1. Traffic falls as online sales surge at start of holiday shopping
Sales fell at brick-and-mortar stores on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday, in part because the stores had lured in shoppers early by offering discounts far ahead of the big weekend. Another reason for the dip was the continued rise of online shopping. Internet sales increased by double digits and exceeded $3 billion on Black Friday for the first time, with Cyber Monday — the traditional day for big online discounts — still to come, according to data from analytics firm RetailNext.
2. Disney's Moana scores second biggest Thanksgiving debut ever
Walt Disney Animation Studios' Moana, one of the best-reviewed films of 2016, crushed the competition at the box office over the long Thanksgiving weekend, collecting $81.1 million at domestic theaters for the second-best Thanksgiving opening ever. Only Frozen, another Disney film, has done better, raking in $93.6 million in 2013. Moana's success came despite several pre-release controversies, including one about an oversize male character. The musical, about a princess' mythical journey in ancient Polynesia, features the voice of Dwayne Johnson and songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creative force behind the smash Broadway hip-hop musical Hamilton. J.K. Rowling's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them fell to second over the five-day weekend, earning $65.8 million.
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3. Lufthansa braces for resumption of pilot strike
German airline Lufthansa rejected pilot demands for higher pay over the weekend, setting the stage for a resumption of strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday after a two-day pause. The pilots' Cockpit union said Sunday that its members would resume a walkout on short-haul flights on Tuesday, and long-haul pilots would join them on Wednesday. The pilot strike led to the cancellation of 2,800 flights last week. The pilots want a 3.7 percent raise going back five and a half years, but Lufthansa's latest offer was a 4.4 percent pay increase starting mid-2018, with a one-time bonus equal to just under two months' pay instead of years of retroactive raises.
4. OPEC officials work on recommendations on output cuts
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries experts are meeting Monday to come up with recommendations for their nations' ministers ahead of their Wednesday summit on how to reduce production to boost oil prices. Crude oil prices surged above $50 a barrel after OPEC unexpectedly reached a preliminary agreement to reduce output after two years of full production despite a global oil glut. Optimism has faded in the weeks since the announcement, and oil prices edged down early Monday after leading producer Saudi Arabia ditched a meeting between OPEC and non-OPEC countries on Saturday in a dispute over allocating output cuts, then said for the first time that prices would eventually stabilize even without an agreement to cut production.
5. U.S. stock futures edge lower after a record week
U.S. stocks appeared headed to a lower open on Monday after four days of gains, with Dow Jones Industrial Average futures falling by 59 points, or 0.3 percent, to 19,085, and S&P 500 futures dropping by 7 points, also 0.3 percent. The Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite set a string of records last week as a post-election rally extended as investors expected the economy to get a boost from infrastructure spending and corporate tax cuts promised by President-elect Donald Trump.
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