1. Some companies allow inventory to become stale through product obsolescence or inattention; it sits on balance sheets, consumes capital to maintain, and is unattractive to potential buyers, and analysts get a good picture of .......... accounting when inventory turns are slowing over time and consistently below industry averages.

2. For widely held, publicly traded firms, dividends are taken as a signal that the firm is financially healthy; but this 'signaling .......... ' is not applicable to closely held firms, where communication between management and shareholders is more direct and signals are not required.

3. New brokers got the desks nearest the noise of the quote board, but as a broker gained experience and stature he got to move further away from the board; most brokers moved out of the .......... to a private office when they had enough experience and customers to justify the move to management.

4. Should the U.S. stock market rally falter, some analysts may try to blame it on the .......... spread, which measures the gap between the prices of U.S. Treasury bills and Eurodollar deposits; this has lately been at its lowest level ever, and that, to some, is an ill omen for interest rates and share prices.

5. Apple is in the .......... : Apple Computer is riding a wave that shows no sign of breaking; on March 6, the Cupertino, CA-based computer pioneer celebrated its highest stock price in over three years, buoyed by the popularity of Apple's iPod portable music player and the company's iTunes downloadable music service.

6. Missouri's commitment to openness in government is clearly stated in Section 610.011 of the .......... Law: "It is the public policy of this state that meetings, records, votes, actions, and deliberations of public governmental bodies be open to the public unless otherwise provided by law."

7. Ours is an era when huge increases in home values and stock prices make people feel richer and cause them to buy more; they spend more of their regular incomes, borrow more or sell something, most likely stocks, so you can imagine this 'wealth .......... ' as a powerful afterburner that's boosted the economy for roughly 20 years.

8. Inventory .......... a combination of employee theft, shoplifting, vendor fraud and administrative error, cost United States retailers over $31 billion last year according to the latest National Retail Security Survey report on retail theft, which analyzed theft incidents from 118 of the largest U.S. retail chains.

9. In the London equities markets, both the FTSE 100 and the FTSE 250 finished both the day and the week on a positive note; volume was a very high 4.1 billion shares traded, explained by a double .......... hour in which both stock options and index futures on the main index expired.

10. With the SMTP forwarding feature, Fetchmail pulled far enough in front of the competition to potentially become a .......... killer, one of those classic programs that fills its niche so competently that the alternatives are not just discarded but almost forgotten.