Wall Street Roundup: Data overload. Facebook phantom.

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Gold: Trading now at $1,374 per ounce, down 0.4% from Tuesday. Dow Jones industrial average: Trading now at 11,165.90, up 1.1% from Tuesday.

Data overload. With the week shortened by Thanksgiving, lots of agencies dumped their statistics this morning. The basic message is that corporate growth is slowing while household growth is speeding up -- a promising thing given the fundamental role that household consumption plays in the economy. Another good indicator is that claims for unemployment benefits dropped more than expected last week.

A message for investors. Henry Blodget explains the real lesson from the current insider trading investigations: individual investors don’t stand a chance.

Haves and have nots. While small banks continue to struggle, big banks are showing a strong recovery,
new data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. show.

Facebook phantom. While shares in Facebook are not publicly traded, some investment firms are creating derivatives that allow investors to bet on the company’s success.

--Nathaniel Popper

Associated Press