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After the holiday party comes the hangover for retailers: handling millions of returns this week.

With a Christmas season that has seen record e-commerce sales coming to a close, returns should hit an all-time high on Tuesday for United Parcel Service.

The delivery company expects to handle more than 550,000 returns on Tuesday, a record, and up almost 8 percent from a year earlier. Several other days during the first week of 2012 will also top half a million returns, UPS said.

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Disappointing returns from certificate of deposit and money markets accounts are prompting many investors to turn to stocks that pay dividends for income.

Analysts say dividend stocks’ strong performance should continue in the new year but urge caution on betting too heavily on them.

Dividend stocks were once considered best suited for investors who wanted to avoid market volatility. Investors received regular dividend checks but didn’t reap the rewards of significant stock appreciation.

But low interest rates have helped push down yields on CDs and money market accounts below inflation, leaving many investors to turn to dividend stocks that can provide both income and potential for stock appreciation.

“Dividend stocks have really taken on extraordinary interest because the yields are good, compared with traditional fixed income investment yields,” said Scott Wren, a senior equity strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors in St. Louis. “When investors go to roll over (their CDS), retirees or income-oriented people can’t get the income they’re used to.”

Instead of rolling over a CD with a paltry 1 percent interest rate or lower, investors are instead seeking out individual stocks with high a dividend yield - which is calculated by dividing a company’s annual per-share dividend by its share price.

High dividend sectors such as telecommunications, utilities and consumer staples companies tend to be more stable than other sectors and are not as susceptible to the ebbs and flows of the economy, Wren said, which make them good investments for the long-term.

And as uncertainty from the European debt crisis continues to take a toll on the stock market, coal, electric and other utility stocks are outperforming the S&P 500. “The market continues to flock to regulated utilities, a perceived safe haven from the macroeconomic concerns dominating investor sentiment,” Morningstar analyst Travis Miller wrote in a recent research note personal loan for poor credit.

Mark Keller, chief executive officer and chief investment officer of Confluence Investment Management in Webster Groves, said he doesn’t think interest from investors for dividend stocks will cease anytime soon. “I think dividend paying stocks are a good fit in the kind of environment we’re in right now,” Keller said.

Scott Harrison, senior analyst at Argent Capital Management in Clayton, said opportunities exist to find both attractive dividend yields and potential stock appreciation. Investors should look for companies with strong cash balances and those that have a proven track record of growing dividends over many years, he said.

General Mills and Pepsi are two consumer staples companies Harrison recommends that have 3 percent yields. Other stocks that have 4 percent or higher yields are Pfizer, Lockheed Martin, At&T and Verizon.

However, analysts caution that investing in any stock brings risks and investors should follow a diversified approach. Some sectors such as bank stocks saw dividends disappear in recent years due to the financial crisis. And even though some sectors such as utility stocks are considered strong performers, there’s volatility to be found. Ameren’s stock price, for example, dropped from $54.43 a share in October 2008 to $33.59 a share at market’s close on Thursday.

“Just like any other asset class, you shouldn’t put all of your money in one area and equity income is no different,” Harrison said.

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Italy auctioned 7 billion euros ($9 billion) of debt to bring the total raised this week to almost 20 billion euros, underscoring how the European Central Bank is helping the world

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ST. LOUIS • The wrongful death lawsuit against former beer baron August Busch IV was given new life on Tuesday when a Missouri appeals court ruled that the parents of the woman who died of a drug overdose at his mansion could join the legal action.

Adrienne Martin’s parents — Christine Trampler of Ozark, Mo., and George “Larry” Eby of Springfield, Mo. — had sought to join Martin’s 9-year old son in pressing Busch for damages earlier this year, but a lower court rejected their effort. On Tuesday, a three-person judicial panel of the Missouri Court of Appeals — Kenneth Romines, Kathianne Crane and Lawrence Mooney — reversed that decision, saying “they have ‘an absolute right to join’ and are entitled to intervene as a matter of right.”

The decision will give them greater control over legal strategy and accepting or rejecting a $1.5 million settlement offer. It will also make them privy to legal discovery surrounding Martin’s death and enable them to subpoena witnesses.

Maurice Graham, a lawyer representing Busch, said he will “respectfully ask the Missouri Supreme Court for a review.”

Authorities said that Adrienne Martin’s death Dec. 19, 2010, in Busch’s mansion in Huntleigh was an accident. An autopsy put her cause of death as an overdose of the painkiller oxycodone; officials said she also had a high level of cocaine in her blood, and that a hole in Martin’s nasal septum indicated ’several months to a year of cocaine use.”

