Consumer Biz Recap: Wal-Mart Boosts STAKE In China eCommerce, Penney’s Goes BACK To Newspapers

Antitrust regulators in China have given a restricted okay to Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) to increase its investment in the e-commerce company Yihaodian from 18 percent to 51 percent. Although it had to wait a while for authorization, Wal-Mart can now better exploit the booming Chinese consumer e-commerce market, which should grow by a factor of 5 to 665 billion yuan, or $100 billion, over the next couple of years.

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The Ford Company’s (NYSE:F) India subsidiary has recalled 130,000 vehicles due to a manufacturing defect. Part of the recall include the popular Ford Figo and also Classic models built between January 2008 and December 2010. Another big name auto recall is by The General Motors Company (NYSE:GM), for more than 10,000 Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana vans, because of the possibility that road salt could corrode fuel pipes. This recall covers model years 2003 to 2004 in cold-weather states in the United States and Canada.

J.C. Penney & Co. (NYSE:JCP) has decided to shift its advertising concentration back to newspapers; some 30 inserts are scheduled for the rest of 2012, which compares to the 11 campaigns it ran in papers in the spring of this year. Of course, that period was dominated by the now exited but highly regarded marketing executive Michael Francis.

Saks Incorporated (NYSE:SKS) says that it will be the most recent retailer to let go of the practice of reporting monthly comparable store sales totals. Analysts may complain of less directional data, but shares jumped by more than 6 percent on the day.

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