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 housing market ended the year on a positive note with strong sales in December, but a glut of unsold homes will likely push prices lower through much of this year, forecasters said Friday.

Sales of existing homes hit an 11-month high last month and the number of properties on the market fell to the lowest level in nearly seven years, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Unseasonably warm weather may have helped boost sales, but analysts said a strengthening job market and record low mortgage rates should buoy housing in coming months. Still, they were troubled by the high level of “distressed homes” for sale, including short sales of underwater properties or sales of foreclosed properties. Nearly one-third of existing-home sales were distressed last month, according to the Realtors.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Shares in solar power company First Solar fell over 20% in early trading Wednesday after the firm lowered its sales forecast for 2011.

The Arizona-based company, which is a leading maker of thin-film solar panels and also a developer of solar power projects, predicted net sales in 2011 of $2.8 to $2.9 billion. That’s down from earlier projections of $3.0 to $3.3 billion.

The company said the lower sales were due to delays in its projects caused by weather and “other factors,” but predicted a healthy 2012.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — U.S. stocks ended lower Friday, logging the worst weekly losses in two months, as eurozone fears continued to weigh on investor sentiment.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) lost 26 points, or 0.2%, finishing in the red for a fourth consecutive day. The S&P 500 (SPX) fell 3 points, or 0.3% and the Nasdaq composite (COMP) dropped 19 points, or 0.8%, booking their eighth consecutive daily declines.

Worries about Europe’s debt crisis continued to dominate the week amid a series of lackluster debt auctions and rising eurozone bond yields.

Stocks around the world fell sharply as investors grew anxious, with the Dow dropping 4.8%, the S&P 500 losing 4.7% and the Nasdaq tumbling more than 5% this week. That marked the worst weekly declines for all three indexes since mid-September.

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.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — A 4% mortgage sounds too good to be true — and for more than 90% of borrowers, it is.

The average rate for a 30-year mortgage dropped below 4% earlier this month for the first time, hitting 3.94%, Freddie Mac reported.

But at the same time, LendingTree (TREE) reported that the average rate offered to borrowers by its network of lenders was about 4.32%.

Only about 9% of LendingTree borrowers got loans below 4%. About a third got loans between 4.5% and 5%.

Those rates are still low, but a half point rate difference adds about $700 a year to the payments on a $200,000 mortgage.

At some point last year, about 17 million U.S. households had some difficulty feeding everyone in their family.

That amounts to 14.5 percent of U.S. households, according to a report released last month by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The percentage of households who experienced food insecurity in 2010 was virtually unchanged from 2009. But it has risen by about 3 percentage points since 2007, the year the country officially went into recession.

Full Story at Life Inc. – Good Graph Friday: Who’s going hungry

Good Graph Friday: Who’s going hungry

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Brace yourselves, peanut butter lovers — prices are set to spike following one of the worst peanut harvest seasons growers have seen in years.

Prices for a ton of runner peanuts, commonly used to make peanut butter, hit nearly $1,200 this week, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That’s up from just $450 per ton a year ago.

It won’t be long before consumers see this price increase reflected on store shelves.

Kraft (KFT, Fortune 500) will raise prices for its Planters brand peanut butter by 40% starting Oct. 31, while ConAgra (CAG, Fortune 500) expects increases of more than 20% for its Peter Pan brand.

A spokesperson for Unilever (UL), which makes Skippy, would say only that it’s watching the situation “very closely.”

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — U.S. stocks ended a strong week on a low note Friday as ongoing concerns about the European debt crisis overshadowed a better-than-expected report on the U.S. job market.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) fell 20 points, or 0.2%, to close at 11,103. The S&P 500 (SPX) lost 9 points, or 0.8%, to 1,155. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite (COMP) dropped 27 points, or 1.1%, 2,479.

Despite the poor performance Friday, all three indexes posted gains for the week. The Dow rose 1.7%, the S&P 500 added 2.1% and the Nasdaq rose 2.6% over the last five days.

The gains were driven largely by speculation that European leaders are warming to the idea of pumping more money into troubled banks. On Thursday, the European Central Bank announced plans to increase the flow of capital to the banking system.

First, Congress and President Obama can adopt strategies designed to unleash the massive amount of capital that is accumulated but not being invested. There’s some $2.2 trillion in cash in American banks that is not committed to loans. A couple hundred billion has to be held back for bad mortgages, but there’s about $2 trillion that could be used in cash reserves for up to $20 trillion in loans. So, in theory, that would take the world out of recession. And U.S. corporations have about $2 trillion more that they have decided not to invest.

(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 (CNNMoney) — Gold prices continued to plunge Friday, despite the market turmoil that often drives investors to the traditional safe haven.

Gold tumbled $101.90, or 5.9%, in regular trading to $1,639.80 an ounce. It’s the second straight day of steep declines for the precious metal.

According to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Friday marked the first $100 daily price drop since Jan. 22, 1980, when gold plunged $143.50 to $682 the day after having spiked to a record high.

Keith Springer, president of Springer Financial Advisors, said that while gold has benefited from economic uncertainty in recent months and years, it’s primarily been a hedge against inflation.