Money Minute: Retailers Ready for Black Friday Deals; Will Interest Rates Head Higher?

Black Friday is drawing near, and so too are some big deals on electronics.

Leading retailers are preparing for battle. They plan to slash prices on some sought after consumer electronics. Best Buy (BBY) and Walmart (WMT) both say they're prepared to sharply cut prices, especially on televisions. Walmart is offering a 32-inch flat screen for $98. It's ordered 65 percent more TVs than last year to have in stores for Black Friday. Meanwhile, Target (TGT) and other retailers vow to match prices on many items.

Here on Wall Street, the focus is on Ben Bernanke, who delivered one of his last major speeches Tuesday night before stepping down as Fed Chairman. He indicated the Fed will keep interest rates near zero for years to come, even if the unemployment rate falls to its target level.

For the second day in a row, the Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI) topped 16,000 Tuesday, only to fall back below that milestone level. The Dow fell 9 points, the Standard & Poor's 500 index (^GPSC) lost 4 and the Nasdaq composite index (^IXIC) dropped 17 points.

You're probably familiar with the Apple (AAPL) store, but how about the Google (GOOG) store? The Internet search giant is opening six showrooms to promote its Nexus tablets, Chromebook computers and other products for the holidays. And even if you're not interested in those items, you might want to try this out: each store will have a large snow globe so you take pictures covered by fake snow.

Microsoft (MSFT) Chairman Bill Gates says the company's board is making good progress in its search for a new chief executive. But Gates choked up at yesterday's annual shareholder meeting when he talked about his long-time friend and successor, Steve Ballmer, who announced three months ago that he plans to retire.

And the reclining chairs say La-Z-Boy (LZB), but the stock says race ahead. Shares of the furniture maker are set to rally after the company beat earnings expectations and raised its dividend.

-Produced by Drew Trachtenberg.