Free Republic

The Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a high last week of 14,684. Let’s consider the reasons for optimism and for pessimism about the stock market from here. REASONS THE MARKET MIGHT GO HIGHER: •The Fed is keeping interest rates so low that it is forcing investors to buy stocks (and real estate) to try to get a return on their money. The Fed has said that this will continue until the unemployment rate gets to around 6.5%, which could be many months from now in the best scenario. This intervention into the markets could theoretically overwhelm the negatives and propel...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Stock futures tumbled Wednesday after economic policymakers signaled that they may be less willing to fund more economic growth through bond purchases. The Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 112 points to 13,020. The Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 12.1 points to 1,396.7. The Nasdaq composite futures slipped 21.25 points to 2,757.75. The Institute for Supply Management will release its services index at 10 a.m. Eastern time and economists expect it to show that growth has cooled compared to February, which came in at the highest growth in a year. But it was the...

CHARLESTON, S.C. – Brad Paisley is recovering after he tripped on stage and took a tumble during a concert in South Carolina. Spokeswoman Darlene Bieber said in a news release that the country star was singing his encore finale — "Alcohol" — when he fell Saturday night, but he got back up and finished his show. He was checked out at a Charleston hospital and released early Sunday morning. Paisley was left with only some bad bruises, but he wrote on his Twitter page that he "hit hard. And I mean freaking hard."

According to a Quinnipiac poll released today (1), Jewish support for President Obama has tumbled to 52%. In January, Obama’s approval rating among Jews was 83%; by September it had fallen to 64%, according to a Gallup poll (2). The Quinnipiac poll asked respondents whether they approved of President Obama’s handling of specific issues. Only 52% of Jewish respondents approved of the way President Obama is handling the economy, and 49% approved of his handling of health care. Among Jewish respondents, only 36% were satisfied or somewhat satisfied with the way things are going in the U.S. today.

WASHINGTON -- New-home sales plunged during November to the lowest level in 12 years. Sales of single-family homes decreased by 9% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 647,000, the Commerce Department said Friday. It was the lowest pace of sales since 621,000 in April 1995, and analysts expect further retreat, given the size of unsold supply of new houses. "There is absolutely no indication that home sales have reached a bottom," Insight Economics chief economist Steven Wood said. Year over year, new-home sales were 34.4% lower than the level in November 2006 -- the largest year-to-year decline...

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS/AP) - Mourning friends, classmates and co-workers are remembering the two young people who died after falling 50 feet off a downtown Columbia building. Shortly after 5am Wednesday, authorities say a taxi driver found the two nude bodies on Laurel Street between Gadsden and Assembly streets. Brent Tyler and Chelsea Tumbleston, both 21-years-old, were the victims, their clothing on the roof four stories above. Authorities have not said what they were doing or why they were on the sloped roof, which is pyramid-shaped metal, and likely was slick on a damp morning. The two were alive when found...

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Police on Wednesday were investigating how a naked couple fell 50 feet from the roof of a downtown office building to their deaths. The bodies were found on the road by a passing cabdriver around 5 a.m. Wednesday. Clothing was discovered on the roof, leading authorities to suspect the man and woman, in their early 20s, may have been having sex. Their identities were not released. "It's too early to rule out anything," Columbia police Sgt. Florence McCants said, but McCants said a preliminary investigation didn't show any sign of foul play.

WASHINGTON - Oil prices fell more than 3 percent Monday, dipping below $70 a barrel amid concerns about weakening demand and rising inflation. Some analysts said the selloff was triggered by profit-taking. "This is demand destruction not on a consumer level. It's demand destruction on a trading level," said Michael Guido, Societe Generale's director of commodity strategy. "The reality of it is that the market was in desperate need of a correction," Guido said. "There was not a big change in the world economy." Still, the International Energy Agency said last week that high prices have pushed oil demand downward,...

PRESIDENT BUSH CRASHES BIKE INTO SCOT POLICEMAN DURING G8 REPRIEVE... A WHITE HOUSE SOURCE TELLS DRUDGE PRESIDENT SUFFERED 'MODERATE CUTS AND ABRASIONS'... POLICE OFFICER SENT TO HOSPITAL FOR POSSIBLE ANKLE INJURY. DEVELOPING...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

CONCORD, Mass. - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) took a spill from his bicycle while riding Sunday afternoon but was not injured, a campaign official said. AP Photo Kerry was riding with Secret Service agents through Concord, about 18 miles north of Boston, when his bike hit a patch of sand and he fell, campaign officials said. "He's fine. They took the bike into the bike shop and he went home," said campaign spokesman Michael Meehan. Kerry was in Massachusetts — he has a home in Boston — enjoying a break from the campaign trail. It...

September was the sunniest on record and the driest since 1997, says the Met Office. The sun shone brightly for an average of six hours a day - the best figure for September since records began in 1961. Just 33m of rain fell during the entire month, less than half the average. England and Wales both enjoyed warmer temperatures than usual of just 60F. But Gravesend in Kent did not have the hottest day ever as was reported in August. That honour went to Brogdale, also in Kent, where 38.5C (101.3F) was recorded on August 10. That was slightly higher...