Is There Holiday Cheer for This Retailer? (The Motley Fool)

Off-price apparel seller TJX (NYSE: TJX - News) recently posted impressive third-quarter profits and is hopeful about the holiday season ahead.

Let's dig deeper.

The quarter
Net sales increased to $5.79 billion, a 5% increase compared to the same period last year. However, analysts were looking for higher overall sales. Although apparel sales were hurt by unexpected warm weather, they picked up toward the end of the quarter when the temperature dropped.

Third-quarter earnings increased to $406.5 million, gaining 9% compared to the year-ago period, as more consumers visited the company's off-price stores such as Marshalls and T.J.Maxx. Earnings per share of $1.06 beat Street estimates by a penny.

Same-store sales, which is an important measure of a retailer's financial health, increased 3% during the quarter. Same-store sales at T.J.Maxx and HomeGoods increased significantly by 4% and 5%, respectively. What pinched the company was the flat same-store sales growth in Europe because of softness in the economy there. Moreover, TJX stores in Canada saw a decline of 2% in same-store sales growth.

Retailer's season
The much-awaited holiday season is coming up in the fourth quarter. This is a very crucial time for all retailers as they earn a huge chunk of their annual sales from this period. With November starting off well for TJX, the management is confident about the upcoming season as well.

Several companies take on promotional activities and other strategies during the holiday season to attract customers. For instance, apparel retailers Gap (NYSE: GPS - News), Aeropostale (NYSE: ARO - News), and Ann Taylor (NYSE: ANN - News) will be slashing prices and selling products with hard-to-resist tags. TJX plans to introduce new gift sets throughout the season and push marketing.

The Foolish bottom line
After a good performance this quarter, TJX has raised its same-store sales growth forecast for the next quarter to 2%-3%. Fools should watch TJX closely to know what happened during the holiday season.

Navjot Kaur does not own shares of any of the companies mentioned in this article. The Motley Fool owns shares of Gap. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personalfinance/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/fool/20111205/bs_fool_fool/rx167584

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Alex "Ace" Christopher Cox [80% Complete]

General Information:
First Name: Alex
Middle Name: Christopher
Family Name: Cox
Alias(s): Ace
Title(s): None.

Species: Human
Gender: Male
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Blood Type: AB+
Primary Arm: Right-handed

Birthday: Born on January 1st, 2213
Birthplace:
Home Planet:

Ageless: No
Immortal: No
Age Ranking-
Physical Age: 25
Mental Age: 20
True Age: 25

Mother: Nicole Weston
Father: Michael Cox
Siblings: None.
Children: None.
Other Relatives: Currently none.
General Love Life Status: Single

Occupation/Status: Private Investigator (Con artist)
Current Residence: None.
Religion: Predominantly Christian, although he leaves this open to interpretation.
Alignment: Neutral.
Economic Class: Lower Class.

Psychological Information:

Personality:
Ace is extremely charismatic, outgoing and sensitive to the thoughts and motives of others. While this would normally equate to a emotionally friendly, stable and personable person, Ace uses this to his advantage to learn about people and exploit their weaknesses through extortion, cheating, or stealing. He's generally calm, relaxed, and aloof to most situations; all the while calculating his moves. He's a witty (although sometimes snarky) conversationalist, known to avoid confrontation with his silver tongue and 'street smarts'. Ambitious and undaunted, Ace plans to own it all one day.

Likes in General: The finer things in life: a cigar and coffee, a fine glass of rum, and what he considers his remarkable (although quite less than so) ship.
Dislikes in General: Not being in control of a situation, sunny days, being broke.
Hobbies: Sparring. Collecting valuable antiques.

Intelligence Quotient: 96
Social Intelligence: Extremely High.
Emotional Intelligence: Extremely High.
Technological Intelligence: Very Low.

Words-Per-Minute: 93, Full Comprehension.
Education: Homeschool, Random Self Teaching.

Phobias: Arachnaphobia.
Allergies: Pineapple.
Diseases: None.

Primary Language: English
Secondary Languages: None.
Friends: None.
Friends [In which characters are not mine]: None.
Enemies: None.
Rivals: None.

Appearance:

Height: 6'0"
Weight: 213 Lbs 3 Oz.
Bust: 54 Cm.
Waist: 50 Cm.
Hip: 51 Cm.

