Bernard Hickey details the key news over the weekend in 90 seconds at 9am, including news EFTPOS provider Paymark has reported sales are up 6.7% early in the Christmas shopping season.
Retailers report a slightly better feel going into Christmas, but the mood is not nearly as strong as it was in the boom years of 2004, 2005 and 2006. Employment is still weak, although better than expected. Shoppers are being more careful this year.
Meanwhile, the Copenhagen climate change conference has broken up without a binding agreement after weeks of discussions and thousands of plane trips belching out greenhouse gas emissions.
In the US, 7 more banks failed over the weekend, involving US$14.4 bln of assets and bringing the total of failed banks to 140 in the last couple of years
Finally, the Wellywood-produced Avatar is a hit with US$73 million of sales on its first weekend, a record for a 3D film.
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