Business Beat for Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2014

By sarahtr

U.S. consumers will save $61 billion on gas in 2015 compared with this year, the government says. If the sharply lower estimate holds true.

Comcast says the Xfinity TV system’s voice-enabled guide will be an industry first and help its blind and visually impaired customers.

McDonald’s Corp., which has been forced to close some restaurants in Russia, will open its first store in nearby Kazakhstan next year. [Bloomberg]

RadioShack stores will close between noon and 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving after workers balked at being open 8 a.m. until midnight. [Bloomberg]

Thanksgiving food shoppers will find adequate supplies of turkeys but possibly at higher prices, a Purdue University agricultural economist says.

Big banks weighed on the stock market Wednesday, tugging major indexes back from record highs.

U.S., British and Swiss regulators have fined five global banks $3.4 billion for attempting to manipulate foreign exchange markets.

Department store chains Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s have launched same-day delivery in the Chicago area for online orders.

Minneapolis-based Target plans to open its new small-format stores, TargetExpress, in Lakeview and Streeterville. [Crain’s]

Online learning website Curiosity.com has announced an ownership change and $6 million in Series A funding.

Archer Daniels Midland Co. on Wednesday officially opened the sweetener-making portion of a production plant in China.

YouTube is adding a subscription music service and a new format designed to make it easier to find millions of songs that can be played for free.

The automaker will start notifying owners of 189,000 SUVs this week they can take them to dealers, who will replace faulty power window switches.

Groupon has dropped efforts to trademark the “Gnome” name after clashing with an open-source software group of the same name. [PCWorld]

The retailer has sent a memo to managers nationwide pushing them to improve the dairy, meat and produce departments. [New York Times]

U.S. wholesale businesses posted a modest gain in their stockpiles in September as sales rebounded from a big decline the previous month.

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