The incident made international headlines and put Busch back in the spotlight. Busch, 47, took over as CEO of Anheuser-Busch in 2006, but his tenure ended with the sale of A-B to InBev in 2008.

In March, a wrongful death lawsuit was filed on behalf of Martin’s young son by her ex-husband, Dr. Kevin Martin. He later accepted a $1.5 million settlement offered by Busch. Circuit Judge William Syler, who had blocked the parents from joining the suit, put on hold a decision to finalize the settlement until the appeal was sorted out.

Now, Adrienne Martin’s mother and estranged father will join the suit, which will likely set off a dispute over control of the litigation low fee payday loans.

John Heisserer, the Cape Girardeau, Mo., attorney representing Kevin Martin, said he’s “respectful of the court’s opinion and will work to reach a fair resolution for all parties concerned.”

The first dispute will be over the proposed $1.5 million settlement. Heisserer said if Tuesday’s ruling is upheld, he will ask a judge to approve the settlement.

Adrienne Martin’s parents would be allowed to argue whether the settlement is fair. They also could argue for a percentage of the money, if approved.

Legal experts say wrongful death damages paid to surviving children, in this case Blake Martin, typically are substantially greater than damages paid to surviving parents.

Any money paid to Blake Martin will be overseen by a probate court. Busch has said he wants the money to go to the child, not to Adrienne Martin’s parents.

Lawyers for the parents have said they will seek to move the lawsuit back to St. Louis County, where it was originally filed. It had been moved to Cape Girardeau, where Kevin Martin lived.

Steven Beckett, a law professor at the University of Illinois, said a judge will likely referee the disputes.

“The court must act on behalf of the estate of the dead person,” Beckett said.

Matt Placzek, a lawyer representing Eby, indicated to the appeals court that his client, who had been estranged from his daughter, could use the situation to establish a relationship with his grandson.

Placzek didn’t return a call requesting comment on Tuesday. Andrew LeRoy, a Kansas City lawyer representing Martin’s mother, also didn’t return a call.

Peter Joy, a law professor at Washington University, said the situation may put pressure on everyone to agree and resolve the situation, or it may wind up before a jury.

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Italy saw investors more willing to part with their cash Wednesday as it raised euro10.7 billion ($14 billion) in a pair of auctions, a sign that market jitters may be easing as the country presses ahead with its austerity measures.

The lower rates Italy had to pay are the first post-Christmas test of sentiment in the markets over the debt crisis that has engulfed the 17 countries that use the euro, and may be a signal that some of last week’s massive injection of money into the European banking system from the European Central Bank may be filtering through into government bonds.

The scale of the falls in Italy’s funding costs were dramatic and helped the country’s benchmark ten-year bond yield in the markets ease further below the 7 percent level, widely considered to be unsustainable in the long-run.

The Bank of Italy said the average yield on its euro9 billion ($11.8 billion) six-month bill offering was 3.251 percent, half the 6.504 percent rate it had to pay at the equivalent auction last month. And an auction of two-year bonds, which raised euro1.732 billion ($2.3 billion), also saw the yield fall to 4.853 percent from 7.814 percent last month.

“This is an encouraging development, suggesting that the Italian sovereign debt market has pulled back from the dangerous situation in late November,” said Raj Badiani, a senior economist at IHS Global Insight.

“The calmer environment reflects the passing of additional austerity measures and some welcome progress on the structural reform agenda, coupled with the ECB’s decision to provide additional cheap financing to Italian banks,” Badiani added.

Italy is the eurozone’s third-largest economy and is considered too big to save under the eurozone’s current bailout funds. Markets have grown fearful over the past few months that Italy will find it difficult to pay off its massive debts, which stand at around euro1.9 trillion ($2.5 trillion). A further test of investors’ appetite for Italian debt will come Thursday when the country offers more bonds, that could potentially raise a similar amount to Wednesday’s offerings.

Mario Monti, the country’s new premier, got parliamentary approval last week for more spending cuts and tax increases intended to save the country from financial disaster. One of the most controversial aspects of the austerity package is reform of Italy’s bloated pension system.

Later Wednesday, Monti is to chair a Cabinet meeting on a second wave of measures designed to boost Italy’s anemic economy, which is expected to enter into recession in the first quarter of the new year.

