Week's Winners, Losers: Authors Sign for Barnes & Noble

Nick Ut/APHillary Rodham Clinton has signed copies of her book for Barnes & Noble. There were plenty of winners and losers this week, with the last major bookstore chain landing some star power to make its holiday sales ring up and a renter of movies and games on discs playing Grinch with a seasonally silly price hike. Here's a rundown of the week's smartest moves and biggest blunders. Twitter (TWTR) -- Loser It seems that a week doesn't go by without a company making a social media mistake, usually in the form of posting a controversial or insensitive tweet. This week it was Twitter itself that blew it. Twitter CFO Anthony Noto posted a public tweet on Monday that apparently was intended as a private direct message to somebody. "We should buy them," he writes, likely discussing an unnamed acquisition target, and pointing to a mid-December meeting. "We will need to sell him," he concludes. "I have a plan." It's good to know that even Twitter is human. Apple (AAPL) -- Winner It's a safe bet that Apple's going to be selling plenty of iPads, Macs, and iPhones this holiday shopping weekend, and at least one analyst wants to get in ahead of the customers. Susquehanna's Chris Caso is raising his price target on Apple from $120 to $135, encouraged by the improving production and sales trends of the pricier iPhone 6 Plus. The larger smartphone sells for $100 more than the comparable iPhone 6, but it doesn't cost that much more to make. In other words, Apple scores a larger profit from the iPhone 6 Plus than the iPhone 6. Redbox -- Loser It's going to cost a little more to check out a DVD, Blu-ray, or video game from a Redbox machine. Parent company Outerwall (OUTR) announced this week that it's raising its rates. The daily-rental rates will go from $1.20 to $1.50 for DVDs, from $1.50 to $2 for Blu-ray discs, and from $2 to $3 for video games. The market applauded the move by sending the stock higher on the announcement, but are we forgetting that Redbox was having a hard time growing its rental business at the old rate? Outerwall's latest quarter found Redbox rentals declining 13.7 percent over the prior year's period. Making rentals even more expensive is only going to drive more video buffs to digital and on-demand rentals. Barnes & Noble (BKS) -- Winner Leave it to the last remaining major book superstore chain to come up with a novel way to drum up traffic. Barnes & Noble is making Black Friday interesting by offering 500,000 signed editions of more than 100 books available exclusively at its stores. We're talking about famous authors including Dan Brown and Anne Rice, but also celebrity writers including Amy Poehler, George W. Bush, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Joel Osteen. This should bring some serious buzz back to the booksellers that normally sit out the early days of the holiday shopping season. Barbie -- Loser Barbie's reign atop the National Retail Federation's annual survey of most coveted toys has come to an end. Mattel's (MAT) Barbie has topped the list since it began tracking parent holiday purchasing intentions 11 years ago, but this time the pole position belongs to Disney's (DIS) "Frozen" franchise. One in five parents plan to buy "Frozen" items for their daughters, beating out Barbie, which will be on the shopping list of 17 percent of parents. Let's just hope that we never have to buy a Malibu Anna or an Elsa Beach House. More from Rick Aristotle Munarriz
•Last Week's Biggest Stock Movers: Deals Lift Dish •Wall Street This Week: Deere Before the Turkey •You Don't Need to Be Rich to Ride the Hotel Boom

Graco Recalls 5 Million Strollers Over Finger Amputations

cspc.gov Nearly 5 million Graco strollers are being recalled in North America after at least a half-dozen reports of children's fingers getting cut off in the hinges, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said on Thursday. At least 11 incidents have been reported involving finger injuries in the popular strollers including the six fingertip amputations and four partial amputations. A nearly identical recall was conducted by Graco in 2010, which followed a similar recall a few months earlier by competitor Maclaren. The number of strollers involved in this recall, however, is far larger. This recall, which involves 4.7 million strollers in the U.S. and 202,000 in Canada, includes 11 models of Graco stroller: Aspen, Breeze, Capri, Cirrus, Glider, Kite, LiteRider, Sierra, Solara, Sterling, and TravelMate Model Strollers and Travel Systems. The China-made strollers were sold at major retailers including Target (TGT), Toys R Us, Walmart (WMT) and Amazon.com (AMZN), from August 2000 utnil this month for about $40 to $70 for the stroller and $140 to $170 for the travel system. A full list of models is available here. If you have one of the strollers you should contact Graco to receive a free repair kit, which includes hinge covers. The kit will be available starting next month. In the interim,"caregivers should exercise extreme care when unfolding the stroller to be certain that the hinges are firmly locked before placing a child in the stroller," the CPSC said. "Caregivers are advised to immediately remove the child from a stroller that begins to fold to keep their fingers from the side hinge area." You can contact Graco Children's Products at 800-345-4109 weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern time, or visit the company's recall site. The Apple Watch doesn't come out until 2015, and it's going to cost you at least $350. The VTech Kidizoom Smartwatch is out now and only costs $60. It's clear which smartwatch is going to wind up dominating the market.

