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Markets close with modest rally

NEW YORK, March 23 (UPI) -- U.S. markets rallied Friday afternoon sending blue chip stocks modestly higher.

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The U.S. Census Bureau News said sales of existing homes dropped 1.6 percent January to February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 313,000. In Britain, the Nationwide index of consumer confidence slipped three points to 44. Stock were down Friday across Asia, but higher in Europe.

By close of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average was ahead 34.59 points or 0.27 percent to 13,080.73. The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 4.33 points or 0.31 percent to 1,397.11. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 0.15 percent, 4.60 points to 3,067.92.

On the New York Stock Exchange, 2,146 stocks advanced and 880 declined on a volume of 3.1 billion shares traded.

The benchmark 10-year treasury rose 14/32 to yield 2.235 percent.

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The euro rose to $1.3274 from Thursday's $1.3201. Against the yen, the dollar fell to 83.32 yen compared to Thursday's 82.54 yen.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index shed 1.14 percent, 115.61, to 10,011.47.

In London, the FTSE 100 index gained 0.16 percent, 9.24, to 5,854.89.


Tough times far from over in Spain

MADRID, March 23 (UPI) -- Financial analysts say Spain has not reached the crisis level of Greece yet, but troubled times in Madrid are far from over.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has already said Spain will miss financial targets it agreed to reach with the European Commission, The New York Times reported Friday.

Rajoy said Spain can bring its deficit down to 5.8 percent of the country's gross domestic product this year. The agreed upon target was 4.4 percent.

Meanwhile, Rajoy is assembling a budget that relies on a prediction that the economy will shrink 1.7 percent in 2012.

Recently, however, Citigroup said the Spanish economy will contract 2.7 percent this year and 1.2 percent in 2013.

The unemployment rate is nearly 25 percent as 5.3 million workers cannot find a job. There were 1.6 million Spanish families in 2011 that went through the entire year without any household member holding down an official job, the Times said.

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Basically, "The math does not work," said economic analyst Jonathan Tepper of Variant Perception.

"Spain will eventually need a rescue of some kind," he said.

While personal economic troubles abound, the government must also remain solvent. The cost of government borrowing -- as measured by yields on 10-year bonds -- jumped from 4.9 percent in early March to 5.5 percent Friday.

Spain's banks are being kept alive with cheap loans by the European Central Bank, which makes lending possible. But some worry that program will cannot go on forever.

"They are using the banks to artificially fix the sovereign. The banks are doing this to be patriotic and because they have nothing to lose. But what happens in the second half of this year when the ECB stops lending at low rates?" Inigo Vega, a banking analyst at Credit Agricole Cheuvreux told the Times.


Air Canada workers strike

TORONTO, March 23 (UPI) -- At least 90 Air Canada flights from Toronto and Montreal were canceled or delayed Friday because of a strike by ground personnel, officials said.

About 150 Air Canada ground crew workers walked off the job Thursday night followed by baggage handlers Friday morning, prompting cancellations and delays at Toronto's Pearson International Airport and Pierre Elliott Trudeau in Montreal, Postmedia News reported.

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"There's been an illegal job action by a small number of our ground handling employees at Pearson," said Isabelle Arthur, a spokeswoman for Air Canada. "However, the vast majority of our employees continue to do their work and take care of our customers."

Peel Regional Police in Ontario got a call about the strike around 10 p.m. and arrived at the Toronto airport to find about 150 workers gathered at Terminal 1, Constable Fiona Thivierge said.

The strikers were "mostly milling about," she said, adding that people were already dispersing when police arrived.

"They're yelling and chanting and stuff, but there are no signs and they're not disrupting the flow, which is what we were most concerned with," Thivierge said.

The walkout was in response to a bill that passed the House of Commons March 13, preventing the airline from locking out pilots and blocking any legal strikes by members of the machinists union. The legislation, which passed the Senate two days later, affects about 8,600 ground crew and about 3,000 pilots.


Former NBA player indicted for Ponzi scam

NEWARK, N.J., March 23 (UPI) -- Former National Basketball Association player C. Tate George has been indicted for defrauding investors out of $2 million, the U.S. Justice Department said.

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The grand jury indictment alleges George bilked investors out of $2 million to raise funds for the George Group, a firm that was to invest in real estate.

Instead, prosecutors say the deal was a Ponzi scheme in which new investors helped repay earlier investors in the scheme. At the same time, there was no real business to speak of, prosecutors say.

The fraud allegedly took place between 2005 and 2011. George, a former player for the New Jersey Nets and the Milwaukee Bucks, was indicted by a grand jury in Newark, N.J., The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

Allegedly, George used the funds that were supposed to go toward real estate deals for his own personal use.

George could receive fines of $250,000 and a 20-year jail sentence for each count, the Journal said.

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