Tiffany & Co

The holiday shopping season is looking pretty bleak for retailers. Best Buy recently announced that it plans to hire fewer holiday workers than it did last year, and now new data from the consumer research group NPD suggests that Best Buy won't be the only chain stuck in a holiday sales rut.

Walmart has announced a new initiative aimed at investing in women-driven enterprises. The chain's plans include supporting training programs, donating to entities that aid female-focused economic development, and patronizing women-owned businesses. But coming as it does on the heels on a massive (failed) class action lawsuit, can this initiative be taken at face-value?

S&P 500 companies have nearly completed the second-quarters earnings season, and overall, investors don't have much to complain about: More than 70% of companies have beaten earnings estimates, the index's earnings have risen more than 19% from last year, and nine of 10 sectors have given us a positive earnings surprise.

Earnings season is almost over, and corporate America has so far provided a steady stream of strong earnings to counter the doom-and-gloom headlines. Last week, the focus was squarely on retailers, and they didn't disappoint: A diverse group of companies beat estimates, showing that U.S. consumers are far from finished.

Now more than ever, there's never a dull moment on Wall Street. Next week will bring plenty of critical headlines, from a panoply of retail earnings reports to Pandora's first results as a public company. Read on for a complete preview of the news to come.

A host of big name fashion luminaries have partnered with eBay to send a message about counterfeit goods to consumers via the "You Can't Fake Fashion" campaign: It's time to shake out the fakes and put our buying power behind original design.

The news across the financial world is good for unions, which will find organizing a bit easier; adequate for Greece, which will find getting bailed out a bit easier, and bitter for JPMorgan which had to accept a $153.6 million SEC fine for misleading investors about a mortgage securities transaction.