The Daily Money: Wall Street bounces back; Spotify Wrapped, Toys R Us return

Hello, Daily Money readers. Jayme Deerwester back with you. We've made it to the half-point of the week. (A bit of linguistic trivia for you: the German word for Wednesday, Mittwoch, literally means mid-week.)

Wall Street is starting off December on a better note than it ended November. As of 10:55 a.m. ET, the S&P, which lost 1.9% Tuesday, is up 1.3% and the Dow has jumped more than 400 points after losing more than 700 points yesterday.

What caused Tuesday's drops? Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said it may stop propping up the markets by purchasing billions in bonds each months before June, its original target, which would set the stage for raising interest rates. Plus, stocks were already weak due to concerns about how badly the fast-spreading omicron variant of the coronavirus may hit the global economy. 

Go to your happy place:  If you once pledged to never grow up and always be a Toys R Us kid, your inner child may be happy to know that the '80s retail icon is opening a U.S. flagship store this month at the American Dream mall in New Jersey – complete with a two-story slide, an ice cream parlor and more than 10,000 toys. 

And now it's time for ...

💡 INSIGHT OF THE DAY: If you're nearing retirement and want to focus on safe stocks, the Motley Fool says Microsoft and Walmart are your best bets. Dividends are paramount to Walmart's board of directors, which has increased payouts every year since 1974. And while Microsoft hasn't built as impressive a dividend history as Walmart, it has increased payouts every year since 2006. 

Other stories you won't want to miss:

1.  Are travel bans worth the trouble? They could slow the spread of omicron but they have repercussions, experts say.

2.  Shelter from the streets:  'Tiny home' villages are giving the homeless temporary options.

3. Can remote work location impact your pay?  Whether it is the regional labor market or local cost of living, where you live has always been calculated into your pay rate.

4. Owlet baby socks discontinued after FDA warning. But parents argue the baby-monitoring device offers "peace of mind." Are they safe?

5. Year-in-review. Our Talking Tech podcast looks back at Google Play's top apps of 2021.

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Mood music: It's Dec. 1, so this Gen Xer is going to have to go with Counting Crows as today's lyrical selection:  "A long December, and there's reason to believe maybe this year will be better than the last." Here's hoping. 

And speaking of musical nostalgia, Spotify Wrapped is back, providing a look at the artists and songs that kept you going throughout 2021. USA TODAY's Brett Molina shows you how to access it.