Personal Finance

New York -- Wal-Mart Stores has reached a settlement with the two children of James McNair, the comedian who was killed in the highway accident that also seriously injured comic and former “Saturday Night Live” performer Tracy Morgan, the Associated Press reported.
 
Citing documents filed in New York's Westchester County, the AP reported the children were awarded a total of $10 million. The deadly crash occurred on June 7, 2014, on the New Jersey Turnpike.
   

Austin, Texas - The credit card industry is lagging behind its own deadline to get more secure microchip-enabled credit cards into consumers’ wallets by October 2015. According to a new survey from CredtCards.com, just three out of every 10 U.S. credit cardholders have a chip card.

The adoption rate is significantly higher among high net worth cardholders, but at 49%, it still means more than half of the richest Americans ($100,000 or more in investable assets) lack chip-based card security.

Washington, D.C. – Retailers looking forward to consumers receiving their tax refund checks this year may be setting themselves up for disappointment. According to a new survey from the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Prosper Insights & Analytics, close to half (47%) of the 66% of Americans expecting a tax refund this year plan to save it.

In a move that could alter political debate and improve the image of the world's largest retailer, Walmart announced that it will raise the minimum wage of its employees to as much as $10 per hour by 2016. The decision has received mixed reaction.

Here's a sampling of the analysis of Walmart's big announcement.

New York – Billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn has increased his investment holding in EBay Inc. In his regulatory filing for fourth quarter 2014, Icahn disclosed that he purchased about 446,000 shares of EBay.

New York -- Starbucks Corp. founder and CEO — and currently Time Magazine cover boy — Howard Schultz has lots of opinions about politics and the national agenda, but he is not interested in running for president in 2016.

“I don’t think that’s a solution. I don’t think it ends well,” Schultz told Time in a wide-ranging interview its Feb. 16 edition.   

New York - With gas prices down 31% since June 2014 and oil prices tumbling to their lowest levels in several years, American consumer confidence has improved dramatically. According to the Nielsen Consumer Confidence Report, in fourth quarter 2014 U.S. consumer confidence went up 12 percentage points year-over-year.

New York – Consumers mostly spent within their means during the 2014 holiday season. Only one-in-six Americans spent more than expected this holiday season, according to a new Bankrate.com report.  

This is consistent with readings in previous years. Millennials (Americans ages 18-29) were twice as likely as those ages 30-49 to have spent more during the holidays than intended. Overall, one-in-four Americans spent less than expected this holiday season.

New York -- The family of James McNair, the comedian killed in the automobile accident that also seriously injured comedian Tracy Morgan, has reached a financial settlement with Wal-Mart Stores Inc, Reuters reported.

The out-of-court settlement is the first legal resolution from the crash, which occurred on June 7, 2014, on the New Jersey Turnpike.

Terms of the settlement were confidential, according to the report, and Walmart did not admit liability in the settlement.

Bentonville, Ark. -- In its newest move to offer more in-store financial services, Walmart is offering shoppers the option to pick up their tax refunds in cash. The new service, called Walmart Direct2Cash, is available nationwide starting Jan. 20.

According to Walmart, the option will help customers save time and money when compared to traditional tax refund options. Many people without traditional bank accounts must pay sometimes high check-cashing fees to cash their tax refund checks, the retailer noted.