As well as a possible consequence of increased confidence that Monti’s efforts will keep the country’s finances on a sustainable path, Wednesday’s auctions could also have been supported as well by a large infusion of credit to eurozone banks last week from the European Central Bank.

There has been speculation that the stronger banks might use the cheap, long-term loans _ on which the current interest rate is 1 percent _ to purchase government bonds that carry higher interest rates and profit from the difference.

That could support both government and bank finances. But it would run contrary to efforts by many banks to lower their exposure to bonds issued by heavily indebted governments.

The markets responded fairly positively to Wednesday’s auctions, with the main FTSE MIB index of leading Italian shares up 0.6 percent _ and the yield on the country’s 10-year bond back down at 6.75 percent.

On Tuesday, the yield had spiked over 7 percent _ a level that is considered unsustainable in the long run and eventually forced Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek outside financial help.

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Japan is crafting ways of using its $1.2 trillion of currency reserves, the world

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For the third time this year, Build-A-Bear Workshop has discovered a potentially dangerous defect in its toys.

The Overland-based toy retailer is recalling 297,200 “Colorful Hearts Teddy Bears” because the toy’s plastic eyes can fall out, posing a potential choking hazard to children.

The news also comes on the heels of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s announcement last week that Build-A-Bear agreed to pay a $600,000 penalty to settle allegations that it previously failed to report a dangerous defect involving its toy bear beach chair, which was eventually recalled in 2009. In that settlement, Build-A-Bear denied the commission’s allegations.

In this most recent recall, the colorful hearts bears — which were made in China — sold for $18 in stores and online from April of this year through this month. No injuries have been reported.

Jill Saunders, a company spokeswoman, wrote in an emailed statement that the bears passed an independent laboratory’s testing evaluation before being sold. But the company then observed that some production runs used ’substandard fabric” that may tear around the bear’s eyes.

“We discovered the issue while doing ongoing quality and safety checks and immediately reported the issue to the CPSC and began the recall process,” she said. “That we have conducted three product recalls this year despite the fact that we have not received a single injury report related to any of those three products clearly demonstrates how seriously we take product safety.”

Patty Davis, a spokeswoman for the product safety commission, said Build-A-Bear reported the issue to the government this week.

“Any time a firm recalls a product, there is potential danger involved for consumers,” she said. “In this case, it involved young children, so we acted as quickly as possible.”

Consumers can return these bears to any Build-A-Bear store, where they will receive a coupon for any other available stuffed animal.

Ed Mierzwinski, consumer advocate for U.S. PIRG , the national association of state Public Interest Research Groups, said eyes falling off stuffed animals and dolls is a well-known problem that can lead to a choking hazard.

“Kids kiss their dolls,” he said. “Kids chew on their dolls. What’s going to fall off first is their eyes.”

Mierzwinski said he’s glad the company issued this recall — and that no injuries have been reported.

Still, he’s troubled by this year’s recalls and the penalty involving the 2009 recall.

“This company — its recent time line — gives me some concern that they really need to review their management and their risk analysis to make sure they are in compliance with the law to protect children,” Mierzwinski said.

RECENT RECALLS

Last month, Build-A-Bear and the commission announced a recall of a pink inflatable inner tube that poses a strangulation hazard if pulled over a small child’s head. The company said it had received one report of a 3-year-old girl pulling the inner tube over her head and having difficulty removing it. The inner tube is 9 inches in diameter.

The inner tube was part of a three-piece Fruit Tutu Bikini swimwear set for teddy bears. It was sold for $12.50 and was available in stores and online from April 2011 to August 2011. About 20,830 units were distributed.

And in August, Build-A-Bear recalled its “Love.Hugs.Peace” lapel pin because the paint on it contained an excessive level of lead. The company did so after initially defending the safety of the product when a California-based consumer health advocacy group raised concerns about it last year.

Besides three recalls in the past year, Build-A-Bear was accused of failing to report injuries from an item recalled in 2009. According to the product safety commission, the toy retailer learned of 10 reports of injury related to its toy bear beach chairs between July 2007 and January 2009. The toy beach chairs — about 260,000 of which were sold over a seven-year span — had sharp edges on their wooden folding frame that regulators said could pinch or even amputate a child’s fingertip.

But the company did not notify regulators of the incidents until two months before a recall was issued in 2009.

Under federal law, manufacturers and retailers are required to report to regulators within 24 hours upon receiving information that a product contains a defect that could create a substantial hazard or unreasonable risk of serious injury or death.

