Financial/Banking

SAN BRUNO, Calif. — Wal-Mart Stores has named a replacement for Eduardo Castro-Wright, who announced his pending retirement in September. The company announced that Neil Ashe is the new president and CEO of the company's global e-commerce business, effective Jan. 16. Castro-Wright will assist in the transition.

Ashe is replacing Eduardo Castro-Wright who announced his pending retirement in September and will assist in the transition.

New York City -- A report by Reuters on Tuesday revealed widespread Wall Street speculation that Sears Holdings Corp. may go private.

"There is a rumor that Bruce Berkowitz of Fairholme and Eddie Lampert could take Sears private," Jon Najarian, a co-founder of TradeMonster.com in Chicago, told Reuters.
 
Sears has not commented on the rumors, which come days after CIT Group halted loans that Sears' suppliers use to finance the goods they sell to the Sears and Kmart chains.

New York City -- A new global standard for retail payments designed to help exchange data between payment terminals and POS terminals and support new payment technologies has been released by the Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS) and EPASOrg, which sets card payment standards in Europe.

Jacksonville, Fla. -- Winn-Dixie said Friday that its CEO Peter Lynch will step down, as the supermarket chain merges with Bi-Lo LLC. Current Bi-Lo chairman Randall Onstead will replace Lynch as CEO.

Lynch said in a letter to employees that he will remain for another 60 to 120 days to assist in the transition.

Bi-Lo purchased Winn-Dixie for $560 million in December.
 

New York City -- Consumer confidence rose more than forecast in January, reaching its highest level in eight months amid signs of an improving labor market.

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment increased to 74 from 69.9 at the end of December. The median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey called for 71.5. The measure has increased 9.9 points in the last two months, the biggest such gain since April-May 2009.

In an era when retail cashiers look warily at a $100 bill, hard to imagine what a man was thinking when he tried to pass a $1 million bill at a Walmart in North Carolina.

Was it a good holiday season or a bad one? Depends who you ask and how results are interpreted as evidenced by conflicting perspectives on U.S. Commerce Department statistics released Thursday morning.

It was widely reported that December sales were a disappointment by media outlets, which cited Commerce Department statistics released Thursday morning showing a rise of 0.1% versus the 0.3% that was widely reported as the expectation of economists.

Minneapolis -- Target Corp. said Thursday it will buy back up to $5 billion in shares under a new stock repurchase program.

The current $10 billion program is slated for completion in the next few months, said Target. The newly announced $5 billion program is expected to be completed in the next two to three years.