Rich Kids Twice as Likely to Have College Debt Now Than in 1992

skynesher More than two out of three college graduates now leave school with student loan debt. And the debt they carry out of school these days -- a median of nearly $27,000 as of 2011 -- is "more than twice that of college graduates 20 years ago." These are two conclusions cited in a recent Pew Research Center analysis of government data on student loan debt. But they're not the most startling conclusions. According to Pew, the biggest increase in student borrowing over the last 20 years has been among the wealthy. Pity the Poor Kids As you'd expect, Pew data shows that student loan debt in America is most often concentrated among students of limited financial means. According to Pew, the majority -- 56 percent -- of student loan debt today is borne by students from the lower and lower-middle income classes. Indeed, 77 percent of low-income students, hailing from families making less than $44,432 per year, now leave college with at least some student loan debt. Seventy percent of lower-middle-class students (from families earning $44,432 to $83,406) are in similar straits. And even among upper-middle-class students (from families earning $83,407 to $125,772), 62 percent come out of college burdened by debt. Pity the Rich Kids, Too As for students from what Pew terms the high-income stratum -- families earning $125,773 and up -- 50 percent of such "rich kids" now carry student loan debt into their post-baccalaureate lives. That's a much smaller proportion of kids carrying debt than is found among students less-well-off. But it's still twice the percentage of such kids carrying student loans as we saw back in 1992. That's the biggest jump in the proportion of students carrying loan debt found among any of the four income strata surveyed by Pew. Indeed, the prevalence of student loan debt among high-income students has grown more than twice as fast as such loans have grown among low-income students. And student loan debt among upper-middle-class students is growing nearly as fast as among the rich. But why? The rising cost of college (and even of college textbooks!) surely explains part of the problem. Tuition costs have nearly sextupled over the past three decades. Textbook prices are up even more -- an astounding 812 percent increase in 30 years. And with the majority of parents leaving it to their kids to buy their own textbooks -- which can cost as much as $1,200 a year for a full course load -- this alone could push some kids to take on some debt.

Worst Performing Industries For November 5, 2014

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The Dow gained 0.39% to 17,452.04, while the NASDAQ composite index climbed 0.13% to 4,629.63. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 0.41% to 2,020.30.

The worst performing industries in the market today are:

Computer Peripherals:

The industry dropped 5.54% by 11:00 am. The worst performer in this industry was Stratasys (NASDAQ: SSYS), which declined 11.7%. Stratasys lowered its profit forecast.

Building Materials Wholesale:

This industry fell 4.53% by 11:00 am ET. Louisiana-Pacific (NYSE: LPX) shares dropped 5% in today's trading. Louisiana-Pacific reported downbeat quarterly earnings.

Photographic Equipment & Supplies:

This industry tumbled 2.45% by 11:00 am. The worst stock within the industry was GoPro (NASDAQ: GPRO), which fell 2.1%. GoPro's PEG ratio is 2.16.

Basic Materials Wholesale:

This industry declined 1.76% by 11:00 am, with Macquarie Infrastructure Company LLC (NYSE: MIC) moving down 2.1%. Macquarie Infrastructure priced 1.3 million shares at $70.88 per share.

Posted-In: Worst Performing IndustriesNews Intraday Update Markets Movers

© 2014 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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General Motors & Ford: Falling Yen Not Getting ‘Near Enough Investor Attention,’ Morgan Stanley Says

Yesterday, automakers reported strong U.S. sales–but that doesn’t mean life is going to get any easier for U.S. manufacturers like General motors (GM) and Ford Motor (F).

Nick King for the Wall Street Journal

One of the bigger issues: The falling yen, which Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas and team don’t think its getting its due from investors.

