| Guardsmen on smuggling charges
Sounds like the start of a stand up comedy routine. But it's no joke. Because this is our country we're talking about; and the three front runners for the Democratic party nomination really are an African American, a woman and a white "son of the south."As a black woman, I find it quite amazing that, in a year when many thought the big news would be Hillary's very real chance to become the first female president, Barack has entered the scene to give her a run for her money and for a place in history.Of course, both candidates do not want you to vote on the basis of race or gender. But there's that third fella -- the one who stands to benefit from all the recent bickering between the front runners: John Edwards.While the other two square off over "fairy tales" and the relative legacies of Dr.
Stocks pull back after Fed rate cut
A television screen in the Cuttone & Co. booth on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shows the Fed interest rate decision, Wednesday Jan. 30, 2008. The Federal Reserve on Wednesday cut a key interest rate for the second time in just over a week, reducing the federal funds rate by a half point. It signaled that further rate cuts were possible .
So much for the rally
Call it a head-fake or a serious bout of indecisiveness, but markets looked a tad jittery after the U.S. Federal Reserve slashed its key interest rate by 50 basis points Wednesday – up more than 1 per cent within minutes of the announcement only to erase those gains within the final hour of trading activity. In the end, the Dow Jones industrial average ended the day at 12,442.83, down 37.47 points, or 0.3 per cent. At its peak, just after 3 p.m. EST, the blue-chip index was up 1.6 per cent. The broader S&P 500 did a similar about-face, ending at 1355.81, down 6.49 points, or 0.5 per cent. In Canada, the S&P/STX composite index closed at 12,998.20, down 48.23 points, or 0.4 per cent. The banks were the biggest drag here, with Toronto-Dominion Bank falling 1.6 per cent and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce down 2.7 per cent.
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