The Dow edged higher early Wednesday while the Nasdaq retreated a bit from its record close following data suggesting solid holiday retail sales in 2016.

A MasterCard report estimated overall retail sales excluding auto and gas grew 7.9 percent, with e-commerce and furniture scoring big gains, despite a drop in sales of men's apparel.

Japanese gambling tycoon Kazuo Okada, who is opening a new $2.4 billion casino resort in Manila, said Wednesday he hoped to make the Philippines "the next Hawaii" as he looks to expand his business there.

Venezuela's economic crisis pushed Cuba into recession in 2016 for the first time in years, President Raul Castro said Tuesday.

Venezuela took delivery Tuesday of its third load of new, bigger denomination banknotes, its central bank said, but there was no sign of them in circulation yet despite official promises and mounting public anxiety.

"Seven hundred and ten crates of 500-bolivar notes have just arrived from Stockholm," the bank's vice president, Jose Khan, announced on state television.

The Washington Post, purchased three years ago by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, will turn a profit in 2016 and expand its newsroom, defying the downward trend in the newspaper industry.

A memo to staff this month from Post publisher Fred Ryan, obtained by AFP, said the newspaper has been helped by its digital efforts and will be launching new "initiatives" in the coming year.

Panamanian prosecutors headed to the United States on Tuesday seeking information on the alleged payment of bribes from the Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht to officials of the Central American country.

The Panama attorney general's office said investigators are looking to "obtain details of alleged acts of bribery and use of financial institutions in Panama."

U.S. consumer confidence posted sharp gains in December, with survey respondents saying they had high expectations for business, income and employment in the coming six months,

The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index jumped 4.3 points to 113.7, up from 109.4 in the month before. 

Amazon said Tuesday its connected Echo speakers infused with artificial intelligence were the top-selling products over the holiday season for the online giant.

The devices -- which include the Echo and Echo Dot speakers, introduced in 2014 with "Alexa" responding to voice commands -- are part of a trend toward artificial intelligence in the home, often connecting smart appliances and other functions.

A plunge in the share price of Toshiba over a possible write-down and the bailout of one of Italy's top banks were the biggest ripples in otherwise placid trading Tuesday.

Italy's troubled third-largest bank, Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS), said Tuesday that the European Central Bank has called for it to receive a bailout of 8.8 billion euros ($9.2 billion).