say the figures from late November and December are warped by seasonal volatility around the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's holidays.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that the less-volatile four-week average rose 4,250 to 348,000.

Claims had jumped 75,000 over the two weeks that ended Dec. 14 before plunging last week. The Labor Department struggles to account for seasonal hiring by retailers and other businesses and for temporary layoffs of cafeteria workers and other employees at schools that close for the holidays.

Unemployment claims are a proxy for layoffs and the recent declines are consistent with a solid job market.

The economy has shown signs of improvement recently, so much so that the Federal Reserve announced Dec. 18 that it would reduce its stimulus spending on bonds by $10 billion — to $75 billion a month. The economy expanded at a 4.1 percent annual pace from July through September, the fastest rate since late 2011 and much greater than previously thought.

Hiring has been healthy the past four months. The economy added an average of 204,000 jobs every month from August through November, an improvement from earlier this year.

The unemployment rate fell in November to a five-year low of 7 percent. Still, that remains above the 5 percent to 6 percent rate that would signal a normal job market. And long-term unemployment remains a big blot on the economy's performance: Nearly 4.1 million Americans have been unemployed for six months or more.

Before 2008, the number of long-term unemployed had never surpassed 3 million people, according to records dating back to 1948.

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McDonald's closes employee website amid criticism

McDonald's Corp. has shut down a website intended to provide employees with work and life guidance after it generated negative publicity for the fast-food company.

The McResource program has been criticized for creating unrealistic budgets and offering advice that was out of touch with its workers' pay. The website, which was run by an outside company, also reportedly discouraged workers from eating fast food.

McDonald's, based in Oak Brook, Ill., said Thursday that it is having its vendor take down the website.

"Between links to irrelevant or outdated information, along with outside groups taking elements out of context, this created unwarranted scrutiny and inappropriate commentary," the company said in a statement.

Earlier this year, media and labor groups criticized the website for content including sample budgets for employees that were based on holding two jobs and included no costs for heating, as well as suggestions on what to tip a personal fitness trainer or au pair.

One critic, the "Low Pay is Not Okay" campaign, was one of the groups behind strikes and rallies by fast-food workers and labor organizers earlier this month that demanded better pay. While efforts vary by state, organizers are hoping to build public support to raise the federal minimum wage of $7.25, or about $15,000 a year for full-time work.

And in an embarrassing moment for McDonald's, the world's largest hamburger chain, CNBC reported last week that the McResource website discouraged eating fast food as part of its tips for healthy living.

While it has shut down the website, McDonald's said it plans to continue an internal telephone help line through which the majority of its employees access its work-life help resources.

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Online shopping grows, with some growing pains

Americans waited until the last minute to buy holiday gifts, but retailers weren't prepared for the spike.

Heavy spending in the final days of the mostly lackluster season sent sales up 3.5 percent between Nov. 1 and Tuesday, according to MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, which tracks payments but doesn't give dollar figures.

Online shopping led the uptick, with spending up 10 percent to $38. 91 billion between Nov. 2 and Sunday, research firm comScore said.

"We always have last-minute Charlies, but this year even people who normally complete shopping earlier completed shopping later," said Marshal Cohen, chief retail analyst at market research firm NPD Group.

The late surge caught companies off guard. UPS and FedEx failed to deliver some packages by Christmas due to a combination of poor weather and overloaded systems, leaving some unhappy holiday shoppers.

Justin Londagin and his wife ordered their 7-year-old son a jersey of Russell Wilson of the Seattle Seahawks from NFL's web site on Dec. 19. They paid $12.95 extra for two-day shipping to get it to their Augusta, Kan., home before Christmas, but it didn't arrive in time.

"We had to get creative and wrote him a note from Santa to tell him that the jersey fell out of the sleigh and Santa will get it to him as soon as he could," he said.

Amazon is offering customers with delayed shipments a refund on their shipping charges and $20 toward a future purchase. And other retailers such as Macy's said they are looking into the situation.

The last-minute surge this year solidifies the increasing popularity of online shopping, which accounts for about 10 percent of sales during the last three months of the year. It also underscores the challenges that companies face delivering on the experience, particularly during the holiday shopping season that runs from the beginning of November through December.