In its defense, Build-A-Bear said it did not have enough information at the time to conclude that the defects could create such a hazard or risk. So it does not believe it violated that reporting requirement.

“When Build-A-Bear Workshop had sufficient information … it promptly began working with CPSC in March of 2009 on the voluntary recall of the toy bear chair,” the retailer said in a statement.

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Illegal voicemail interception and cell phone tracking was a matter of routine at both The Sun and the News of the World tabloids, the brother of a whistle blower at the center of Britain’s phone hacking scandal said Monday.

Stuart Hoare _ the brother of the late journalist Sean Hoare _ told an inquiry into British media ethics that both papers, published by Rupert Murdoch’s News International Ltd., broke the law as part of their “daily routine.”

“The reality was that phone hacking was endemic within the News International group,” Hoare said in a witness statement published to the inquiry’s website. “I know this to be the case because Sean and I regularly discussed this and there are emails in existence which support Sean’s description of a practice referred to during such meetings as ‘the dark side.’”

Sean Hoare was the first ex-News of the World journalist to publicly accuse his former editor Andy Coulson of being at the hub of a culture of wrongdoing at the paper, an allegation that helped ignite the scandal that forced Murdoch to close the British tabloid. Coulson eventually had to resign his post as a senior aide to Prime Minister David Cameron because of the scandal.

Sean Hoare, who suffered from drinking problems, died in July, just as the scandal was exploding. Stuart Hoare told the inquiry Monday that he was testifying because he and Sean “shared a lot of secrets and I felt very, very strongly that someone had to represent my brother.”

The inquiry, led by Lord Justice Brian Leveson, was set up in response to the scandal to examine the culture and ethics of Britain’s press.

So far the scandal has largely centered on wrongdoing at the News of the World, where journalists intercepted voicemails, hacked into computers and bribed police in an effort to win scoops. But the shadow of suspicion has fallen across other papers as well, including The Sun, Britain’s top-selling daily.

Last month lawmakers investigating the scandal published a 2008 email drafted by a News International legal adviser warning that journalists implicated in illegal practices had secured “prominent positions” at The Sun. Also in November, an award-winning reporter Jamie Pyatt became the first Sun journalist to be arrested on suspicion of police bribery.

Hoare said that reporters at the Sun regularly hacked into phones and engaged in a practice dubbed “pinging,” by which police were bribed to trace the location of people’s cell phones.

“I have been asked not to name names,” Hoare said in his statement. “But those involved know who they are and what they have done.”

Hard evidence of wrongdoing at The Sun could further shake Murdoch’s beleaguered British holdings. The Australian-born tycoon bought the paper in 1969 and it has long served as a conduit for influencing British politics.

If The Sun is sucked into the scandal it could further dent the paper’s clout _ and hurt its ability to prop up Murdoch’s money-losing Times and Sunday Times newspapers.

Rupert’s son James, himself under fire over the scandal, has refused to comment on whether he would close The Sun if it was proven that journalists there broke the law.

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The Senate voted Saturday to temporarily avert a Jan. 1 payroll tax increase and benefit cutoff for the long-time unemployed, but forcing a reluctant President Barack Obama to make an election-year choice between unions and environmentalists over whether to build an oil pipeline through the heart of the country.

With the still-reeling economy serving as a backdrop, the Senate’s 89-10 vote belied a tortuous battle between Democrats and Republicans that produced the compromise two-month extension of the expiring tax breaks and jobless benefits and forestalled cuts in doctors’ Medicare reimbursements.

It also capped a year of divided government marked by raucous partisan fights that tumbled to the brink of a first-ever U.S. default and three federal shutdowns, only to see eleventh-hour deals emerge. It also put the two sides on track to revisit the payroll tax cut early next year as the fights for control of the White House and Congress heat up.

However, House GOP leaders held a conference call Saturday with rank-and-file lawmakers in which participants said strong anger was expressed at the Senate for approving a bill that lasted just two months. No specific date was set for bringing the House back to town or for a vote, they said, injecting uncertainty into the next step.

“You can’t have an economic recovery with this,” said Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., of the uncertainty he said the temporary bill would create. “If the Senate is incapable of doing that, we don’t have to accept it.”

A House GOP aide said afterward, “Members are overwhelmingly disappointed in the Senate’s decision to just `kick the can down the road’ for two months. No announcement was made regarding the schedule or plans.”

By 67-32, senators gave final congressional approval to a separate $1 trillion bill financing the Pentagon and scores of other federal agencies through next September. That measure avoided a shuttering of government offices that otherwise would have occurred this weekend when temporary financing expired.

