President Barack Obama announced himself as a candidate for the next year’s re-election through video and mail sent to his supporters on Monday. He hopes economic recovery will increase his chances for a new term.

The announcement sets the plan to gather about $1 billion donations, which would break off the campaign finance record of $750 million he had previously acquired for the 2009 elections.

Obama appears to be in a fairly good shape against his potential challengers from the Republican field. However, many believe it is early to tell yet. The U.S economy is picking its pace to recovery. Yet, there are still various instances that could affect Obama’s chances, which include increasing prices of gasoline and unexpected extension of the conflict in Libya.

Also, the high unemployment rate in the United States became a huge factor in the victory of Republican field in November. Most Americans consider this factor when they vote. But the unemployment rate decreased to 8.8 percent in the last few months.

In 2009, Obama became the first ever black president in the United States. He scored big when reforms of healthcare, as well as financial regulation laws were approved by the Congress last year.

Obama’s fate in the 2012 re-election will highly depend on how he scores with the independent voters, which were an important part of his victory in 2008.

Although President Obama tries to distance himself from actions which can be viewed as ‘politicking,’ each of his moves will be viewed now as re-election plots by the media. In his email, Obama said to his supporters that he will be filing papers to begin his re-election bid in a formal way.

Verizon Wireless says it has more iPhone sales online than in its local store branches. The information disputes the apprehension that few people welcomed the in store debut, which pointed out low sales on the Apple Inc device.

The company started selling the phone on its website last February 3. Since then, the demand for the phone has been at top levels, Chief Executive Daniel Mead said during an interview with Reuters held at the company’s headquarters in New Jersey.

The phone hit the company’s store shelves on February 10, seven days after it launched on their website. Mead said the absence of longer lines outside Verizon Wireless stores on that day could be due to the fact that around 60 percent of their sales were made through its website.

Also, executive said the iPhone has helped greatly increase the pace at which customers changed to Verizon Wireless from its other rivals in United States. At peak times, the device brought its website up to 100 times more orders than the usual.

Mead reiterated the company’s notion that it would sell as many as 11 million iPhones this year. He informed that the company will report their sales figures specific to the iPhone when it releases earnings on the first-quarter.

The launch of Apple iPhones at Verizon ended the three-year exclusive rights deal with AT&T Inc to sell the device in United States. As a result of the added data traffic from its iPhone users, AT&T was overwhelmed with complaints about its performance. However, Verizon said its performance is doing well even with the additional data traffic received from the phone.

Sales in the US retail market slowed abruptly in January, according to the official data released on Tuesday. The weak retail sales were brought about the huge snow storms that affected several parts of the country in the beginning of the year.

From December, sales only increased to 0.3 percent, which shows the slowest rise in the market in seven months. The figures were based on the Commerce Department data that was adjusted for the given time of year.

In fact, the sector adjusted the December rise to 0.5 percent, where it was initially estimated to be 0.6 percent.

The pace in retail sales, as well as food services missed out the 0.5 percent increase analysts foretold, even though many stores featured sharp discounts after the holiday season.

Since January 2010, retail sales have increased to 7.8 percent based on a 12-month period. By December, retail sales merely climbed to 0.3 percent, which was barely half of the rise expected. However, the numbers excluded the automobile sector whose sales vary per month.

Garden supplies and building material dealers were the most affected area in the market. Their sales dived to 2.9 percent because of relentless winter weather and the collapse in housing markets.

The weak start of the year came after an upbeat recovery in the 2010 post recession period. That time, retail sales increased to 6.6 percent, which was the largest yearly increase since 1999.

Consumer spending, whose main indicator is retail sales, determines two-thirds of the economic activity in United States. However, they do not get sales in the area of services, which signify two-thirds of the consumption in household by value.

Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney sees the high levels of household debt decreasing to more manageable levels. However, Carney warned people to remain vigilant.

Carney said an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that the time to give warning is when people can still do something about it, and the household debt side is part of that trend they are concerned about.

In addition, they expect that the pace of household borrowing will slow to something more manageable and consumption will grow more in line with income. The situation might become manageable, but Carney says they still have to collectively stay on top of it.

Carney’s interview with the broadcasting corporation was taped December 15; however it was aired on television on Wednesday.

In the interview, he also said that he had raised the key interest rate of the bank three times between the period of June and September to 1 percent since the economy of Canada performed relatively well in comparison with other advanced economies. Canada’s labor market also performed exceptionally well.

However, the major risk that could affect the Canadian economy in 2011 is the possibility for continued weakness in the U.S recovery. Yet, Carney informed it is unlikely for a double-dip recession to occur in the United States.

He also said that European crisis in debt might also directly affect the Canadian growth through the financial sector. Right now, Canada’s provincial and federal government debt levels are in good shape based on the global standards.