General Muscle Build: Athletic
Skin Tone: Tan
Eye Color: Chocolate Brown
Hair Color: Jet Black
Hair Style: Trimmed on the sides, shorter on top with slightly longer bangs.
Markings: Several tattoos across his back and shoulders.

Primary Attire-
Top: Grey tank-top, beneath a white t-shirt and a light hooded jacket.
Waist/Hip: Blue jeans or cargo pants suited for space flight (a multitude of pockets and areas specified for buckling into a cockpit).
Shoes/etc: Most often a nice pair of leather strap over shoes, though he will wear ordinary sneakers in the rain.
Accessories: A silver watch with a black face, satellite phone attached to his wrist.

Battle Information:

Weapons-
A .40 caliber pistol (descended from Springfield Armory, Springfield-Powell Co.).

Natural Abilities- None.

Other Abilities- None.

Usable Energy Types- None.

Spiritual Battle Attributes- None.

Combat Styles- Just what Ace has picked up from a few fights in the slums.

Combat Levels (In relativity to average humans)- [1-10]
[1-3 Poor]
[4 Below Average]
[5 Average]
[6 Above Average]
[7 High]
[8 Abnormally High]
[9-10 Extremely High]

Physical Power Level: 5
Speed Level: 5
Agility Level: 6
Dexterity Level: 7
Flexibility: 5
Jumping Ability Level: 5

General Defense Level: 6
General Offense Level: 7
General Skill Level: 8

Teleportation: No
Flight: No

Quote: "Behind every king is a great puppet master."

Summarized Biography: Ace lived his youth with his parents in a middle class home, with not much out of the ordinary. In fact, life was far too ordinary for him. He aspired to live in greatness. Starting from a very young age, he began to swindle people. Jewelry, cash, and anything of value. If he wanted it, he found a way to get it. He played cards, stole, backstabbed, and cheated his way into the wrong circles. As he grew older, his parents began to find out about his dealings, threatening to kick him out, send him to a juvenile detention facility, and eventually turn him in to the authorities. Ace left home soon after. Although he was of legal age, (on this planet, 17) he kept to the slums, bumming about and building funds to start what he thought was his inevitable rise to fame and fortune. Though, to what lengths he would need to go to reach his ambitions, he was not sure.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/ehWwoidUD44/viewtopic.php

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Source: http://twitter.com/Jamaipanese/statuses/143051879151190016

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China Digs Deeper Into Canadian Tar Sands During Durban Talks

Although China boasts of its green progress, the booming nation is also making major bets on North and South American tar sands, one of the most carbon-intensive fuels on the planet. This play for civilization-threatening energy comes even as the world?s nations jockey over the fragile international climate accords in Durban, South Africa:

On Monday, China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) closed its acquisition of bankrupt Canadian tar sands producer OPTI Canada Inc. CNOOC gets OPTI?s 35 percent working interest in Long Lake and three other project areas located in the Athabasca region of northeastern Alberta, split with Canadian operator Nexen Inc. The deal cost $34 million for OPTI stock and $2 billion in debt. [Reuters]

On Wednesday, CNOOC and Nexen formed a joint venture, giving CNOOC a 20 percent working interest in the Kakuna, Angel Fire, and Cypress deepwater exploration wells in the Gulf of Mexico. [BusinessWeek]

These dirty investments in North American fossil fuel projects are just the latest in a rapid string of deals to give China access to high-polluting carbon energy from the Americas. Over the last three years, China-owned companies have invested over $18 billion in tar sands, shale gas, and coal projects in Canada and Venezuela:

November, 2011: China signs a $6 billion deal with Venezuela to develop tar sands ? $4 billion to the Chinese-Venezuelan tar sands company Sinovensa to increase production from 118,000 barrels a day to 1.1 million barrels a day in 2014, and $2 billion to Venezuela?s state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela for refining projects, drills, and equipment. [Channel News Asia]

October, 2011: Sinopec spends $2.2 billion to acquire shale gas producer Daylight Energy, which controls 300,000 acres of oil and gas property, at a 70 percent premium. [Bloomberg]

May, 2010: China Investment Corporation spends $1.25 billion on Alberta tar sands ? $817 million for a 45 percent stake in the Peace River tar sands project owned by Penn West Energy Trust, and $435 million for a 5 percent interest in the company. [Penn West Energy]

