Breaking News: Jobless Claims and Retail Sales Rise; Lululemon plunging; And Facebook Joining S&P

Breaking news: Weekly jobless claims and retail sales numbers were released this morning. Plus, Lululemon (LULU) falling ten percent. HIlton (HLT) checks in with Wall Street. And, Facebook (FB) getting new investor friends ahead of joining a new club. Before we get the stocks we’re watching, here are today’s business headlines.

The Dow (^DJI) closed yesterday down about point-8 percent, the Nasdaq (^IXIC) and the S&P 500 (^GSPC) were both down more than 1%. The fall's being pegged to some profit-taking ahead of the year end, and increased Fed taper fears on news of a budget deal reached in Washington. The House is planning to vote on that budget deal today. By the way, that deal doesn't extend emergency unemployment compensation for about 1.3 million people whose benefits will likely end three days after Christmas. This leads us to some of the economic news breaking this morning - Weekly jobless claims and November retail sales.

The number of people filing unemployment claims rose sharply last week to 368,000. That’s an increase of 68,000, the highest weekly increase since November 2012. Meanwhile, retail sales increased 0.7% in November. That's the largest increase in five months. The November sales increase is up from a revised 0.6% increase in October.

In other business news, five years to the day that Bernie Madoff's arrested for stealing tens-of-billions of dollars from investors, JP Morgan (JPM) is nearing a settlement with Federal authorities to pay $2 billion - it would fault the bank for turning a blind eye to Madoff's ponzi scheme. According to reports, the settlement would include a deferred prosecution – listing criminal charges, but stopping short of indicting anyone, as long as JP Morgan pays the penalties and acknowledges the government's case. The government will use some of that $2 billion to compensate Madoff's victims.

And Hilton (HLT) hotels is checking back in with Wall Street - the world's largest hotel operator is scheduled to being trading on the NYSE (NYA) today under the ticker HLT. The hotel chain priced its shares at $20 - the high end of its range – raising about $2.34 billion in its IPO Wednesday. According to the Wall Street Journal, the deal values the company at about $31 billion and is the largest-ever hotel IPO.

Now a look at four hot stocks The Yahoo Finance team will be watching for you today.

First, Facebook, which was up as much as 4% and according to MarketWatch, Facebook was the most active stock after hours. The action came after the announcement that Facebook will be added to the S&P 500, and also the S&P 100 (^OEX) indexes. The changes are expected to take place on Friday, December 20th, after the close. The decision follows Facebook reporting its fourth straight profitable quarter in October, one of S&P's criteria.  Shares of a company are said to rise when tapped to be included in the S&P, because many investors track the index and buy shares of companies that enter it. Shares for Facebook are up almost 30% since that botched IPO a year-and-a-half ago.

Next, Lululemon. The yoga apparel retailer released earnings this morning of $0.45 a share beating estimates of $0.41. It also posted revenues of $379.9 million which beating estimates of $376.2 million. Not everything in the report was all roses, though. The company reported estimates for the next quarter at $0.78 to $0.80 a share when analysts were expecting $0.84. And it also expects revenues in the next quarter to be somewhere in the $535 million to $540 million range when analysts were expecting $572 million. Lululemon is in a period of transition right now. Earlier this week it was announced that its founder, Chip Wilson, was stepping down as chairman, and Laurent Potdevin would be replacing outgoing CEO Christine Day. For the year, Lululemon is down almost 8%.

Now, Restoration Hardware (RH), which says unchanged because it trades on the NYSE. The company is expected to release earnings later today. Analysts are predicting Restoration Hardware to post profits of $0.28 a share, which would pummel last year's posting of $0.07. Revenue is expected to grow 37.5% to $390.76 million. Our market guru Mike Santoli says Restoration Hardware has been a hot stock this year and is interesting as a quasi-housing, high-end consumer play. Since its IPO just over a year ago, shares are up over 112%.

Finally RadioShack (RSH), which fell almost 5% yesterday. The drop came after the struggling company announced a new $835 million, five-year financing deal to help it turn things around after seven straight quarterly losses. The company is doubling borrowing costs according to credit sights. The money will be used to help refinance existing debt and leave the company about $200 million of additional liquidity. For the year, RadioShack is up over 23%.

First, came the controversy over the sheerness of Lululemon's Luon line pants in March. Then, it was founder Dennis "Chip" Wilson's comments in November that the company's yoga pants "don't work for some women's bodies." Now, the company's weak earnings forecast released Thursday has sent shares falling. Has LULU lost its appeal with consumers and investors?