What to watch: Will Santa be nice to investors?

(Photo: Ben Hider, AP)

NEW YORK -- It's part lore, part statistical sensation. We're talking about stocks rising around Christmas, a late-year seasonal surge that Wall Street dubs the "Santa Claus Rally."

The Stock Trader's Almanac claims it discovered the phenomenon more than 40 years ago. The definition of the Santa Claus Rally differs depending on to whom you talk. From the Almanac's perspective, it encompasses the last five trading days of the year and the first two trading days in January.

Since 1969, the Standard & Poor's 500 index has increased 77% of the time during this seven-session trading stretch and posted average gains of 1.6%, theAlmanac says.

Bespoke Investment Group defines the Santa rally as the 10 calendar days from Dec. 21 through Dec. 31.

"After (Dec. 20), the fabled Santa Claus Rally kicks into high gear," notes Bespoke co-founder Paul Hickey. Stocks have averaged gains on nine of the 10 days, with a total average gain of 1.8%, Bespoke data since 1928 show. The S&P has posted gains during this stretch the past five years.

So how should investors play it? A Bespoke analysis of industry groups that have performed better than the market's 1.3% average gain in this 10-day span since 1990 include: materials, diversified financials, food and staples retailers, autos and auto parts, media, transportation, consumer durables, and retailing.

A word of warning: When the Santa Claus Rally doesn't occur, it often means a bear market is coming or a better time to buy will come later in the new year, the Almanacsays.

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2012/12/20/will-santa-deliver-gains-to-wall-street/1783079/

Hotel websites embrace TripAdvisor, bad reviews and all

(Photo: Red Roof Inn)

It's getting harder to avoid reading TripAdvisor hotel reviews on hotel chain websites.

Last week, the 350-location budget hotel chain Red Roof Inn announced it will incorporate TripAdvisor reviews - whether good, bad or ugly - on its redroof.com website. The average customer pays about $60 a night to sleep in a Red Roof Inn property.

The chain joins a group of about 50 hotel chains that now publish or promote TripAdvisor reviews on their individual hotel websites, believing that they can gain more bookings.

Andy Alexander, Red Roof's president, says that most consumers look for TripAdvisor reviews while shopping for a hotel, so it just makes sense to provide them so they won't be tempted to consider a rival's hotel.

When considering a Red Roof hotel, an online shopper will see a pop-up screen that shows the five most recent TripAdvisor reviews, Alexander says. There's no need to click through to TripAdvisor's website.

"We don't want people to leave our site," he tells USA TODAY's Hotel Check-In. "The worst thing that can happen is they click out to TripAdvisor and see a different property that they'd rather stay at."

Hotel chains help TripAdvisor grow

Red Roof is only the latest hotel chain to decide it's worth the risk of publishing TripAdvisor reviews on its website alongside its own content. Today, about 50 hotel chains have joined the club, according to TripAdvisor.

In the past year, chains as diverse as Wyndham, Best Western and Four Seasons have taken this direction. Starwood, on the other hand, opted to solicit frequent guests to write reviews on its own website; in about a 12-month period ending last October, customers submitted some 42,000 reviews.

Hotel partnerships are helping fuel growth for the No. 1 online review site, which for the July-September period posted revenue of about $213 million.

On TripAdvisor's third-quarter earnings call earlier this month, CEO Stephen Kaufer told Wall Street analysts that TripAdvisor's total traffic grew by around 35% in the most recent quarter.

"Including these latest wins," he told analysts referring to Best Western and Wyndham, "we now syndicate our traveler reviews to more than 500 major travel partners, including more than 50 hotel chains, reinforcing and enhancing the visibility of the TripAdvisor brand as the de facto standard for travel research."

Earlier this month, TripAdvisor revealed that the number of people who view TripAdvisor content on sites other than TripAdvisor has doubled since 2011 to over 300 million per month, thanks to the hotel chains as well as sites such as Kayak.com.

While some individual hotels have more than 8,000 reviews, most have far fewer - but the number is growing, Kaufer told analysts.

"It's getting to the point where it's tough to find a hotel with less than 50 reviews. And that's what we're getting pretty excited about," he said.

