Anna Wintour ended weeks of fashion-world speculation Tuesday when she named Chloe Malle her successor as head of editorial content at Voguebut the most powerful person in the business isn’t going anywhere.
Wintour, 75, remains chief content officer for Condé Nast and global editorial director of American Vogue and the magazine’s 27 other editions. Malle, editor of Vogue.com, may be stepping into Wintour’s low-heeled slingbacks, but she’ll report to the original wearer while taking over day-to-day editorial and creative operations at the U.S. edition. And gone is the storied editor-in-chief title that Wintour held for nearly 40 years.
Malle, 39, is the daughter of actor Candice Bergen and the late French director Louis Malle. She joined Vogue as social editor in 2011, moved on to contributing editor in 2016, and has held her current position since 2023. She steered all digital content for Vogue. In June, Malle interviewed the then-Lauren Sánchez ahead of her wedding to Jeff Bezos.
Vogue has already shaped who I am. Now Im excited at the prospect of shaping Vogue, Malle said in the announcement.
Malle had emerged as a front-runner
Since late June, when Wintour told staff that she was giving up her title, a handful of names to succeed her were tossed around. Among them were Eva Chen, vice president of fashion partnerships at Meta; Nicole Phelps, global director of Vogue Runway and Vogue Business; and Sara Moonves, editor-in-chief of W magazine.
Other names that floated about soon after the job went up for grabs were Vogues fashion news director Mark Holgate, British Vogues head of editorial content Chioma Nnadi, and Vogue.coms digital style director Leah Faye Cooper. Malle and Nnadi co-host the Vogue podcast, The Run-Through with Vogue.
The news that Malle got the job comes ahead of the latest round of shows at New York Fashion Week, starting next week, and amid the Venice Film Festival, which includes a new documentary about her father. Her appointment is effective immediately. Malle’s mother, funnily enough, once played Vogue editor-in-chief Enid Frick on Sex and the City, with some very Wintour-like characteristics.
Malle, a Brown graduate and mother of two young kids, has been outspoken about her liberal-leaning politics, just as Wintour has.
I actually love working with Anna, because I love someone telling me exactly what needs to be done and exactly what she thinks about something, Malle said in a recent profile by The Independent. Theres no indecision. Theres no ambiguity.
Vogue’s past . . . and future
Vogue was founded as a society journal 134 years ago. After Condé Nast acquired it in 1909, it became a traditional industry mainstay with models on the cover, static close-up photography done in studios, and a focus on high fashion and heavy makeup.
Wintour, a risk-taker who took over the title in 1988, saw the mass appeal in a broader approach. She expanded international editions, elevated fashion’s connections to pop culture, and began putting celebrities, athletes, music stars, and politicians on the covers. Wintour went for a high-low approach to fashion and favored storytelling in photo shoots done outdoors.
She embraced then-emerging designers, including Marc Jacobs, John Galliano, and Alexander McQueen, through initiatives like the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund. And she transformed the Met Gala from a small, private fundraiser to a global event and fashions most important night.
Considered the fashion bible, American Vogue has had several notable editors throughout its history. Preceding Wintour were Diana Vreeland (1963 to 1971) and Grace Mirabella (1971 to 1988), among others.
Chloe has proven often that she can find the balance between American Vogues long, singular history and its future on the front lines of the new, Wintour said in the statement on Malles appointment.
Under Malles leadership, direct traffic to Vogue.com doubled, with massive growth across all key metrics, according to the statement on her new job. Site traffic now consistently reaches 14.5 million unique visitors monthly.
The retirement of the editor-in-chief title brings Vogue in line with changes throughout the Condé Nast universe. When Radhika Jones stepped down as Vanity Fairs editor-in-chief earlier this year, her role was replaced by a global editorial director, found in Mark Guiducci. (Guiducci himself was tapped from Vogue, where he served most recently as creative editorial director.) American Vogue joins most every market where Condé Nast operates in the change to a head of editorial content, who reports to a global editorial director.
Though Vogue has editions spanning the world, from Britain and France to China and India, Malle’s focus will be on American Vogue.
