Business buzzwords: A basket of goods

Purchasing power parity theory states that the exchange rate between two countries should ultimately move toward the rate that equalizes the prices of an identical basket of goods and services in each country; the Economist has suggested that the 'basket' is a ....., which is produced in about 120 countries.

The Bond Market Association has long promoted greater ..... and has worked hard to provide actual price data to investors, supplying all MSRB price data free of charge on its website www.investinginbonds.com.

..... Rules may be Weakened: Federal banking regulators in the Bush administration are poised to weaken the nation's primary law requiring small banks to serve low-income residents in their own back yards through housing investments and development projects.

The next time somebody taunts you for being a gold ....., tell them that the International Monetary Fund believes in gold: fromits website, we read that one ofits principles is, "As an undervalued asset held by the IMF, gold provides fundamental strength to its balance sheet; any mobilization of IMF gold should avoid weakening its overall financial position."

If you want to maximize the amount of money that you are investing (which in turn leads to higher returns), then a ..... mutual fund is for you: more of your money will go directly toward working for you, rather than finding its way into someone else's pocket.

A '..... share' is a stock or security that appears to be of high quality and worth, although the company that issued it is actually worth very little.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is the oldest and most widely recognized stock market index, and the Dow ..... ($104.37) is an exchange-traded fund that holds the 30 stocks that comprise the venerable index.

Although inventory data indicates that U.S. crude and product stocks are at above-average levels, market ..... remain over the possibility that international oil supplies could be disrupted further as a result of political problems in both Iran and Nigeria.

The ..... stalwarts have money to burn: cash generation in the UK's major listed companies is at record levels, and over the next three years, the FTSE350 will generate close to 200bn in surplus cash, according to new research by KPMG.

I'm just on my way out to work when a sudden headache gripped me - could've been one of those migraines that one gets when stock markets fall, which has been coined the '..... Count Theory'.