April, 2010: Sinopec spends $4.65 billion to buy ConocoPhillips? 9 percent stake in tar sands producer Syncrude Canada. [New York Times]

February, 2010: PetroChina spends $1.73 billion to purchase 60 percent of AOSC?s MacKay River and Dover tar sands projects. [CRI]

July, 2009: China Investment Corporation spends $1.5 billion to purchase 17 percent of Teck Resources, Canada?s largest metallurgical coal and copper mining company. CIC was recently granted a seat on Teck?s board of directors. [China Daily]

In 2005, PetroChina and Enbridge signed a $2 billion deal to help the Canadian tar sands company develop the Northern Gateway Pipeline, a project intended to deliver 400,000 barrels of tar crude a day from Edmonton, Alberta to the British Columbia port town of Kitimat, giving China access to direct tar sands shipping.

The pipeline has been unbuilt for years, facing stiff opposition and economic challenges. This Friday, Gitxsan First Nation announced it would become ?the first aboriginal partner? for the pipeline. On Thursday, 130 native groups in Western Canada pledged to block the project. Enbridge has offered up to a 10 percent stake in the pipeline to first nations who sign on.

Source: http://thinkprogress.org/green/2011/12/03/378752/china-digs-deeper-into-canadian-tar-sands-during-durban-talks/

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Obama pushes to extend payroll tax cut into 2012; GOP promotes balanced budget amendment (Star Tribune)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/169383475?client_source=feed&format=rss

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New Nordic test center behind electric car charging standard

Public release date: 1-Dec-2011
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Anders Troi
andtr@risoe.dtu.dk
45-46-77-50-57
Risoe National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, the Technical University of Denmark

The purpose is to ensure uniform standards for consumers and problem-free charging for electric car owners all over Denmark.

The new independent test center for electric car infrastructure named Nordic EV Interoperability Center (NEVIC), the first of its kind in the world, will ensure interoperability between electric cars and charging stations. The technology platform the so-called technical roaming will help create a more reliable and uniform market for consumers. The new test center will work to identify and address any technology issues in the market.

Behind the initial work are the electric car operators ChoosEV, Better Place and CleanCharge as well as DONG Energy, Ris DTU and Danish Electric Vehicle Alliance. The project is backed by Copenhagen Cleantech Cluster which receives funding from e.g. EU Structural Funds, the Capital Region of Denmark and Region Zealand. GAP funding enables researchers to further-develop projects of commercial and industrial interest.

"The new center brings us to the very forefront of EV Interoperability, enabling us to test and bypass all the small problems and barriers that always occur when different providers and their technologies have to interact. And we will thereby be able to assist both the market players and consumers," says Anders Troi, head of programme at Ris DTU.

EV charging stations from different providers including both standard and fast chargers will be installed at the NEVIC test center. As more and more electric cars and plug-in hybrid cars as well as charging stations enter the Danish market, they will be tested at the NEVIC center before being cleared for the road.

Danish Electric Vehicle Alliance praises the test center initiative as it will address any interoperability issues between cars and charging stations. The Alliance played an important role in bringing components and electric car suppliers, electricity providers and the research community together to jointly accept the need for the new test center.

"The test center is unique and will help ensure that the EV industry and Ris DTU can collaborate on giving consumers peace of mind. The knowhow accumulated by the center will be used for developing a potential 'golden egg' for Denmark. The test center can help lay the foundation for meeting the goal of the Danish government of free access to charging stations for consumers and market players across Denmark," says Lrke Flader, Managing Director of Danish EV Alliance.

The test centre will be officially opened on 8 December 2011 at 2 pm at Ris DTU where visitors will be able to see the charging stations that are now being installed all over Denmark as well as test drive different types of EVs. For more information about the opening, visit www.nevic.dk

###

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[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 1-Dec-2011
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Anders Troi
andtr@risoe.dtu.dk
45-46-77-50-57
Risoe National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, the Technical University of Denmark

The purpose is to ensure uniform standards for consumers and problem-free charging for electric car owners all over Denmark.

The new independent test center for electric car infrastructure named Nordic EV Interoperability Center (NEVIC), the first of its kind in the world, will ensure interoperability between electric cars and charging stations. The technology platform the so-called technical roaming will help create a more reliable and uniform market for consumers. The new test center will work to identify and address any technology issues in the market.

