A Week's Worth

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average last week rose to its fifth record high so far this year. Its 1.3 percent gain was the largest since November and reversed two weeks of decline.

• If you weren't aware, you'll have extra time to file your federal tax return again this year – just as you did in 2006. That pushes the deadline back to April 17. It's because the normal deadline, the 15th, is a Sunday, and Monday is a holiday in the nation's capital as well as in Massachusetts, where an IRS regional processing center serves six states.

• Not only has the novelty worn off such business-speak as "buzz," "low-hanging fruit," "paradigm shift," "critical mass," and "integrated solution," but such clichés also have become tiresome, research by the Creative Group staffing service has found. And this is the view of marketing and advertising professionals, no less. Says a Creative Group analysis, "Direct ... statements typically are the most powerful and persuasive."

• Single women have been telling pollsters that they're more comfortable with that status into their 30s than were their mothers. Advertising giant J. Walter Thompson surveyed 5,946 20-something females in nine countries and says the average respondent thinks of herself as more organized than impulsive and more ambitious than easygoing. Still, she wants a healthy balance between her career and social relationships.