Black Friday -- For Investors Only; Comet ISON Did Not Survive! Or Maybe It Did ---

Comet ISON did not survive its close encounter with the sun.

A new guest arrived just in time for Thanksgiving dinner, but apparently didn't survive the festivities.

The visitor, a pristine comet called ISON that left its home at least a million years ago, made its closest approach to the sun Thursday afternoon.

But based on images arriving from various spacecraft, the consensus among scientists appeared to be that ISON, like the mythical Icarus, didn't survive its close encounter with the sun.

Or maybe it did? http://www.isoncampaign.org/karl/a-trail-of-questions

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More mundane news: six (6) companies announce increased dividends/distributions.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment decisions based on anything you read here or what you think you may have read here. 

Wal-Mart announced record-breaking Black Friday results; More than 1 million customers took advantage of Walmart's One-Hour Guarantee:

Last year, Walmart served 22 million customers on Thanksgiving Day. This year, even more customers chose to shop Walmart: More than 1 million customers took advantage of Walmart's One-Hour Guarantee which was expanded from three items last year to 21 items this year. From 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., Walmart processed more than 10 million register transactions in its stores. Walmart.com processed nearly 400 million page views on Thanksgiving Day, including customers who used mobile devices and tablets.

The Wall Street Journal

Small-business delay is latest blow for ObamaCare.

The Obama administration's announcement of a one-year delay for small businesses to sign up for insurance policies using the troubled HealthCare.gov website comes as a blow for the administration, which had counted on the new online exchanges to create a competitive, transparent market for coverage.

Small firms, for their part, say they had figured they wouldn't be using the new exchange this year. Many of them are already making other plans for insuring their workers in 2014, often by renewing existing policies or working with an insurance agent.

Rami Essaid, chief executive of Distil Networks, a Web-security business in Arlington, Va., said he would soon renew his firm's health coverage early rather than face a rate increase of as much as 50% next year. "We definitely wanted to shop the exchange to get more selection in our plan," he says. The delays, he adds, "meant we couldn't shop around. It's eliminated my options."

On NPR now, they are interviewing a person that was able to sign up on-line. Can you imagine, NPR doing an interview with a person that was able to order an Apple computer on-line. Wow, this technology is incredible. It's almost as if NPR has discovered for the first time that one can order things on-line. But I digress. Back to the WSJ.

Speaking of ObamaCare, H-P replaces Verizon as host of website. Previously reported.

Payback: Colorado lawmaker quits; faced recall after supporting gun-control legislation.