Interestingly, the last time RL finished lower for three or more consecutive days, including a close in oversold territory, was in the first few days of last month.

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Sandy hit the Northeast region, which typically accounts for 25 to 30 percent of all auto sales in the United States, during the last few selling days of the month when sales are typically strongest.

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Clearly, the market was expecting more, especially after the strongest employment report in three years last month which came on the back of a few months of positive momentum in temporary hiring.

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The memo sent Monday was in response to a letter from the state last month after New York City was one of few districts around the state that failed to meet a deadline to come up with a teacher evaluation system.

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With RIM finally seeing some good news flow in the last few weeks, its shares have shot up by almost 15% this month as confidence returned that the management will be able to deliver on its deadline this time after having missed it twice already in the past year.

FORBES: RIM Is Still Worth $12 As BB10 Nears Launch In January

Hilary Armstrong, the local-government minister, gave councils a warning last month that, unless they proved the doubters wrong in the next few years, Mr Major's lingering idea might well be revived.

ECONOMIST: Schools

When a few cases of swine flu appeared in private schools and universities last month, the government closed down the lot.

ECONOMIST: Swine flu in Egypt

The pair could not even agree on whose fault it was that their meeting in Berlin last month was cancelled just a few hours before Mr Sarkozy was due to leave Paris.

ECONOMIST: Charlemagne