(Reuters) - From Wall Street to the City of London, "doughnuts" are on the menu this bonus season. While the carbohydrate-packed variety may damage their health, it is the wealth hit from the zero bonus known by the same name that investment bankers increasingly fear. Anecdotal evidence from banking and headhunting sources suggests a combination of market and regulatory pressure has failed to curb the overall amount paid by investment banks.

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(Reuters) - U.S. stocks opened slightly lower on Thursday as investors weighed hints of an improving economy against increasing disorder in Egypt and signs pointing to an end to the recent rally. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits tumbled 42,000 to a seasonally adjusted 415,000, the Labor Department said. The lower-than-forecast claims number added to evidence that Friday's key U.S. non-farm payrolls report would show a jump in employment in January.

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(Reuters) - New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits fell sharply last week while nonfarm productivity in the fourth quarter was stronger than expected, confirmation the economic recovery was strengthening. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits tumbled 42,000 to a seasonally adjusted 415,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday, unwinding most of the previous week's weather-induced spike. Economists forecast claims dropping to 420,000.

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(Reuters) - Major U.S. retailers shrugged off the snowiest January in six years to post sales that blew past analyst expectations, easing concerns that consumers were all spent out after the holidays. Retailers posted a 4.2 percent increase in sales at stores open at least a year, beating analysts' expectations for a 2.7 percent gain and exceeding a year-earlier rise of 3.3 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data.

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(Reuters) - MasterCard Inc's (MA.N) fourth-quarter profit soared 41 percent, beating expectations, as consumers around the world spent more money using credit and debit cards. Revenue rose almost 11 percent to $1.44 billion, slightly above expectations. Chief Executive Officer Ajay Banga said revenue improved from the previous quarter in all regions.

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(Reuters) - Dow Chemical Co (DOW.N) barely blinked at rallying energy costs in the fourth quarter as it tapped fixed-cost supplies from the Middle East and boosted customer pricing by 10 percent. The largest U.S. chemical maker said the higher prices offset $685 million in higher costs for crude oil and natural gas, the building blocks for many of the plastics and paints that are Dow's breadwinners. Shares rose 1.8 percent in premarket trading.

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(Reuters) - BJ's Wholesale Club Inc (BJ.N) may put itself up for sale, under pressure from a private equity firm that may make a hostile bid, and its shares jumped more than 13 percent. The company said its board decided to explore a sale and other alternatives, and that it had hired Morgan Stanley & Co (MS.N) to advise it in the process, confirming media reports from early November that an evaluation was under way.

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Yet while the market leaders are confident the recovery from 2009's deep slump can be sustained, the prospect of speculative money pouring into art, driven partly by rich Chinese investors, increases the risk of boom and bust, some analysts believe. "This bull market trend could go on for some time, supported by China's rising class of super-wealthy, but eventually the bubble will burst, as it did in Japan in the early 90s and the global art market crash in 2008," ArtTactic said in its latest analysis of the contemporary art market.

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(Reuters) - Estee Lauder Cos Inc (EL.N) and Elizabeth Arden Inc (RDEN.O) topped profit expectations and raised their fiscal year forecasts as sales jumped overseas while parts of the U.S. cosmetics market remain under pressure. Estee Lauder, the maker of Clinique, M.A.C. and other cosmetics, saw sales gains in every category and region. The growth was led by the international business, particularly stores in airports and countries such as China and Russia.

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(Reuters) - World food prices hit a record in January and recent catastrophic weather around the globe could put yet more pressure on the cost of food, an issue that has already helped spark protests across the Middle East. Up for the seventh month in a row, the closely watched Food and Agriculture Oganisation Food Price Index on Thursday touched its highest since records began in 1990, and topped the peak of 224.1 in June 2008, during the food crisis of 2007/08.

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