Anna Wintour’s own future
As Condé Nast’s chief content officer, Wintour will continue to oversee every brand, including Vogue, Wired, Vanity Fair, GQ, AD, Condé Nast Traveler, Glamour, Bon Appétit, Tatler, World of Interiors, Allure, and more, with the exception of The New Yorker, where editor David Remnick retains control.
Wintour herself does have a boss. She reports to Roger Lynch, CEO of Condé Nast.
In effect, the addition of a new editorial lead for Vogue U.S. will allow Wintour greater time and flexibility to support the other global markets that Condé Nast serves, said a Vogue statement in June.
And it goes without saying, Wintour joked back then, that I plan to remain Vogues tennis and theater editor in perpetuity. She’s been a regular at this year’s U.S. Open, as in past years.
She’ll remain at the helm of the annual Met Gala, a major fundraiser for the fashion wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. And shell stay involved in Vogue World, a traveling fashion and cultural event the magazine began in 2022.
Wintour explained the editor-in-chief shift this way:
Anybody in a creative field knows how essential it is never to stop growing in ones work. When I became the editor of Vogue, I was eager to prove to all who might listen that there was a new, exciting way to imagine an American fashion magazine, she told staff.
Now, I find that my greatest pleasure is helping the next generation of impassioned editors storm the field with their own ideas, supprted by a new, exciting view of what a major media company can be, she said.
AP Leanne Italie, AP lifestyles writer
Artificial intelligence chatbot makers OpenAI and Meta say they are adjusting how their chatbots respond to teenagers asking questions about suicide or showing signs of mental and emotional distress.
OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, said Tuesday it is preparing to roll out new controls enabling parents to link their accounts to their teens’ accounts.
Parents can choose which features to disable and receive notifications when the system detects their teen is in a moment of acute distress, according to a company blog post that says the changes will go into effect this fall.
Regardless of a user’s age, the company says its chatbots will attempt to redirect the most distressing conversations to more capable AI models that can provide a better response.
EDITORS NOTE This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.
The announcement comes a week after the parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine sued OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, alleging that ChatGPT coached the California boy in planning and taking his own life earlier this year.
Jay Edelson, the family’s attorney, on Tuesday described the OpenAI announcement as vague promises to do better and nothing more than OpenAIs crisis management team trying to change the subject.
Altman “should either unequivocally say that he believes ChatGPT is safe or immediately pull it from the market, Edelson said.
Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, also said it is now blocking its chatbots from talking with teens about self-harm, suicide, disordered eating, and inappropriate romantic conversations, and instead will direct them to expert resources. Meta already offers parental controls on teen accounts.
A study published last week in the medical journal Psychiatric Services found inconsistencies in how three popular artificial intelligence chatbots responded to queries about suicide.
The study by researchers at the Rand Corporation found a need for further refinement in ChatGPT, Googles Gemini, and Anthropics Claude. The researchers did not study Meta’s chatbots.
The study’s lead author, Ryan McBain, said Tuesday that “its encouraging to see OpenAI and Meta introducing features like parental controls and routing sensitive conversations to more capable modelsbut these are incremental steps.
Without independent safety benchmarks, clinical testing, and enforceable standards, were still relying on companies to self-regulate in a space where the risks for teenagers are uniquely high, said McBain, a senior policy researcher at Rand and assistant professor at Harvard Universitys medical school.
By Matt O’ Brien, AP technology writer
Another weekend, another extraordinarily cringe CEO moment gone completely viral. In case you missed it, Piotr Szczerek, the CEO of Polish paving company Drogbruk, was caught on video doing something arguably worse than cheating at a Coldplay concert.
The footage, now viewed by millions, was captured at the U.S. Open in New York City before hitting social media. It shows tennis pro Kamil Majchrzak signing a hat, then handing it to a child. But what would’ve been an exciting moment for any kid was ruined, as Szczerek quickly snatched the hat away. The child, of course, looked stunned and upset. He can be heard asking the grown-man-child, “What are you doing?” and begging for him to give it back.
