BBY

Best Buy is taking its best shot at stealing some online market share from Amazon.com with a completely new service meant to challenge the world's largest e-commerce company. Best Buy Marketplace will substantially increase the number of products available at the Best Buy website.

It's a sign of just how far and wide demand for Apple products has grown: the consumer-electronics store is about to open a store in Anchorage, Alaska. The new retail outlet, along with another one in Murray, Utah, brings the total number of U.S. Apple stores to 240.

Oracle, Discover and Tiffany are all expected to report year-over-year growth for their most recent quarters this week. Meanwhile, many will be looking for an updated snapshot of the housing market, with three sets of real-estate data coming out.

FedEx, the world's leading package-delivery service and an ostensible bellwether of the U.S. economy, will report its latest earnings this week. Also, with the holiday shopping season well underway, Best Buy and Discover Financial Services are also reporting quarterly results.

In this market, lots of brand name companies trading at attractive levels. But are stocks like Microsoft, GameStop and Best Buy good values, or are they cheap for a reason? Nikhil Hutheesing and Dan Burrows give their take. (With video)

Best Buy's stock fell more than 7% at one point in early Tuesday trading after the nation's largest consumer electronics retailer said first-quarter earnings and sales missed Wall Street's average estimates. Higher expenses and lower sales of flat panel TVs, video games and services were partly to blame, Best Buy reported.

Best Buy (BBY) reported flat growth in first quarter earnings of $155 million. Earnings per share actually declined to 36 cents from 42 cents in the same quarter last year. Revenue in the first quarter grew 6.8% to $10.79 billion from $10.1 billion last year. The results were far below analyst expectations of earnings of 50 cents a share, and revenue growth of 8.4%, to $10.9 billion.

Boob tube shipments are up and manufacturer revenues are expected to rise in the first quarter, reversing a six-month decline. But LCD makers are hardly raking it in as prices continue to slide every year.

First the good news: According to the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics, the November jobless rate fell to 10%, a 0.2% improvement over October, when unemployment hit its highest level since 1983. Better yet, according to the Kronos Retail Labor Index, 3.87% percent of job applications currently...

Macy's (M) CEO Terry Lundgren said he's "encouraged" by the level of buying activity at the company's Herald Square store in New York City Friday. The day after Thanksgiving in the U.S. is nicknamed Black Friday because it's the day when many retailers become profitable for the year. Macy's...