More reviews can prompt hotels to improve

For lower-priced chains such as Red Roof, giving TripAdvisor reviews prominence to consumers as well as individual hotel property's management has another potential benefit: incentive to improve.

Promoting TripAdvisor reviews on redroof.com, Alexander says, "gives a little push to those properties who are not rates as high on TripAdvisor to increase their quality and service levels because it's right there in front of the guest."

Hotels with higher TripAdvisor scores tend to get more business than lower-ranked hotels, he says.

Is Alexander afraid of bad reviews? Yes and no.

"Overall, yes, there are risks of a having bad review, but the risk is pretty low if you run a quality property," he says. Consumers, he says, don't expect to read reviews that are positive 100% of the time.

Besides, he says, Red Roof has a program in place where managers of individual properties respond to reviews - including negative ones - regularly. Consumers see those replies as a positive sign that the hotel cares and is listening to them, he says.

The TripAdvisor move comes as the Red Roof chain moves forward with an image update.

The chain, which includes free Wi-Fi in its rates, has next-generation locations that today can be found in downtown Chicago, downtown San Antonio, Texas, and at both San Francisco and Miami's airport. By the end of March 2013, Red Roof will have about 125 renovated locations.

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/hotelcheckin/2012/12/20/tripadvisor-red-roof-latest-hotel-chain-wyndham-best-western/1782313/

Ex-Olympian says escort work related to depression

Three-time Olympian Suzy Favor Hamilton sent shock waves through the running community Thursday by admitting she led a double life, secretly working as a call girl who earned $600 an hour for a Las Vegas escort service.

In a story first reported by The Smoking Gun, the 44-year-old wife and mother from Wisconsin described her call girl work as "exciting." She used an alias but revealed her identity to several clients, The Smoking Gun wrote. She said her husband, Mark Hamilton, knew of her work as a call girl in the last year but didn't support it.

After news of the story spread, Favor Hamilton wrote on Twitter that she made "highly irrational choices and I take full responsibility."

"I am not a victim here and knew what I was doing," she wrote, adding the escort business provided coping mechanisms during a challenging time in her marriage. "I do not expect people to understand, but the reasons for doing this made sense to me at the time and were very much related to depression."

PHOTOS: Suzy Favor Hamilton through the years

Suzy Favor Hamilton is all smiles while running a victory lap after the women's 1,500 meters at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trails in 2000. Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY

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Sports officials expressed shock. "There's an old expression, 'You're as sick as your secrets.' This is a big one," said Nancy Hogshead-Makar, senior director of advocacy for the Women's Sports Foundation, while offering her condolences to Favor Hamilton. The foundation studies how sports influences girls' lives, including sexual behavior. "It is the exact opposite of this behavior," Hogshead-Makar said.

USA Track and Field and the U.S. Olympic Committee had no comment. Calls to Favor Hamilton's real estate agency in Madison were not returned.

One of the most decorated middle-distance runners in NCAA history, she won nine national titles for Wisconsin. After being Big Ten female athlete of the year three times, the conference named the award after her. The Big Ten declined to comment.

Favor Hamilton went on to make the U.S. Olympic team in the 1,500 in 1992 and 2000 and in the 800 in 1996.

Considered a medal contender in the 1,500 final at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Favor Hamilton collapsed on the last lap. She later told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that she fell on purpose because she wasn't going to win a medal in honor of her brother, who had committed suicide.

Favor Hamilton was paid to make appearances at Rock 'n Roll Marathon events to teach runners as part of its legends program. Tracy Sundlun, senior vice president of Competitor Group, said it had not been discussed whether she would continue. "My guess is no," said Sundlun, who has known Favor Hamilton for almost 30 years.

She also was a special guest at a couple of Disney running events, said Andrea Finger, a spokesperson for Walt Disney World Resort. Finger confirmed that Disney had canceled a scheduled appearance by Favor Hamilton for a running expo next August.

Sundlun said he met Favor Hamilton when she was a teen competing at the national scholastic indoor championships. He said she was "inspirational" to marathon runners who came out to hear her story.

Said Sundlun: "Other than this one step off the pier, this is a truly classy person."

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2012/12/20/suzy-favor-hamilton-worked-escort-las-vegas/1783279/