Analysts say FedEx and UPS typically work closely with big retailers to get a sense of the volume of packages they'll handle during peak times like the holiday season. Extra flights, trucks and seasonal workers can be added if the projections are large.

But this year, David Vernon, a senior research analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, said weather played a role. The early December ice storms in Dallas could have hurt operations, he said, and packages can start to accumulate. And that got compounded by a late surge in shipments, he said.

"Clearly, as a group, (they) underestimated the demand for Internet retailing during the holidays," Vernon said.

Another problem was the growing popularity of retailers offering free shipping. Amazon, for one, has a two-day free shipping offer that comes with its $79 annual Prime membership. The company said in the third week of December alone, more than 1 million people signed up for the membership.

"Frankly the right hand wasn't talking to the left," said Forrester analyst Sucharita Mulpuru. "The marketing teams of a lot of web retailers (offering free shipping) were not talking to the operations and supply chain teams."

The resulting delayed shipments could be a problem for shippers. UPS and FedEx did not quantify how many packages were affected but said they were just a small fraction of total holiday deliveries.

"The central pillar of their business is a perception of reliability with their customers," said Jeremy Robinson-Leon, COO of Group Gordon, a corporate and crisis PR firm. This year's snafus "just really erodes trust among customers."

Still, analysts say people will still shop online. "Consumers tend to have a short memory, especially if you fast forward to another year," said Andrew Lipsman, vice president of industry analysis for comScore.

Indeed, some shoppers are taking the delays in stride. Traci Arbios, who lives in Clovis, Calif., did about 90 percent of her shopping online. Most items included free shipping and everything arrived on time except one package she ordered from a seller on eBay that was sent first class by the U.S. Postal Service on Dec. 12. It still had not arrived on Thursday.

"Everything arrived on time except this one item," she said. "It's not going to stop me from shopping online."

___

Mae Anderson reported from Atlanta and Scott Mayerowitz reported from New York.

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Avoiding another delivery disaster

Online retailers should keep promises in check, and consumers should avoid last-minute Internet shopping to dodge another delivery debacle like the one this week that left many without their Christmas gifts, according to retail analysts.

But neither online sellers such as Amazon, nor delivery giant UPS is expected to sustain long-term damage for failing to make promised shipping deadlines, the analysts said.

"Shoppers' memories aren't that great," said Norwell retail consultant Michael Tesler. "It's always the next deal, the next credit card issue, the next item that everyone has to have. I don't see any ongoing ramifications."

Neither Amazon nor UPS would provide details on the scope of the late deliveries. FedEx said it shipped 99 percent of its ground deliveries on time, but didn't comment on its air shipments.

UPS said it expected to wrap up almost all late deliveries yesterday. "The volume of air packages in our system exceeded the capacity of our network, as demand was much greater than the forecast," spokesman Tyre Sperling said.

Tewksbury resident Marc Tortorici is waiting to hear back from Pottery Barn about his requested refund of an extra $15 delivery fee that he paid to ensure slippers for his wife would arrive by Christmas Eve. The package wasn't delivered until yesterday.

"As long as my $15 is returned, then I will not have an issue with either Pottery Barn or the carrier," he said. "But I will not order any item late next year, since I know they are over-promising what they can deliver."

IBM analytics said online sales in the weekend before Christmas surged 37 percent over the previous year.

Any short-term backlash won't reverse the growth of online sales, according to analyst Donald Broughton of Avondale Partners, but he does expect to see added delivery capacity next year and earlier cut-off dates for guaranteed last-minute deliveries.

"This is just a bump in the road on the great land rush of e-commerce," Broughton said. "When you have such huge surge in volume, it's going to come with issues."

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter called Amazon a "victim of its own success."

"Amazon has kind of lulled us as consumers into believing that we can wait to the very last second," he told Bloomberg Television. "It's Amazon's fault for guaranteeing it, and they're guaranteeing something that they don't control — which is the third-party carriers."

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Bay State shoppers take Target to task

Three Bay Staters are among Target shoppers who have filed nearly two dozen class-action lawsuits against the discount chain for allegedly failing to safeguard their credit and debit card information regarding a 19-day data breach by hackers.

