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The Conference Board announced that the U.S. leading index decreased 0.5 percent, the coincident index remained unchanged and the lagging index increased 0.3 percent in October.

comScore, Inc. released the first in a series of twice weekly holiday season e-commerce updates, revealing that the first 18 days of the holiday season saw more than $7 billion in online retail spending, a 17-percent gain versus the corresponding days last year.

Looking ahead into the future, and the year 2020, most people in five European countries and the U.S. believe that the dominant world power will either be the United States or China. But, there is some disagreement over which one of these will actually be the most dominant country. Pluralities in France (47%), Spain (45%) and Italy (38%) believe that China will be the dominant world power. A plurality of adults in the United States (40%) as well as one-third of British adults (32%) and 30 percent of Germans all say the U.S. will be the dominant world power in 2020.

Despite the low labor costs, unsaturated markets, and steady economic recovery that have made the Asia Pacific region attractive for semiconductors manufacturers, Poland has emerged as the research and development (R&D) centre of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). In setting up R&D in Poland, companies seek to lower costs, increase efficiency, improve quality, and diversify from their basic activities.

For two decades, the term “nanotechnology” has been primarily associated with an R&D race spanning the public and private sectors. But nanotech is now shifting from discovery to commercialization, with $50 billion in nano-enabled products sold worldwide last year from pharmaceuticals to power tools – creating sustained competitive advantage for companies as diverse as Abbott Labs and Black & Decker.

The nation of shopkeepers is turning into a nation of Web shoppers.

Kevin Regan, a retail expert at FTI Consulting, the global business advisory firm dedicated to helping organizations protect and enhance their enterprise value, is available to comment on FTI's 2007 Retail Report, which forecasts a 3.5% increase in 2007 holiday season sales, measured from November 2007 through January 2008, compared with our prior year forecast of 4.8% and actual growth of 5.0% in 2006.

The annual growth rate of the outstanding amount of debt securities issued by euro area residents was 9.1% in September 2007, compared with 9.2% in August. For the outstanding amount of quoted shares issued by euro area residents, the annual growth rate was 1.4% in September 2007, the same as in August.

The past two years have seen a renewed acceleration of productivity growth in the European Union, narrowing the transatlantic productivity gap that emerged in the mid-1990s. However, a large part of the pick-up in productivity reflects the cyclical upswing which the EU has enjoyed in this period. To secure a sustained increase in productivity and compete for economic leadership, the EU must tackle the root causes of slow productivity growth. This is the main message from the EU Economy 2007 Review, which provides an in-depth analysis of productivity developments and policies to push Europe's productivity frontier forward.

U.S. households are expected to spend an average of $471 on gifts during the holiday season, up from last year's estimate of $449, The Conference Board reports.