Lululemon CEO Christine Day, at the helm since 2008, is stepping down, sending the beleaguered brand’s stock into a 14 percent plunge while the retailer continues to recover from a costly manufacturing hiccup that resulted in the recall of its top-selling yoga pants. 

"This was a personal decision of mine," Day told the Wall Street Journal. "It's never a perfect time to leave a company you love." She also plans to step down from the board, citing exhaustion from the long work days and not wanting to begin a demanding travel schedule as the brand expands internationally. "We’ll probably hear talk that she was asked to step aside given the big black eye of the see-through pants incident, but she’s not leaving today,” retail analyst Brian Sozzi, CEO of Belus Capital Advisors told Forbes. “There wasn’t a lot of animosity.”Continue reading...

General Motors is recalling more than 50,000 Cadillac CTS models worldwide to fix a loose joint that could cause a rear wheel to become unstable. The recall affects more than 44,000 CTS vehicles in the US (from the 2009 and 2010 model years) with the balance sold in China and worldwide.

The recall shouldn't affect the brand anywhere near the scale of what Toyota experienced with its massive recalls last year. Cadillac, meanwhile, plans to offer a Black Diamond Edition of the CTS this spring. 

Before being rescued by this summer's Cash For Clunkers program, Toyota was having a terrible 2009, with losses -- the brand's first since 1950 -- up to nearly $5 billion. The US government-backed trade-in program allowed Toyota to claim an actual profit, $241 million between July and September, after three consecutive quarterly losses.

But Toyota's tentative recovery during a brutal year for the entire industry could be threatened by their insufficient response to an accelerator problem that has reportedly caused 12 deaths, and has finally forced the brand to recall four million vehicles.

The Toyota site shows no evidence of the massive recall, other than a small, lower left "News Alert," featuring dull black text on a gray background: "Important Information on Floor Mat Campaign."Continue reading...

GM to present restructuring plan to Opel unions. [NY Times]

German Chancellor Merkel declares GM has repaid its bridge loan. [WSJ]

London's 2012 Olympic logo fails at appealing to youth, incites controversy. [FT]

Wal-Mart's online price war with Amazon heats up, as the box store refuses to cede sales. [NY Times]

Shop Direct may bring UK Woolworths back to the high street with a 200-store chain. [Times of London]

Heinz profits fall 16%. [WSJ]

Stork Craft recalls 2.1 million cribs in the largest crib recall in US history. [NY Times]

(More headlines: Playboy, BBC, paid Twitter, TAG Heuer cellphones).Continue reading...