Still, while the kid was visibly upset, and rightfully so, the internet was, unsurprisingly, even more outraged. The almost-unbelievable video quickly made the rounds. It even caught the attention of Kamil Majchrzak, who hadn’t noticed that the hat had been snatched from the boy in real time. With the help of the internet, he found the boy and reached out to him and his family. He posted photos to his Instagram stories, which were captured by Today.com, of him with the child over the weekend. “Together with Brock,” he wrote. “We wish you a great day.”Brock has no doubt recovered from one CEO’s bad behavior, especially given he got some one-on-one time with the tennis pro in the end. However, it may be a while before the hat thief does because, well, the internet doesn’t like entitled CEOs doing sneaky, inappropriate or obscenely entitled things. Case in point: last month’s Coldplay cheating scandal resulted in Astronomer CEO Andy Byron resigning from his position after being ousted online.Already, it seems like Szczerek may have a similar fate. The CEO was quickly exposed, which resulted in a public apology. I would like to unequivocally apologize to the young boy, his family, all the fans, and the player himself, Szczerek said in a post on social media on Monday. I take full responsibility for my extremely poor judgment and hurtful actions.
Regardless, his company ratings on the site GoWork have tanked to 1.4 stars out of 5. At present, the CEO’s personal social media accounts have been deleted.
What’s with all the shady CEO behavior?The second recent incident involving a CEO doing something mega-cringe begs the question: what is up with CEOs acting up in public? While we know that the wealthy are getting wealthier, and with that, perhaps some higher-ups have a greater sense of entitlement. After all, some studies show that certain personality types tend to become CEOs more often. A 2021 Italian study found that even a slight increase in the presence of a certain personality trait led to a 29% increased chance of becoming a CEO. The personality trait? Narcissism.
But it’s hard to say whether CEOs are behaving badly more frequently, or cringe incidents are just being captured more often, as most of the population walks around with recording devices in their hands.
Social media expert and founder of OutThinkMedia Cindy Marie Jenkins tells Fast Company that it’s likely a combination. “Part of what we’re seeing are all the invisible perks that a higher-up experiences, including an assumed level of privacy based on their stature that is all but extinct,” Jenkins explains. “What were the chances that there wasnt a camera near the guy at the U.S. Open? Much lower than the chances there were.”
When it comes to using bad judgment, Jenkins says that CEOswho may have the expectation of privacymay want to take a page out of Gen Z’s book. The generation who has essentially grown up watching social media influencers film people (who may or may not be aware they’re being filmed), reaction videos, and more, know that everything is documented. Some studies have shown that this phenomenon has led to lower rates of teenage drinking, given teens don’t want to be the viral drunk kid.
Jenkins says that kids today carry the weight that “every text message today that could be an embarrassing shared screenshot around school tomorrow.” They also know that when it comes to school, their online activity couldn’t just embarrass them. It could impact their academic careers, too. “It’s known that some universities monitor social media of students, especially highly competitive areas like athletics.”
Mainly, the kids of today seem to understand something that these millionaire CEOs don’t. And, if the internet is judging (and, let’s be real, it is), it really doesn’t matter how much money you have. If you ruin a kid’s day at the U.S. Open, you’re gonna pay the price.
Here’s some good news coming off a long holiday weekend as we head into the fall: If you missed the northern lights (or aurora borealis) last night, you may get another chance to catch a glimpse tonight, Tuesday, September 2, and early Wednesday morning, September 3, in some 10 U.S. states.
That’s on account of a powerful “cannibal” solar storm that hit Earth’s magnetic field on Monday from 1 million miles away, lighting up skies across North America and Europe overnight.
The aurora borealis is the result of a geomagnetic storm that occurs when a coronal mass ejection (CME), an eruption of solar material, reaches Earth and causes swaths of purple, blue, and green in the night sky. This years increased solar activity (and thus, more frequent northern lights activity) is likely the result of an 11-year sun cycle peaking now through next month.
Where will the northern lights be visible?
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) forecasts the best viewing tonight in Alaska and northern Canada, with a high chance of some visibility in northern and midwestern parts of the U.S. The agency is predicting G1 geomagnetic storms (on a scale of G1 to G5), which are considered minor.
According to this map from NOAAs Space Weather Prediction Center, a total of 10 states are in the line of view for the auroras.
