21.   Higher rates can also hurt company earnings by increasing financing costs and dampening consumer demand.

22.   Higher financing costs will force lawmakers to make deeper budget cuts or issue more bonds.

23.   Higher interest rates undermine stock prices by increasing corporate financing costs and making fixed-income investments more attractive by virtue of a higher return.

24.   Higher financing costs also hurt results, because higher interest rates, primarily in Latin America, pushed up refinancing costs.

25.   Investors applaud lower rates because they decrease corporate financing costs and beef up profits.

26.   Investors like lower rates because they can boost corporate profits by lowering financing costs.

27.   It also released figures showing that spending on new houses, cars and home construction continued to climb that month, despite the rise in financing costs.

28.   It blamed lower steel prices and higher financing costs for the drop.

29.   It plans to use the proceeds of the junk bonds to refinance its bank debt, thus cutting its financing costs.

30.   Lower bond prices, which drive up bond yields, could mean higher financing costs for the heavily-indebted companies.