We expect the US auto industry will continue to find new ways to attract incremental consumers into the market, pushing SAAR to higher and higher levels while sacrificing pricing, quality and sustainability of volume. With the Japanese Yen now at 114, the stakes are even higher…as it has effectively placed an extra $3k of profit per unit into Japanese hands versus levels from just 2-3 years ago. We expect this will help Japanese manufacturers bring to market attractively designed and engineered vehicles at great prices, helping to expand their 40% share of the of the US market, pressuring rivals. We don’t believe the Yen is getting anywhere near enough investor attention despite it likely being the #1 macroeconomic factor keeping US auto industry executives up at night.

Shares of Ford Motor have dropped 1% to $30.85 at 10:51 a.m., while General Motors has fallen 0.6% to $13.90.

8 Ways to Save for the Holidays in the Next 8 Weeks

altafulla/Shutterstock

Are you ready for all the expenses that come with the holidays? Let's make it a little less stressful by looking at eight ways to save in the next eight weeks. 1. Trim Your Budget The quickest way to having more cash is to go through your budget and cut down on anything that's unnecessary. Can you give up eating out for a month or two? What about going without getting your hair done? In the spirit of giving to others, try to temporarily cut down spending on yourself. By simply asking your service providers for less expensive options, you may secure a discount or a reduced rate. I just did this with my phone bill. I had an unlimited data plan, and I switched to 3 gigs of data and cut my bill by 40 percent. The worst that can happen is that the company representative says no -- but the best is you could save money on monthly bills just by asking. 2. Make Your Gifts Have a Pinterest-surfing session and get on the hunt for handmade gift ideas. Do you have any artistic abilities, like painting, drawing or knitting? Put those skills to use. If handmade gifts aren't your thing, consider making your own greeting cards. Plus, your card recipients will feel extra special after receiving such a thoughtful item in the mail or at a holiday gathering. 3. Change Your Tax Withholding If you normally receive a tax refund, try adjusting your tax withholding at your job so that your next few paychecks are a little bigger. That will mean more money in your pocket around the holidays, but a smaller refund. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Getting money back via a tax refund means the government got an interest-free loan from you. Turn that around and enjoy that interest-free loan for yourself. 4. Strategically Plan Your Shopping Plan when it comes to both everyday shopping and shopping for holiday gifts. Consolidate your shopping to a day or two during the week and shop at a cluster of stores if possible. That reduces both mileage, which saves gas, and time (which may save your sanity). 5. Redeem Reward Points from Credit Cards Do you have any unused points waiting to be redeemed from your credit cards? You can redeem most points for cash back or gift cards than can be used for loved ones. Next year, don't use any of your credit card rewards until the holidays so you'll already have money saved for your holiday shopping. This is a strategy I've used for years. 6. Look for Coupons and Discounts Search for coupons and deals on websites like RetailMeNot. Browse for discounted gifts on deal sites like Groupon or ScoutMob. Make sure you're armed with a list of gifts you want to buy first. This savings strategy can backfire if you buy things just because they're on sale, so use discipline to avoid overspending. Also, ask for price matches at stores. 7. Shop Online We all know about Black Friday, but you can often get some of the best online deals shopping the Monday after Thanksgiving. I got a great deal on my laptop bag by buying it on Cyber Monday. Besides saving you gas, online prices can be cheaper -- and some online retailers don't charge sales tax. Shopping on a site like Amazon (AMZN) can save you time and help you avoid the holiday rush around department stores and malls. And even traditionally brick-and-mortar businesses, like Target (TGT) and Walmart (WMT), offer exclusive online deals that you can't get in the store. For instance, Walmart is testing matching online prices. 8. No-Spend Challenge If you're really serious about saving in these last weeks before the holidays, establish a no-spend challenge for part of the time, say weekends, every other week or all of November. A no-spend challenge is what it sounds like: a period that you choose to not spend any (extra) money. Yes, you'll still need spend on rent, utilities, gas and groceries. The no-spend idea is for discretionary expenses, like dining out, going to an event or shopping for yourself. For an added challenge, see how many $0 days you can achieve in a row. One writer I know used this technique to help pay off her debt. If you have a no-spend weekend, for example, cook and eat all your meals at home, plan on a family game night or take yourself on a walking tour of some part of your community. Plan on free activities or use resources you already have. Then, put the surplus your no-spend time created toward holiday expenses.