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Anchored by Jake Tapper, The Lead airs at 4 p.m. ET on CNN.
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money lead
2013 was the best year for the market since 1997
(CNN) - Moments before the final closing bell of 2013 at the New York Stock Exchange, the DOW squeezed in yet another record high. This year, unlike many in recent memory, is one that Wall Street may be reluctant to let go, because the market kept setting and breaking records throughout 2013.
In all, the DOW closed at a new high 52 times.
CNN's Alison Kosik reports.
national lead
Fast and Furious gun turns up after Mexican resort shootout
Washington (CNN) - A dramatic shootout between authorities and suspected cartel gunmen at a Mexican seaside resort this month has ties to a botched U.S. gun operation.
A U.S. official said Tuesday that investigators have traced at least one firearm recovered at a December 18 gunfight in Puerto Peñasco, just across from the Arizona border, to Operation Fast and Furious.
That's the disastrous operation run by agents in the Phoenix office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
money lead
Will stock momentum carry into 2014?
Contributing editor for Bloomberg Businessweek Roben Farzad talks about the past year in stocks, and what's ahead for 2014.
politics lead
Roundtable: America weary of war
(CNN) - The war in Afghanistan is America's longest, and it may also be its most unpopular.
Support of the war in Afghanistan has plummeted, with just 17% currently supporting the effort, and 82% opposing it, according to a new CNN/ORC poll. That's more than ever opposed the war in Vietnam.
It is also down from 52% approval for the war effort back in December of 2008, a month before President Barack Obama first took office.
So what happened over those five years to change America's mind? And what does it mean for the future of the conflict?
CNN political commentator and New Yorker correspondent Ryan Lizza, senior vice president at the Center for American Progress Daniella Gibbs Léger, and former spokesman for Speaker of the House John Boehner Terry Holt discuss.
sports lead
'Black Monday' in NFL, several coaches sacked
(CNN) - It's been a downer of a day for in the NFL, with more than a handful of disappointing coaches out of a job. CNN's Rachel Nichols reports.
