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comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, reported holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 40 days of the November – December 2010 holiday season. For the holiday season-to-date, more than $21.95 billion has been spent online, marking a 12-percent increase versus the corresponding days last year. The most recent week (week ending Dec. 10) reached $5.15 billion in spending, an increase of 11 percent versus the corresponding week last year, as two individual days each surpassed $900 million.

Legal actions tied to mortgage-lending jumped by more than 40 percent in the third quarter of the year based on the Mortgage Litigation Index.

As uncertainty about market conditions prevails, only 39% of the nation's leading private company executives surveyed for PwC US's Private Company Trendsetter Barometer voiced optimism about US economic growth over the next 12 months - down from the previous quarter's 45% and four points below a year ago. However, 45% of companies with international operations were optimistic about US economic growth, markedly more so than their domestic-only peers (35%). As for international marketers' optimism about the world economy, that rose to 43% (up six points from the second quarter).

Stagnant wages, job insecurity and a steady decline in pension plan and retiree medical benefits have jeopardized the retirement security of many workers—but to different degrees. A new analysis by Aon Hewitt, the global human resource consulting and outsourcing business of Aon Corporation, reveals that Generation Y workers (those ages 18 to 30) may be most at risk from these trends despite having the most amount of time to save. Due to lack of participation in defined contribution plans, low savings rates and high rates of cashouts, eight in ten Generation Y workers will not meet all of their financial needs in retirement unless they significantly improve their saving and investing behaviors.

Mortgage rates jumped sharply this week, with the average rate on the benchmark conforming 30-year fixed mortgage rate rising to 4.89 percent, according to Bankrate.com's weekly national survey. The average 30-year fixed mortgage has an average of 0.36 discount and origination points.

StrongMail, a leading provider of marketing solutions for email marketing and social media, announced the results of its “2011 Marketing Trends” survey, which provides unique insight into how businesses plan to budget and prioritize marketing dollars in the New Year. Conducted in November 2010, 925 business leaders participated in the global survey.

A total of 153.9 million persons worked at some point during 2009, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. The proportion of workers who worked full time, year round in 2009 was 64.0 percent, down from 65.6 percent in 2008. The number of persons who experienced some unemployment during 2009 increased by 4.9 million to 26.1 million. The sharp increase reflects the continuing weak labor market conditions experienced throughout 2009.

comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, today reported holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 35 days of the November – December 2010 holiday season. For the holiday season-to-date, more than $17.5 billion has been spent online, marking a 12-percent increase versus the corresponding days last year. The most recent week saw four individual days eclipse $800 million in spending, led by Cyber Monday, which became the heaviest online spending day on record at $1.028 billion. Tuesday, November 30 reached $911 million, making it the third heaviest online spending day on record, with Wednesday ($868 million) and Thursday ($850 million) also reaching high levels, although growth rates for the season subsided in the latter half of the week and through the weekend.

For middle-class Americans, retirement simply means a new phase of their working years, according to results from the sixth annual Retirement Fitness Survey from Wells Fargo & Company. The survey found that 72% of middle-class Americans between the ages of 25 and 69 expect to work through their retirement years. The trend is driven both by deep deficits in personal retirement savings – 39% say they “will need to work” to make ends meet or maintain their lifestyles – and also by lifestyle choice, with 33% saying they will continue to work because they want to.

Consumer confidence reached its highest point in three years and saw its biggest month-to-month increase since April as more Americans believe U.S. economic conditions are improving and their personal finances are getting better, according to the Discover U.S. Spending Monitor.