Meghan Derba, a frequent Target shopper from South Easton, filed one of the lawsuits in U.S. District Court in Boston on Christmas Eve. "I did contact my lawyer, namely because I was just really shocked that such a large company could let something like this happen," she said. "I just want to make sure that my money that I support my family with isn't in jeopardy."

The lawsuits come as Reuters — citing a senior payments executive familiar with the situation — reported Wednesday that customers' encrypted personal identification numbers (PINs) were among the exposed data to which hackers had access during the cyber attack that affected as many as 
40 million debit and credit cards of Target customers.

Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder told Reuters that "no unencrypted PIN data was accessed," and there was no evidence that PIN data has been "compromised."

The data breach is likely to cost Target millions of dollars, given the experience of TJX Cos. In 2009, the Framingham owner of the T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods chains, agreed to pay $9.75 million and implement a new information security program after a data breach in 2005 and 2006 that affected at least 45.7 million card users. It also paid out millions to settle class-action lawsuits.

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Boston seller’s market to continue — for a while

Residential real estate in Boston in 2013 saw a slew of projects under construction and proposed, but not enough condos for sale to satisfy demand, and a shortage of housing that's affordable to the middle class.

It was a year for sellers rather than buyers, as condo inventory in Boston shrunk to lows not seen since the 1990s, keeping prices high and bringing bidding wars back to the table. And the seller's market will continue into next year because many condos now in the pipeline won't be ready for another year or two.

The biggest residential story of the year was the groundbreaking of the 60-story, 450-unit Millennium Tower, the long-delayed complex on the site of the former Filene's in Downtown Crossing.

Down the street, brisk sales at the 15-story Millennium Place, which sold out most of its 256 units, was evidence of a strong demand for luxury condos. Millennium jump-started long-lagging condo sales at 45 Province St., showing that downtown living is coming of age.

The other big condo story of the year was the groundbreaking of 22 Liberty on Fan Pier in the Seaport District. This 118-unit super luxury building will reportedly command up to $1,800 per square foot, the highest asking price in the city. And it should be well-received in the booming Seaport, where there are few options to buy.

It's really been the year of the luxury apartment in Boston, with thousands of high-end units just opening, under construction or in the pipeline. The largest concentration of new apartments was in the Seaport District and along Boylston Street around Fenway Park, and also along the Greenway, in the lower South End and on the West side of Southie.

The Seaport District is seeing an incredible apartment boom with the 202-unit 315 on A and some smaller projects opening this year, and 236 units rising at Waterside Place and 369 apartments at Pier 4. And a land deal was just made to get One Seaport Square and its 800 apartments going by the spring, with another 300 units set to go at Watermark Seaport.

The West Fenway has 750 apartments under construction at 1282 Boylston and 1325 Boylston St., and another 1,100 units proposed at The Point, 1350 Boylston and an expansion of the Landmark Center in the former Sears building.

The northern end of the Greenway just saw the 286-unit Victor apartments open and One Canal's 310 units are just starting construction. On the southern end, Radian Boston's 240 units are nearing completion and One Greenway has broken ground with 217 market-rate and 95 affordable rentals.

A little ways down, in the Theater District, a 398-unit tower next to Jacob Wirth's on Stuart Street is under construction and the nearby 381-unit Kensington just opened.

The New York Streets area of the South End are set to boom. The Ink Block, on the former site of the Herald, is under construction with 392 apartments and 83 condos in the mix. Apartments at 275 Albany St., which will add 400 residences, have also broken ground. A proposal for the Graybar Electric site at 345 Harrison Ave. would add 602 more units, and a little further down at 600 Harrison is a plan for 160 apartments.

Lots of development continues on the West Side of Southie, with hundreds of new apartments going up, including 225 units at West Square and 190 units at the Flats on D.

And that's not even counting big apartment projects in East Boston, Allston/Brighton or over the Tobin Bridge in Chelsea.

Whether the city can absorb all the apartments under construction and in the pipeline is a question that will be increasingly asked in 2014.

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Employment numbers spur Dow climb

The number of people applying for unemployment benefits last week dropped more than expected, another sign of continued growth in the economy that sent the Dow yesterday to a record high close.

