Personal Finance

New York City -- A Tuesday report by the Wall Street Journal said that hedge fund billionaire and Sears Holding Corp. chairman Edward Lampert has reported holding a 5.8% stake in Gap Inc.

Lampert reported the stake in a 13G filing, or a filing for passive investors, with the Securities and Exchange Commission late Monday.

His ESL Partners company and affiliates reported beneficially holding 35 million common shares.

New York City -- One-third (29% ) of consumers across eight major economies have been victims of credit-card fraud in the past five years, according to the 2010 Global Card Fraud Survey by ACI Worldwide, an international provider of payment systems.

YONKERS, N.Y. -- Consumer Reports announced that its Trouble Tracker Index has climbed for the third straight month to 58.7. The index, which tracks the depth and breadth of financial difficulties among households, has climbed up from 54.2 last month and from 53.4 one year ago.

Atlanta -- A report released Wednesday by First Data Corp., which tracks same-store consumer spending by credit, signature debit, PIN debit, EBT cards and checks at U.S. merchant locations, found that more consumers opted to pay with credit cards in January.

According to the First Data SpendTrend report for January 2011, transaction growth on credit cards was at a 13-month high in January and year-over-year credit dollar volume growth was the second highest in over a year.

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- The Walmart Foundation and Goodwill have teamed up to provide single mothers with all the tools they need to find employment, succeed in the workplace and permanently support their families. The Walmart Foundation's grant of $2.5 million will support the program, known as Beyond Jobs, at Goodwill agencies in the five key markets of Atlanta, Boston, Los Angeles County, Detroit, and New York City, through 2012.

Washington, D.C. -- A report released Tuesday by the Federal Reserve said that U.S. consumer borrowing rose in December for a third consecutive month, led by the first increase in credit-card charges in more than two years as holiday sales improved.

After a year of steadily declining delinquency rates in Target’s credit portfolio, January proved to be a month of stabilization as the percentage of those 60 and 90 days past due on their accounts held steady when compared with the prior month. Accounts 60 days past due represented 4.2% of credit card receivables in January and accounts 90 days past due represented 3.1%. Both figures were identical to levels recorded in December, but well below peak levels seen in February 2010 when the 60 and 90 day past due rates hit their fiscal year peaks of 6.1% and 4.5%, respectively.

Washington — U.S. consumer spending rose more than expected in December as Americans spent at the fastest pace in three years. The Commerce Department reported that spending rose 0.7% in December, the sixth straight monthly increase.

For all of 2010, consumers boosted spending 3.5%, the best performance since pre-recession 2007, when spending rose 5.2%. The government reported that consumer spending rose at a 4.4% rate in the final three months of 2010.