11.   Those deficits boost interest rates and require larger portions of the annual federal budget be used to pay down the national debt, diverting funds from other potential projects.

12.   U.S. and Canadian interest rates typically move together because the two economies are closely linked.

13.   Worries that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates again next week continued to hang over the market, Wall Street executives said.

14.   Ratings assigned by international rating agencies largely determine the interest rate at which it can borrow from foreign lenders.

15.   Analysts expect interest rates in the United States to rise at any moment in response to unexpectedly strong US employment data on Friday.

16.   The Federal Reserve was in action this week, too -- boosting short-term interest rates another half-point in the seventh in a series of credit tightenings.