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Wine lovers will get their first taste of the much-talked about 2011 harvest on Thursday as the Beaujolais Nouveau hits the bars and shelves of France and the wider world.

In what appears to be a rapidly developing trend, Chinese visitors to the United States are being noticed more for the flash of their newly-bought designer bags than that of their Nikons. Tiffany & Co. (NYSE:TIF), Coach, Inc. (NYSE:COH) and Ralph Lauren (NYSE:RL) are just a few of the companies in the luxury retail sector that have recently noted how higher revenue at their North American operations has largely been boosted by Chinese shoppers on vacation.

This year may be the biggest Black Friday yet for online shopping, says inMobi. With retailers eager to get a jump on the busiest shopping day of the year, it's hard to know where to concentrate your efforts.

The British government has agreed to sell Northern Rock, the failed mortgage lender it nationalized in 2008, to Virgin Money, the banking arm of Richard Branson's Virgin empire.

Carrefour, the world's second-biggest retailer, must slash prices, build more convenience stores and attract online shoppers as dire economic times make the current CEO's hypermarket revival plan increasingly obsolete.

More people are expected to shop on this year's Black Friday, according to a survey for the National Retail Federation conducted by BIGresearch.

Threats of money problems continue to hang over U.S. local governments, but most cities and counties will still be able to pay their debts in the near future, Janney Capital Markets said in a special report on Wednesday.

LG Electronics hopes to revolutionize the TV and the Internet with a magic touch pen.

Meet Malcolm McCormick -- a 19-year-old white Jewish rapper from the suburbs of Pittsburgh, Pa. -- who currently has the No. 1 album of the week.

John Power has created a solution to the problem of excessive baggage fees: wearable luggage.

As equity investors play the ups and down of the stock market, fixed income money managers that provide day-to-day financing to the banks, investors in medium-term bonds and the peer banks themselves are scrambling for cover. The result: a dollar financing crunch that could deeply affect the banks and how they do business.

Real estate mogul Sam Zell's Equity Residential is the lead bidder to buy 53 percent of rival company Archstone for over $2.5 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported.

South Africa's rand reversed its earlier losses against the dollar on Wednesday and government bond yields pulled back from the previous day's multi-week highs as local assets took a breather from a hammering brought on by global risk aversion.

Mother-of pearl dashboards and diamond-encrusted hood ornaments at the Dubai International Motor Show this week underlined how the safe-haven status of the United Arab Emirates is fuelling dramatic growth in sales of luxury cars.

Canada's communications regulator handed a partial victory on Tuesday to big Internet service providers by allowing them to charge lease fees based on the amount of capacity small providers use.

Applications for U.S. home mortgages dropped last week, erasing the gains of the week before as demand for refinancing evaporated, an industry group said on Wednesday.

Asian stock markets ended lower on Wednesday, as concerns about Europe’s debt crisis offset better-than-expected reports on U.S. economy Tuesday.

U.S. retail chain, Macy's Inc. have announced plans for three new stores offering a range of merchandise categories.

Toys R Us plans to be the forerunner for Black Friday this year, as the toy retailer has announced it will open its doors at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving evening ahead of all other competitors.

Upscale apparel and accessories retailers have been consistently outperforming the rest of the retail market, as they've been able to simultaneously roll back discounts and increase sales. A spike in sales for the most expensive of offerings, and at branded outlets, belies a more sinister reason for the surge: growing income inequality.

Stocks rose in a choppy market on Tuesday, led by gains in technology shares that offset worries the Eurozone's debt troubles will spread.