Bloomberg reports on Scholastic's thundering cries of success with regards to Saturday sales of HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS. The day's tally, according to the publisher? 8.3 million, with 1.2 million sales solely in Borders, the highest single- day sales of any title in the company's history. First-day sales surpassed the U.S. record of 6.9 million copies set by Rowling's sixth book in the series in 2005, New York-based Scholastic said in a statement yesterday.

What's ironic? Shares of Scholastic, which have fallen 5.7 percent this year, dropped 41 cents to $33.80 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading July 20, which makes you wonder just how many sales it would have taken for share prices to go up. But London-based Bloomsbury's shares rose 3 pence to 187 pence, a respite from a 27 percent decline so far this year.