The tax legislation delivers tax cuts and jobless benefits that some Republicans opposed. It also represents a rebuff of Obama’s original demands for a yearlong payroll tax reduction for 160 million workers that was to be even deeper than this year’s cut, extended to employers and paid for by boosting taxes on the highest-earning Americans.

The measure’s $33 billion price tag will be paid for instead by raising fees that government-backed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will charge to back new mortgages or refinancings, beginning next year. When fully phased in, those increases could cost a person with a $200,000 mortgage about $17 a month.

Despite the changes, Obama praised the Senate for passing the bill and prodded the Republican-run House to give it final approval in a vote, which has been expected early next week. He exhorted lawmakers to extend the tax cuts and jobless aid for the entire year, saying it would be “inexcusable” not to.

“It should be a formality, and hopefully it’s done with as little drama as possible when they get back in January” from their holiday recess, he said.

The Senate adjourned for the year after its votes Saturday.

While Obama and Democrats used the fight to portray themselves as defenders of beleaguered middle- and lower-income people, Republicans used it to cast themselves as champions of job creation.

Headlining that was a provision they inserted forcing Obama to make a decision within two months on whether to allow construction of the proposed 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline, which is to deliver up to 700,000 barrels of oil daily from tar sands in Alberta, Canada, to refineries in Texas. The language requires him to issue the needed permit unless he declares the pipeline would not serve the national interest.

Unions have clamored for the thousands of jobs the project could create. Environmentalists have decried the huge amounts of energy it would take to extract the oil. Obama originally announced he was delaying a decision until 2013, which would have allowed him to avoid choosing between two Democratic constituencies before Election Day next November.

When the House inserted the language into its version of the payroll tax bill this month, Obama said he would “reject” the legislation if it retained the Keystone provision. He abandoned that stance this past week as GOP leaders said they would insist on keeping the Keystone language and the final deal jelled.

“The only thing standing between thousands of American workers and the good jobs this project will provide is a presidential decision,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

An administration official said Friday that Obama would almost surely refuse to grant the permit, a stance echoed Saturday by congressional Democrats.

“We feel we’re giving them the sleeves off a vest,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

Democrats said when Congress revisits the issue of renewing the tax cuts and jobless benefits early next year, they would win the political battle because they would be viewed as protecting peoples’ household budgets.

Republicans, though, said they would once again focus the fight on jobs, with some predicting they would try adding provisions to repeal pollution curbs and other government regulations that they say make it harder for companies to hire people.

“There are lots of issues Republicans are interested in as job creators that will still be alive in March,” said Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo.

The tax bill would renew this year’s 4.2 percent payroll tax through February, preventing the rate from bouncing back to its normal 6.2 percent on New Year’s Day. Obama pushed that cut through Congress a year ago as a way to help spark the economy by leaving more money in people’s pockets.

A $50,000-a-year wage earner would save about $170 during next year’s first two months under the bill the Senate approved Saturday.

Obama had proposed reducing the payroll tax employees pay to 3.1 percent next year. The levy is the chief source of revenue for Social Security.

For two more months, the tax measure would also continue current jobless benefits that provide a maximum 99 weeks of coverage for people who have been out of work the longest. Without any extension, the White House said, 2.5 million people would have lost coverage by the end of February.

The bill also prevents a 27 percent cut in Medicare reimbursements for doctors that might have induced some to stop treating the program’s elderly beneficiaries.

The spending legislation carries out budget cuts across government that Republicans won earlier this year and includes GOP provisions blocking energy efficiency and coal dust requirements. Democrats fought off Republican language that would have blocked limits on greenhouse gases and hazardous emissions from utility plants and other sources.

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Amgen Inc., the world’s largest biotech drugmaker, says Chairman and CEO Kevin Sharer will retire in 2012 and will be replaced by President and Chief Operating Officer Robert Bradway.

Amgen says Bradway will become its CEO on May 23 and he will replace Sharer as chairman at the end of 2012. Sharer, 63, has been Amgen’s CEO since May 2000 and was elected chairman in January 2001. He was the president of the company from 1992 to 2010.

Amgen hired Bradway as vice president of operations in 2006 cash advance america. He was named CFO the following year and became chief operating officer and replaced Sharer as president in 2010.

The Thousand Oaks, Calif., company also said Roger Perlmutter will retire as head of research and development Feb. 13.

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