After pushing stocks to record levels last week, investors on Wall Street turned cautious yesterday ahead of a batch of corporate earnings reports.

During his athletics career, he was known as the Chairman of the Boards. But Eamonn Coghlan was only too delighted to be surrounded by a fleet of real board chairmen in New York last night.

Wall Street pulled back again today in muted trading ahead of the holiday, as another round of reports showed further deterioration in the housing market and broader economy.

MARY Gallagher’s excellent letter on Orwell’s prediction of political correctness (Irish Examiner, May 2) in regard to the ‘New Word Order’ article (Irish Examiner, April 30) speculates that the thought police will follow the language police.