1.   Higher corporate borrowing costs and steeper interest rates on credit cards can pinch company profits and depress stocks by slowing investment and spending.

2.   Microsoft Corp. fell to a six-month low amid concern that the software publisher battle with the U.S. Department of Justice will pinch profits.

3.   Price increases are already pinching profits for many agribusinesses.

4.   That could pinch corporate profits and in turn, depress stocks.

5.   The implication is that companies losing market share are having their profits pinched.

6.   But market averages pitched wildly as the threat of rising interest rates convinced many investors that corporate profits may be pinched later this year.

7.   But the session was volatile, reflecting concerns that corporate profits may be pinched if U.S. monetary authorities raise interest rates to head off inflation.

8.   Kodak corners about two-third of the U.S. market, but falling prices have pinched profits.

9.   Meanwhile, investors fretted that higher interest rates in a slowing economy will increasingly pinch profits.

10.   This could pinch profits for refiners and discourage them from producing heating oil in the quantities to meet demand this winter.