NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Amazon’s fourth-quarter sales results weren’t awful, but investors went ahead and punished the stock severely anyway.

Amazon (AMZN, Fortune 500) earned $177 million, or 38 cents per share for the holiday quarter that ended December 31 — more than double the 17 cents per share that analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast.

But Amazon’s revenue came in at $17.4 billion, missing the $18.3 billion that analysts expected.

The miss wasn’t massive, but investors responded by sending the stock nearly 9% lower in after-hours trading Tuesday.

NEW YORK — Macy’s Inc is suing Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc, accusing the company of breach of contract for entering into an agreement to sell certain products to J.C. Penney Company Inc.

Macy’s says Martha Stewart Living granted it the exclusive right to make and sell certain products under a 2006 agreement, according to a New York state Supreme Court filing Monday.

Macy’s is seeking a preliminary injunction stopping Martha Stewart from violating the contract. It also is seeking an order sealing the lawsuit and motion, saying it is prohibited from disclosing certain information.

The court filing does not detail the products in question.

The actress who played tomboy Elly May Clampett on 1960s television show “The Beverly Hillbillies” has settled her lawsuit against Mattel over a Barbie doll based on her character.

Actress Donna Douglas, now 78, sued the toy company in May as well as the consumer products division of CBS Corp. seeking a minimum of $75,000 in damages.

Her complaint said Mattel was “engaging in the unauthorized use” of her name, likeness and image to promote and sell the “Elly May” Barbie.

Boeing Co’s biggest labor union on Wednesday ratified a four-year contract extension, ensuring the upcoming version of the planemaker’s best-selling 737 narrowbody will be built in Washington state and likely ending Boeing’s high-profile dispute with the National Labor Relations Board.

The International Association of Machinists (IAM) said 74 percent of the vote was in favor of the deal. About 31,000 members were eligible to vote.

“Today our members cast their vote for jobs, for their futures, for the future of this community and for the future of Washington state,” said Tom Wroblewski, president of IAM District 751, in a press conference announcing the results.

The deal gives Boeing some assurance that strikes will not disrupt its operations as it ramps up production of many of its models. For the union members in Washington, ratification also means local jobs for which it has campaigned. A tentative deal was reached last week, nine months before the expiration of the current contract.

WASHINGTON — AT&T said it would take a $4 billion charge in case its takeover of T-Mobile USA fails, reflecting the dwindling chances for the deal seen as job-destroying by powerful political opponents.

The telecommunications group and T-Mobile owner Deutsche Telekom, said they would continue to pursue anti-trust approval for the $39 billion takeover from the U.S. Department of Justice, but withdrew for now applications to the industry regulator.

“AT&T Inc and Deutsche Telekom AG are continuing to pursue the sale of Deutsche Telekom’s U.S. wireless assets to AT&T,” they said in a statement on Thursday, the Thanksgiving Day holiday in the United States.

AT&T declined to comment on the timing of the announcement beyond the statement.

Both the DOJ and telecoms watchdog the Federal Communications Commission oppose the deal, which would reduce the number of national mobile carriers to three while consumers are struggling to make ends meet and unemployment rises.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — The city of Fort Smith, Ark., got hit with a double whammy on Friday, as one factory closed down and another faced imminent demise.

Whirlpool Corp. (WHR, Fortune 500) said it will shut down its factory next year, putting about 1,000 people will be out of work, in addition to the 800 lay offs that have already occurred at the appliance plant.

On the same day, Fortis Plastics shuttered its doors, resulting in another 90 lost jobs.

Mayor Sandy Sanders, who worked at Whirlpool for 32 years in human resources, acknowledged the “dwindling” demand in the area of manufacturing, noting that 5,000 people had worked at the factory when he retired in 1998.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Many big banks are lining up to assure customers they won’t impose the debit card fees that have sparked a backlash against Bank of America.

According to a person familiar with the company’s plans, JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500), the country’s biggest bank, has decided not to charge customers for debit card purchases. The decision follows a test of the fee the bank began in two states in February. That test will be dropped in November.

The Wall Street Journal first reported Chase’s decision on Friday.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Sam Palmisano will step down as IBM’s CEO at the end of the year and will be replaced by longtime company executive Ginni Rometty.

Palmisano’s tenure was an extremely successful one: After taking the tech giant’s reins from Lou Gerstner in 2002, Palmisano transformed the company from a systems and services firm into a supercomputing and analytics mega-machine.

The makeover paid off. Shares have soared 73% during Palmisano’s tenure and IBM’s revenues have more than quadrupled in his nearly 10 years at the helm.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Shares of McDonald’s are trading at a new all-time high after the global fast food chain managed to impress with strong earnings and sales numbers across all its markets.

Fast food chains tend to benefit during recessionary economic periods as many people scale back and trade down. Recent menu expansion and innovation is also a big factor, fueling McDonald’s (MCD, Fortune 500) growth.

Chipotle (CMG) is also a fast food chain in its heart, but the industry is not the only tailwind going for them. The introduction of naturally raised and hormone free meat in its products appeal to a wide range of customers and help the company to ride on its own secular trend.

(Reuters) – Wal-Mart Stores Inc Vice Chairman Eduardo Castro-Wright, who heads the world’s largest retailer’s e-commerce and sourcing businesses, will retire on July 1 to spend more time with his family.

Wal-Mart said on Tuesday it aims to name new leadership for those businesses by the end of January, after which Castro-Wright will assist in the transition.

Castro-Wright moved to California last year from Wal-Mart’s home town of Bentonville, Arkansas to be with his wife, who had a heart transplant.

NEW YORK — Wal-Mart is bringing back something its customers have been asking for since the Great Recession: layaway.

The world’s largest retailer, which ditched the pay-as-you-go plans in 2006, is rolling out a holiday layaway option from Oct. 17 through Dec. 16. Wal-Mart is following rivals that brought back the service during the thick of the recession.

The move comes as Wal-Mart’s mostly low-income shoppers are increasingly being squeezed by high unemployment and rising costs. It also comes as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., based in Bentonville, Ark., aims to reverse nine straight quarters of declines at its namesake U.S. stores open at least a year — _ a key measure of retailer’s health.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — When Carol Bartz says she wishes Yahoo “only the best going forward,” she means it — her severance package leaves her with millions of dollars tied to the company’s stock performance over the coming year.

Bartz pulled down a base salary of $1 million per year as CEO of Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500), and piled up tens of millions more in stock grants and cash bonuses. Yahoo ballparked her total compensation for 2009, her first year of service, at a whopping $47.2 million — though most of that is a paper gain based on stock options that may not ever pay out.