They are Alaska, Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Maine.
When is the best time to see the aurora borealis?
For the best viewing, the NOAA recommends facing north, in a spot away from light pollution, between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. local time.
You can track the aurora on NOAAs page, where the agency is providing updates.
Artificial-intelligence company Anthropic said on Tuesday it is now valued at $183 billion post-money, over twice as much as its earlier valuation, as investor enthusiasm towards AI startups stays strong despite some doubts over tech industry spending.
The new valuation is a jump from the $61.5 billion post-money valuation in March this year, where it raised $3.5 billion.
Anthropic said it raised $13 billion in a Series F round led by investment firm ICONIQ.
The “investment will expand our capacity to meet growing enterprise demand, deepen our safety research, and support international expansion as we continue building reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems,” Anthropic said in a blog post.
The startup, backed by Google-parent Alphabet and Amazon.com, has distinguished its work, in part, by building AI models that excel at coding.
Anthropic’s run-rate revenue, which had grown to approximately $1 billion at the beginning of 2025, was more than $5 billion by August.
The startup behind the Claude large language models unveiled Opus 4.1 in August, an upgrade to Opus 4 on agentic tasks, real-world coding, and reasoning.
The latest funding round was co-led by Fidelity Management & Research and Lightspeed Venture Partners, Anthropic said. Other major investors include the Qatar Investment Authority, Blackstone and Coatue.
U.S. startup funding surged 75.6% in the first half of 2025, driven largely by major AI investments and bold bets from big tech companies, putting it on track for its second-best year ever, a report from PitchBook showed in July.
Last month, Anthropic said it will offer Claude to the U.S. government for $1. Claude, along with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, was added to a list of approved AI vendors, the U.S. government’s central purchasing arm said in August.
Amazon is considering another multibillion-dollar investment in Anthropic to strengthen their strategic partnership, the Financial Times had reported in July.
Juby Babu, Reuters
McDonald’s is making some major efforts to bring customers back to the home of the yellow arches. The fast food chain just announced it will bring back its iconic Extra Value Meals starting on Sept. 8.
The addition is extra indeed, as Extra Value Meals haven’t been a part of the menu for six years. According to a press release, the Extra Value Meals will combine select entrées like a Big Mac, an Egg McMuffin, or a McCrispy sandwich with medium fries or hash browns and a drink, for a discounted rate. The chain says prices will vary by location but will be around 15% less than ordering the items individually.McDonalds USA is laser-focused on delivering value and affordability for our customers, and Im incredibly proud of how our franchisees and teams continue to step up to make it a reality, said Joe Erlinger, President of McDonald’s USA, in the announcement.
Erlinger continued, From the $5 Meal Deal to McValue and now Extra Value Meals, were sending a clear message: were here for our customers. McDonalds will always be a place where you can get the food you love at a price that fits your life.
The addition is not the first major effort McDonald’s has made recently to increase foot traffic. In January, the chain introduced the McValue menu, which includes the $5 meal deal, as well as a “buy one, add one for $1” deal. They also brought back the Snack Wrap this summer, and even a nostalgic 1970s meal: the limited-time McDonaldland Meal, which comes with a very vintage collectible.
The extra efforts make a lot of sense. Fast Food chains have been struggling amid lower numbers in recent years. In May, the chain posted its 2025 first quarter sales, which had dropped by 3.6% from the previous year. On an earnings call at the time, CEO Chris Kempczinski blamed consumer “anxiety,” saying, “During the first quarter, geopolitical tensions added to the economic uncertainty and dampened consumer sentiment more than we expected.”However, by the second quarter, which ended on June 30, sales had ticked back up by 3.8%a sign that the added menu items, lower cost meal deals, and other promotions, may already be working in the chain’s favor.
Legal sports betting is still not offered in California or Texas, the countrys two most populous statesand in Florida, the third most-populous, its largely controlled by the Seminole Tribe. But a new venture from Crypto.com and fantasy-sports provider Underdog Sports could open new doors for fans.
