A Week's Worth: Quick takes on the world of work and money.

A Dow rebound, a last-minute rush for gift cards, and 'going green' goes out the window for vacationers.

On the rebound again, the Dow Jones Industrial Average followed the Nasdaq and the Standard & Poor's 500 and rose 110 points, or 0.8 percent, last week.

The time to shop for Christmas is down to the final few hours, and still you haven't bought the last couple of presents: What are your remaining options? Think gift cards, says Blackhawk Network, a leading provider of prepaid, "card-based financial solutions." It polled adults online earlier this month and says 93 percent of respondents reported buying gift cards at least once, and 91 percent of those who'd received such cards used them on themselves.

Going skiing this holiday season? Or perhaps to the tropics? If you're like the majority of respondents to a poll by online reservations service Luxique.com, you'll suspend your concern for the environment until you return. Eighty-four percent said "no" to paying extra to help a hotel or resort go "green." Also out: passing up the complementary toiletries and requesting smaller portions at mealtime. The most anyone said he'd do was use the towels more than once.

While Internet access has proven itself an attractive feature for cellphone users, more of them have been telling pollsters that they'd rather their next one have Global Positioning System capability instead. Market researcher Leo Shapiro & Associates found that 94 percent of those surveyed had heard of GPS, but only 6 percent had it installed on their phones. Of those without, 24 percent said they wanted it versus 19 percent who'd prefer Web access.

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