Banks take 489 billion euros in 3-year ECB loans | Reuters

(Reuters) - Banks took a huge 489 billion euros at the European Central Bank's first ever offering of three-year funding on Wednesday, raising hope a credit crunch can be avoided and that the money may be used to buy Italian and Spanish bonds.

A total of 523 banks borrowed money at the tender with demand way above the 310 billion euros expected by traders polled by Reuters in the run-up to the operation.

The banks' lunge for funding pushed the euro to a one-week high versus the dollar and sparked a rally in stocks.

via reuters.com

Comscore: US online holiday sales rise 14% on week - MarketWatch

U.S. online retail sales rose 14% in the latest week from a year earlier, placing e-commerce spending for the holiday shopping season on track to top 2010 levels, according to Internet measurement company comScore Inc. /quotes/zigman/105907/quotes/nls/scor SCOR -0.10% .

"The final big week of online holiday shopping remained strong throughout," said comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni. While most of the last minute holiday shopping is expected to shift to brick-and-mortar retail, an additional $5 billion or $6 billion in online spending is predicted over the remainder of the month, Fulgoni said.

For the week ended Sunday, sales reached a record $6.3 billion, including four individual days that topped $1 billion in sales. Sales during the last shopping weekend before Christmas reached $1.04 billion, the second heaviest weekend of online spending on record.

via marketwatch.com

Exclusive: North Korea's military to share power with Kim's heir | Reuters

via reuters.com