The companies announced Tuesday they are teaming up to launch a sports prediction market in 16 states. Fans will be able to buy and sell outcomes of sporting events, similar to how prediction markets are used to bet on elections, Bitcoin prices, or pop culture events. Odds shift with market movements rather than a bookmakers call.
“Prediction markets are one of the most exciting developments weve seen in a long time,” said Jeremy Levine, Underdog’s founder and CEO, in a statement. “While still new and evolving, one thing is clearthe future of prediction markets is going to be about sports.”
The field is already getting crowded. Robinhood, Polymarket, and Kalshi currently offer prediction markets, and FanDuel announced this month it would partner with CME Group to create sports event contracts.
Sports betting itself is a massive business. Last year, Americans wagered $150 billion in legal sportsbooks, a 22.2% jump from 2023, according to the American Gaming Association. The growth of online gambling has also brought more casual players into the fold.
Prediction markets, however, exist in a legal grey zone, with courts and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) still determining their status. Even so, sites continue to expand and develop loyal users.
Polymarket, one of the largest players, shut down its U.S. operations in 2022 over licensing issues and concerns about manipulation. It relaunched in July of this year after acquiring QCX, a CFTC-licensed derivatives exchange, and QC Clearing, a $112 million clearinghouse. Earlier this summer, the Justice Department and CFTC closed their investigations into the platform.
“Demand is greater than evernot just in user growth and trading volume, but in how mainstream audiences are turning to Polymarket,” said founder and CEO Shayne Coplan at the time.
The Crypto.comUnderdog market will try to sidestep those problems by offering contracts through Crypto.com’s Derivatives North America, a CFTC-registered exchange. Underdog will host the platform and continue to run its fantasy sports business.
Users will be able to predict outcomes for the NFL, college football, the NBA, and Major League Baseball, with more leagues expected. The companies plan to first target states without legal sports betting, but described the platform as “federally compliant,” hinting at ambitions for nationwide expansion.
Citizens analyst Jordan Bender estimates the sports prediction market could generate $555 million in revenues for participating companies. Thats small compared to the $13.71 billion sportsbooks made last year, but still significant.
Cindy Eggleton has always believed in the power of a story.
But the CEO and co-founder of Brilliant Cities, a Detroit-based early childhood development nonprofit that supports learning in underserved communities, never expected someone to tell hers. And definitely not in a sleek documentary with a slick soundtrack and plenty of images of other Detroit institutions, such as General Motors, Diana Ross, and the historic Fox Theatre.
Its never been about me, said Eggleton, adding that participating in the Nevertheless: The Women Changing the World documentary series on YouTube was her way of honoring her late mother, Geraldine, who inspired her to speak out and help others in their community.
However, as they face an increasingly uncertain funding landscape, nonprofits are focusing more on storytelling in outreach to donors both big and small and raising production values for videos and podcasts.
Storytelling is how were able to draw people in and get them to connect to a deeper truth about themselves or about the world or a problem that needs to be solved, said Elevate Prize Foundation CEO Carolina Garcia Jayaram. Its connecting those issues back to you as a human and not saying, Well, thats their problem. Thats all the way over there. The story allows it to be human.
Elevate Prize Foundation launches its own storytelling arm
The foundation launched the production house Elevate Studios earlier this year to tell more of those stories, Garcia Jayaram said. Nevertheless: The Women Changing the World, Elevate Studios first series, has already generated more than 3 million views on YouTube and will debut its second season in the fall of 2026.
Its been incredible to see the growth weve had on YouTube and how its resonated so quickly with so many people, Garcia Jayaram said. We know were on to something here.
Philanthropic support of storytelling has been ongoing for decades, mostly through donors funding documentary projects. Open Society Foundations created the Soros Documentary Fund in 1996 before the Sundance Institute took it over in 2002, with the George Soros-backed nonprofits continued monetary support. The Ford Foundation formalized its funding plans in 2011, creating its JustFilms program that still supports 25-30 documentary films annually. Earlier this month, Firelight Media, a New York-based nonprofit supporting documentary filmmakers of color, launched the Firelight Fund, which will offer directors $50,000 grants for their projects.