Behind the initial work are the electric car operators ChoosEV, Better Place and CleanCharge as well as DONG Energy, Ris DTU and Danish Electric Vehicle Alliance. The project is backed by Copenhagen Cleantech Cluster which receives funding from e.g. EU Structural Funds, the Capital Region of Denmark and Region Zealand. GAP funding enables researchers to further-develop projects of commercial and industrial interest.

"The new center brings us to the very forefront of EV Interoperability, enabling us to test and bypass all the small problems and barriers that always occur when different providers and their technologies have to interact. And we will thereby be able to assist both the market players and consumers," says Anders Troi, head of programme at Ris DTU.

EV charging stations from different providers including both standard and fast chargers will be installed at the NEVIC test center. As more and more electric cars and plug-in hybrid cars as well as charging stations enter the Danish market, they will be tested at the NEVIC center before being cleared for the road.

Danish Electric Vehicle Alliance praises the test center initiative as it will address any interoperability issues between cars and charging stations. The Alliance played an important role in bringing components and electric car suppliers, electricity providers and the research community together to jointly accept the need for the new test center.

"The test center is unique and will help ensure that the EV industry and Ris DTU can collaborate on giving consumers peace of mind. The knowhow accumulated by the center will be used for developing a potential 'golden egg' for Denmark. The test center can help lay the foundation for meeting the goal of the Danish government of free access to charging stations for consumers and market players across Denmark," says Lrke Flader, Managing Director of Danish EV Alliance.

The test centre will be officially opened on 8 December 2011 at 2 pm at Ris DTU where visitors will be able to see the charging stations that are now being installed all over Denmark as well as test drive different types of EVs. For more information about the opening, visit www.nevic.dk

###

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/rnlf-nnt120111.php

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What a Skirmish with Iran Might Do to World's Oil Supplies (ContributorNetwork)

November has ended and December has begun with concern over increasing difficulties with Iran. More sanctions by the EU and the U.S. in response to Iran's nuclear aspirations led to the storming of the British Embassy in Tehran on Tuesday, Nov. 29, as reported by Time. In addition, there is ongoing posturing between the Islamic Republic and Israel. But beyond the fear of the potential for violence against Iran's Western World adversaries and the country's nuclear program, there is a fear of what escalating tensions with Iran could do to the world's oil supplies and prices.

How much of the world's oil comes from Iran?

According to a report by Reuters, Iran supplies about 2.5% of the world's oil - about 300 million barrels a day. China is the largest importer of Iranian crude oil, with shipments of 547,000 barrels a day. Turkey and India also get a lot of their oil from Iran. Crude exports from Iran were exceeded last year only by Saudi Arabia and Russia, Bloomberg reported.

How is Iran's oil supply at risk?

Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic transport route for oil supplies coming out of the region, if the United States or Israel were to attack it, Reuters reported in early November. Approximately 40 percent of the world's oil passes through that strait. With the European Union, who currently receives a fifth of Iran's oil exports, plotting an all-out boycott of imports from Iran and the possibility of military action against the country by Israel, former White House energy advisor Bob McNally says oil prices could surge to $175 a barrel if Iran retaliates by closing the Strait of Hormuz.

When would the prices begin to rise?

Prices have already begun to rise. According to U.S. News & World Report, talks of European embargoes have caused countries to look to places like Russia in order to keep up with the oil imports they need. Already the price of Russian crude oil has risen. According to Bloomberg, several places are still reeling from price increases this past April that arose from a lesser supply of exports from Libya during its conflict.

What can be done?

Not much can be done to prevent the rise in the price of oil in response to the rising tide of concerns about Iran. For now, countries are simply making sure they can still obtain enough oil. While a growing list of countries are announcing sanctions against Iran, they're also scrambling for backup options if the situation in the region continues to degrade. China's Foreign Ministry is asking Iranian crude oil importers to review contingency plans if those oil shipments from Iran stop coming, Reuters' December 1 article reported, and India refiners are also looking for a plan B. Spain and Greece have also been forced to look at alternative resources as other European countries poise for a ban, an article from AFP stated.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/energy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20111201/wl_ac/10576647_what_a_skirmish_with_iran_might_do_to_worlds_oil_supplies

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