The start of automatic spending cuts triggered by a White House-Congress debt-hike deal and passed as part of the Budget Control Act in 2011.

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Among individual stocks, Japan's Komatsu rose 2 percent after the heavy machinery maker said it will start selling automatic bulldozers in North America in June, Kyodo News reported.

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Standard features include leatherette seating, a 7-inch LED color-touch radio display, automatic climate control, remote start, power windows, steering wheel radio controls and no less than 10 air bags.

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Instead, they kicked the can down the road, agreeing on huge automatic spending cuts that would start on January 2nd, just as all of George Bush's tax cuts are due to expire, along with a separate temporary payroll tax cut.

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Meanwhile in the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles, Belgium's Nicolas Colsaerts, who needs to finish first or second to clinch his automatic place in the European team, made a good start with a three-under-par 69 which left him tied for eighth.

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Start thinking of ways to pay yourself first, make it automatic and you can be the one that secures a nice, comfortable retirement.

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It would be similarly hard to tinker with automatic rises in the minimum wage, even though that would make sense when, from the start of 2002, France's small businesses will have to observe the shorter working week of 35 hours.

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No longer the automatic safe haven of choice, the dollar has lost around 10% of its value against the euro since the start of the year (and has fallen at a similar pace against the Japanese yen).

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