European debt woes stalk markets

LONDON (AP) — Worries over Europe's debt crisis kept markets on edge Monday, following a warning over Italy's credit rating and a failure by eurozone finance ministers to agree an immediate release of bailout funds to Greece.

However, a brighter than anticipated opening on Wall Street helped stocks in Europe to recover from earlier lows and shored up the euro currency — an improvement in investors' risk appetite often gives the euro a lift.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 0.3 percent at 5,699 while Germany's DAX fell 0.3 percent to 7,145. The CAC-40 in France was 0.9 percent lower at 3,137.

All three had been trading even lower as had …

Mayor Daley, City Council asks residents to turn in guns

Parents and relatives of people slain by gun violence, along with clergy leaders, Mayor Richard Daley and the entire City Council, made an impassioned plea before yesterday's monthly council meeting urging residents to turn in their firearms, no questions asked, during a gun turn-in event this weekend.

"Nobody has a better understanding of the effects of gun violence than these friends and family members who are with us today," Daley said referring to the parents of Terrell B�sley, Blair HoIt, Rolanda Marshall, Ana Mateo, Anthony Padron, Starkesia Reed, Siretha White and Willie Williams III, and the sister of Nancy and Richard Langert - all murdered by guns.

After Daley said …

Oil Prices Fall As Inventories Jump

Oil prices fell Wednesday after the Energy Department said crude oil and gasoline supplies jumped much more than expected last week. Inventories of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel, fell less than forecast.

The Energy Information Administration report injected a dose of bearish sentiment into a market that has set new records in 11 of the past 12 sessions. Crude oil supplies jumped by 6.2 million barrels last week, more than three times the 1.6 million barrel increase analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires were expecting.

It was the eight increase in crude supplies in nine weeks, putting oil inventories back on a growth track after a …

Pacers' Miller ailing, but he'll try to play

A sprained right ankle probably won't keep Indiana Pacers guardReggie Miller out of the World Basketball Championship, which beginsThursday in Indianapolis.

Miller got off the U.S. national team's private jet on crutchesMonday and clearly favored his ankle as he limped to a charter bus.He suffered the injury in a tuneup game Sunday against Germany inPortland, Ore.

Miller shouted, "It hurts, but I'm going to try," when he wasasked about his condition and playing status as he headed forphysical therapy.

Pacers forward Jermaine O'Neal, another member of the nationalteam, said he wasn't surprised by that.

"Reggie's a guy that if he's hurt, he never stays …

The Barbell Strategy for Bonds ... Revisited

Last time, we reviewed the performance results of the top 10 percent of bank bond portfolios in the UMB Peer Group. Th e updated peer group results are below and you may wish to compare them with your portfolio.

Th e conclusion from studying the top performers was that a combination of shorter term investments (67 percent) and longer-term, high-quality municipal bonds (33 percent) appears to be the optimum total return bond strategy now �euro* or in other words, the old-fashioned barbell approach.

Th e barbell strategy is certainly not new and has been a classic bank bond strategy taught at banking schools for many years. Always popular because of its simplicity, one of …

Marleau scores 2, leads Sharks over Lightning 5-2

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Patrick Marleau ended San Jose's long scoring drought with two first-period goals, and the Sharks snapped a two-game losing streak with a 5-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night.

The Sharks, coming off shutout losses at Minnesota and St. Louis, had gone 156 minutes, 59 seconds without scoring before Marleau beat Tampa Bay goalie Mike Smith with a short-handed goal at 12:16. He scored again 3:10 later.

Dany Heatley, John McCarthy and Logan Couture also had goals for San Jose (6-5-1), which played for the first time this season without leading scorer Joe Thornton, who received a two-game suspension from the NHL.

Martin St. Louis …

Rob Zombie set to direct episode of `CSI: Miami'

Rob Zombie will make his television directorial debut on an upcoming episode of "CSI: Miami."

CBS says the rocker and filmmaker will bring the Miami crime-solving team to Los Angeles in a story that involves secret tape recordings and …