"The underlying trend suggests job destruction continues to decline," said Sterne Agee chief economist Lindsey Piegza. "This is a welcome step in the right direction and further reinforces the Fed's assessment of a stronger labor market."

Initial unemployment claims — which are seen as an indicator of layoffs — dropped by 42,000 to 338,000 last week while the Dow Jones Industrial Average shot up more than 122 points to close at 16,479.88. It was the biggest decline in jobless claims in a year.

The jobless report was great news for Wall Street, but because trading slows in late December, any positive or negative news is magnified, said Christine Armstrong, Morgan Stanley senior vice president.

"It's very light volume. You can skew things," Armstrong said. "We're probably going to have the same thing next week."

Roughly 3.8 billion shares were bought or sold yesterday, 38 percent below the three-month average.

Although the numbers are heading in the right direction, this time of year makes jobless claims difficult to read, Piegza said.

"Claims are particularly volatile this time of year," she said.

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T hopes companies will snap up station names

T riders could soon be getting off the train at Macy's — Downtown Crossing Station — or hopping on the Boloco — Blue Line.

The MBTA issued a request for proposals yesterday, seeking companies interested in buying the naming rights to nine stations and the Green, Red, and Blue lines. The Legislature included an amendment in last summer's massive transportation finance bill that lets the MBTA sell naming rights, with supporters estimating it could generate as much as $20 million for the cash-strapped T.

Naming a station presents an interesting opportunity for advertisers, Boston University marketing professor Tobe Berkovitz said.

"Every time a train pulls in, the announcer says the name of your brand," Berkovitz said.

Still, there could be some drawbacks.

"If something bad happens or if people have bad experiences at the station, then all of a sudden it is a negative," Berkovitz said.

The bidding starts at 
$1 million annually for five years for South Station, Airport, Downtown Crossing, Park Street, Back Bay, North Station, State Street, and Boylston stations, and $500,000 for Yawkey because the T says it has fewer daily customers.

Bids are due Feb. 27 and the naming rights will go to the "highest qualified bidder," according to MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo, with licenses expected to be awarded by July 1. The proposals must follow the MBTA's existing advertising standards, meaning alcohol and tobacco companies, as well as political parties and religious groups, are excluded.

It's not the first time the MBTA has floated the idea of naming rights — in 2001 no bidders stepped forward. And a proposal in 2011 drew criticism from a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that advocates limiting commercialization.

Berkovitz said the most natural fit would be sports teams and other attractions. In 2009, Barclays bought the naming rights to a Brooklyn subway station for $4 million over 20 years, to go with the now-complete Barclays Center, home to the New York Nets.

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Stocks flat on Wall Street in quiet trading

NEW YORK — An early gain was mostly gone by midday on Wall Street Friday as the market flattened out after six days of gains.

Trading was quiet with many investors out on vacation.

Bond yields continued to rise. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note hovered near the 3 percent mark.

KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average edged up two points to 16,480 as of noon Eastern. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell less than a point to 1,841 and the Nasdaq composite was down seven points at 4,160.

HIGHER RATES: The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose as high as 3.01 percent from 2.99 percent Thursday. Bond yields have steadily climbed since Dec. 18, when the Federal Reserve announced it was paring back its bond-buying economic stimulus program.

'ROAD TO NORMAL': "Interest rates are on a road back to normalcy after being artificially suppressed by the Fed," said Karyn Cavanaugh, market strategist with ING U.S. Investment Management. Cavanaugh said she expects the yield on the 10-year note to rise to about 3.5 percent by the end of 2014.

GM RECALLS: General Motors fell 48 cents, or 1 percent, to $41.04 after the company said it would have to recall 1.5 million cars in China to replace a bracket that secures a fuel pump.

TWITTER STALLS: Twitter fell $4.73, or 6 percent, to $68.60. Twitter has soared in recent days. Even with Friday's sell-off, the social media company's stock is still up 69 percent this month.

WINDING DOWN: There are only three trading days left in 2013, and most of Wall Street remains on vacation for the Christmas and New Year holiday. Volume for the last two trading days has been very low, and trading is expected to be slow Friday as well. There are no major economic reports or corporate earnings scheduled this week.

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