Amanda Roberts, an entrepreneur and blogger in Warrensburg, Missouri, hit the stores ahead of the storm that is expected to start hitting the state by late Monday.

CNN: February 25, 2013 -- Updated 1018 GMT (1818 HKT)

On Friday, a series of broad automatic budget cuts known in Washington DC as the sequester are expected to take effect, hitting many areas of the federal government if Congress does not act.

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Thus, with Ireland out of the way and shoppers hitting the malls with abandon, one might have expected to see stocks rise on Monday.

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The Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Chamber of Commerce said the rise was hitting harder because the downturn had gone on longer than expected.

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Companies need to state clearly what they are tying to achieve with their compensation policy, what targets executives are expected to meet and what the rewards will be for hitting those targets.

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It's a few months late, but at least it's hitting the streets for a few less dollars than expected.

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"The expected slowdown is based on some speculation that we're hitting a wall, " says Sucharita Mulpuru, a senior analyst at Forrester Research.

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Hurricane Irene is expected to hit the East Coast this weekend and storm predictions have it hitting North Carolina, then passing near the coast of Mid-Atlantic states before making landfall in New England.

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Among those trends is a steadily improving housing market, which got another dose of good news Wednesday with a better-than-expected rise in new construction starts and building permits in September, both hitting the best levels since July 2008.

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