css - I get this weird symbol in my text in IE

Question

Is there something I can do so that symbol won't show anymore? I do use to break tags in the text, at the end of the word "companies" and at the end of the word "growth".

I appreciate any help. :)

This is the css:

.homepage .simple .article-excerpt {
background: none;
font-family: Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif;
font-weight: normal;
font-style: normal;
font-size: 22px;
line-height: 30px;
color: #fff;
margin-top: 10px;
}

and this is the html

<p class="article-excerpt">We work with the world’s great companies<br>
to catalyze profitable and sustainable growth<br>
through innovation.</p>

and this is how I'm pulling the text from WordPress:

<?php   if ( !empty( $post->post_excerpt ) ) :
    the_excerpt();
    else :
                    false;
                endif;
            ?>