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COLLEEN LONG, JENNIFER PELTZ, Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — An undercover police detective accused of punching out an SUV window during a motorcycle rally that descended into violence was unmasked Wednesday in a courtroom where he was confronted with serious assault charges. But Detective Wojciech Braszczok's lawyer insisted he would be exonerated by the very video prosecutors say incriminates him in the Sept. 29 melee.
Stocks soar on hopes for deal to avoid US default
KEN SWEET, AP Markets Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks soared Thursday, putting the market on track for its second-best day of the year, on news Washington was moving closer to a deal to avert a U.S. government default.
The market has been sharply higher all day. The gains accelerated after House Speaker John Boehner told reporters that the House would take up a short-term extension of the government's borrowing authority. The proposal gives the two parties time to hammer out a broader agreement.
The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 237 points, or 1.6 percent, to 15,037 as of noon Eastern. It was the Dow's biggest gain since January.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 28 points, or 1.7 percent, to 1,685. Only 19 out of the 500 members of the S&P 500 were lower.
The Nasdaq composite index added 72 points, or 1.9 percent, to 3,751.
A potential compromise between the two political parties could not come soon enough. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has said repeatedly the U.S. government will hit its borrowing limit on Oct. 17. That would leave the federal government with enough cash to last just a week or two before a default becomes a real risk.
A short-term extension of the debt limit is "the right approach," said Jack Ablin, who manages $66 billion as chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank.
"It allows politicians to turn down the heat a bit while still keeping the broader issues on the front burner," Ablin said.
In another bullish signal, small-company stocks rose even more than the rest of the market. Those stocks tend to be riskier than large, well-established companies but can also offer investors greater rewards. A sharp increase in small-company stocks means investors are more comfortable taking on risk. The Russell 2000 index jumped 22 points, or 2 percent, to 1,065. The Russell is 20 points below an all-time high it reached Oct. 1.
The market has been sliding since mid-September as Washington's gridlock got investors worried that the U.S. could default on its debt and wreak havoc on financial markets. As of Wednesday the S&P 500 index had fallen 4 percent since reaching an all-time high of 1,725 on Sept. 18.
Fidelity Investments, the nation's largest money market fund manager, said Wednesday it had sold all of its short-term U.S. government debt in an effort to limit money market investors' exposure to a potential default.
There were hopeful signs in the market for short-term U.S. government debt. The yield on the one-month Treasury bill dropped to 0.20 percent from 0.27 late Wednesday.
The yield had spiked from near zero at the beginning of the month to as high as 0.35 percent Tuesday as investors dumped the bills out of concern that the government might not be able to pay them back when they're due. Investors demand higher yields when they perceive debt as being risky.
Among stocks making big moves:
— Teva Pharmaceuticals rose $1, or 3 percent, to $40.20 after the generic drug maker announced it was cutting its workforce by 10 percent.
— Ruby Tuesday plunged $1.37, or 18 percent, to $6.18. The restaurant chain reported a wider first quarter loss than expected, citing increased competition a difficult economic climate.
— Citrix Systems dropped $7.49, or 11 percent, to $59.17 after the company warned investors that its third-quarter revenue and profit will miss Wall Street's expectations.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Poll: Health exchange rollout gets poor reviews
JENNIFER AGIESTA, Associated Press
NANCY BENAC, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The debut of the government's health insurance marketplaces drew a huge audience — and underwhelming reviews.
Just 7 percent of Americans say the rollout of the health exchanges has gone extremely well or very well, according to an AP-GfK poll.
The reaction was somewhat better among supporters of the new health care law, but still middling: 19 percent said the rollout went extremely well or very well.
Among the uninsured — a key audience for the health exchanges — 42 percent said they didn't know enough to judge how well the rollout had gone, suggesting an ongoing lack of awareness about the program in its early days.
Despite the bumpy rollout, plenty of Americans are giving the system a try.
Seven percent of Americans reported that somebody in their household has tried to sign up for insurance through the health care exchanges, according to the poll.
While that's a small percentage, it could represent more than 20 million people.
Three-fourths of those who tried to sign up reported problems, though, and that's reflected in the poor reviews.
George Spinner, 60, a retired government worker from Ruther Glen, Va., said he managed to create an online account and password before he got stuck.
"It kept telling me there was an error," he said.
Reynol Rodriguez, a computer technician from San Antonio, said he was able to do some comparison shopping online but computer glitches kept him from signing up.
"I was very much looking forward to it," said Rodriguez, 51. "That's what this country needs — affordable health care."
Rodriguez pledged to keep trying — just what President Barack Obama has been recommending to those who've run into trouble.
Count Janice Brown, a semiretired travel agent from Prather, Calif., among those who had a positive experience.
After some initial trouble on the website, she got through to a help line and downloaded an application to buy a plan for $1,500 a month for herself and her husband. That's $1,000 less than her current private plan.
"I'm thrilled," said Brown, 61. "The coverage is better. It's fantastic."
Among those who've actually tested out the system, only about 1 in 10 succeeded in buying health insurance, the poll found. A quarter of those who tried to buy coverage weren't sure whether they'd succeeded.
Overall, 40 percent of Americans said the launch of the insurance markets hasn't gone well, 20 percent said it's gone somewhat well and 30 percent didn't know what to say. Just 7 percent said the launch had gone "very well" or "somewhat well."
Even among those who support the president's health care overhaul law, just 19 percent think the rollout has gone extremely well or very well. Forty percent say it's gone somewhat well, and 18 percent think not too well or not well at all.
The survey offers an early snapshot on use of the new health insurance exchanges set up by states and the federal government under Obama's Affordable Care Act. Thirty-six states are using the federal government's site, HealthCare.gov, which the Obama administration says has had millions of unique visitors. The administration has declined to release enrollment statistics, saying that will be done monthly.
White House senior communications adviser Tara McGuinness said the administration is working around the clock "to improve the consumer experience," and she stressed that the poll was taken just six days into a campaign over the coming months to educate people about their options.
She added, "The overwhelming attention from millions of Americans checking out HealthCare.gov during the first few days is a good testament to the interest of Americans in new affordable health options."
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that about 7 million uninsured people will gain coverage through the online insurance marketplaces next year, but the role of the markets is actually much bigger than that.
They were intended to be a 21st century portal to coverage for people who do not have access to health insurance on the job. And that includes insured people as well as the uninsured.
There are three big groups of potential customers for the markets: uninsured middle-class people who now will be able to get government-subsidized private coverage; people who currently purchase their own individual policies and are looking for better deals; and low-income people who will be steered by the marketplace to an expanded version of Medicaid in states that agree to expand that safety net program.
The Census Bureau has estimated that about 48 million Americans lacked coverage in 2012, or more than 15 percent of the population.
Starting next year, the law requires virtually all Americans to have insurance or face a tax penalty after a coverage gap of three months.
Opinions are sharply divided on the overall framework of the law: 28 percent of Americans support it, 38 percent are opposed, and 32 percent don't have an opinion either way, the poll found. When asked specifically whether the government should be able to require all Americans to buy insurance or face a fine, only about 3 in 10 Americans agreed, and 68 percent were opposed.
The AP-GfK Poll was conducted Oct. 3-7 using KnowledgePanel, GfK's probability-based online panel. It involved online interviews with 1,227 adults. The survey has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points for all respondents. For results among the 76 respondents who attempted to use health insurance markets, the margin of error is plus or minus 13.5 percentage points.
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Associated Press writers Andrew Miga and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, and News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.
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Follow Benac and Agiesta on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/nbenac and http://twitter.com/JennAgiesta
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.