The holiday season is now over, and retailers are left to count the receipts as the market eagerly awaits the results. Overall, the numbers are mixed, and it is difficult to get a clear picture of the fourth quarter performance. National surveys are largely painting a dim picture, but post holiday shopping could ultimately push the numbers up and appease financial markets as we head into 2013. According to a Master Card (NYSE: MA) Advisors SpendingPulse report, sales for the two months before Christmas... 

MasterCard, Visa and several major banks agreed to pay $6 billion to settle a lawsuit involving 7 million merchants that accept both MasterCard and Visa. The deal consists of a little more than $6 billion in cash for damages. Visa will pay $4.4 billion and MasterCard will pay $790 million. The credit card companies agreed to decrease their swipe fees for eight months. The fee is paid by businesses for card transactions they process. The temporary fee discount is estimated to cost around $1.2 billion. Lawyers... 

Visa and MasterCard announced an investigation into whether a data security breach at one of the main companies that processes transactions for them exposed private customer information.  The breach occurred at Global Payments, a company based in Atlanta that helps Visa and MasterCard process transactions for merchants.  The data breach could potentially affect one million to three million credit card holders. Global Payments has provided little information on where the breaches took place, how...