"Those teams hate being in NIT bracketology, " said John Templon, who forecasts the consolation tournament for his Big Apple Buckets blog.

WSJ: Bracketology's Junior Varsity: The NIT

"We think they (corporate profits) are going to rise by about 50% over the next twelve months, " said Koll, who also forecasts Japan's Topix -- considered more representative of Japan's stock markets -- will climb to 1, 400 by the end of 2013 -- a rise of nearly 17%.

CNN: How can Japan's stock slump actually be "a sign of health"?

In Moscow, the enterprise of scraping the snow off the streets and pavements, forming it into snow hillocks, carting it off in 6, 000-odd snow vehicles for dumping or melting, and finally zapping it with chemicals to speed the thaw is vast and costly (which helps to explain why Yuri Luzhkov, the city's mayor, threatened last year to fine meteorologists who make wrong forecasts).

ECONOMIST: What the snows of Moscow reveal about modern Russia