But Lance Gould, founder and CEO of media strategy firm Brooklyn Story Lab, says what Elevate Prize Foundation and others are doing is different. He says it reflects both technological improvements that have lowered the cost of documentary storytelling and the rise of social media, which allows nonprofits to interact with donors directly.
Being able to tell your story well is paramount, said Gould, whose firm works with nonprofits to help them produce their own story-driven content. But storytelling is not only about reaching viewers, its also about having the right message for the right viewers.
He suggests that nonprofits connect their work to larger initiatives like the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals an ambitious list of 17 efforts from eliminating extreme poverty and hunger to guaranteeing every child a quality secondary education by 2030 to attract more attention and support.
How storytelling can strengthen connection
Gould, who was previously executive editor of The Huffington Post and editor in chief of The Boston Phoenix, said everyone can be their own media company at this point.
Thats a point Nicole Bronzan, vice president of communications and content for the Council on Foundations, hopes is not lost in the push for more storytelling.
We dont want people to feel that they have to make big technological investments in order to tell better stories, Bronzan said. We wouldnt want anyone to feel like they have to have a big fancy studio, but certainly the news that folks are investing in storytelling is great for us and for the whole sector.
In a Council on Foundations report released last year, A New Voice for Philanthropy: How Deeper Stories and Clearer Language Can Build Trust, researchers, including Bronzan, reported that people had positive attitudes toward foundations, but most didnt really understand how foundations worked. Bronzan said stories that provide more transparency about how donations are used and how those decisions are made help connect people to a nonprofit and its work.
If youre telling those stories, she said, I can only imagine that people will be more inclined to open up their pocketbooks and say, Oh, OK, these are causes that need my support.
Documentary sparks donations
So far, that has been the case for Brilliant Cities, which saw an increase in donations after Eggletons episode debuted on YouTube.
We have a funder who wants to increase his gift from $7,000 to $100,000, said Eggleton, whose nonprofit turns a neighborhoods vacant homes into community centers with family services ranging from tutoring to mental health support groups. She said new donors have also reached out. Its kind of incredible.
Though Brilliant Cities doesnt rely on federal funding for its services, Eggleton said government aid cuts have made a tough funding environment even tougher because the competition for non-governmental donations becomes even tougher.
Everybodys being told whats being taken away, she said. People are pulling at grant officers and individuals with stock market gains. I think its more than the funding, though. I think its about really recognizing how the world already feels so disconnected and now feels even more so.
Storytelling, Eggleton said, helps reduce that. By focusing on female changemakers, Elevate Studios makes an even stronger point, she said, adding shes been quoting Spanish poet Antonio Machado There is no path/We make the path by walking as she explains the power of the series.
This is the time that we really do need to figure out how we build empathy through stories and not necessarily saying, Youre wrong or youre right, she said. You just show the world what can be and what should be.
Glenn Gamboa, AP business writer
Precious metal investors who hold gold assets are having a good day today. The king of precious metals, gold, has broken through an all-time high and is currently trading at over $3,551 per ounce as of the time of this writing.
The milestone highlights a terrific year for gold so far. Heres what you need to know and why gold just hit an all-time high.
Whats happened?
The price of one ounce of gold hit an all-time high on Tuesday. One ounce of the precious metal passed $3,551 this morning, a new record.
Golds rise post Labor Day is just the latest bit of good news for investors in the precious metal this year. Since the beginning of 2025, golds value has increased by more than 36%. Over the past year, gold has surged more than 42%.
Golds previous milestone was only six months ago in March, when the metal surpassed the $3,000 mark for the first time. It has since surged more than $500 per ounce, hitting todays price of more than $3,550.
Why is gold surging?
There are several factors likely influencing the record-busting price of gold as of late.
The first is that gold is often regarded as a safe-haven asset during times of economic uncertainty. Theres a good chance that when stock markets are falling, gold is rising. Thats because investors seek safe-haven assets that are less volatile than stocks.
This year has been marked by uncertainty. Since President Trump took office for the second time in January and unleashed his tariffs upon the world in the spring, geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty have spread across the globe, worrying investors.
Such uncertainty has prompted some investors to seek safe-haven assets, such as gold.
A potential crisis for the Fed
But gold is likely also rising thanks to more recent Trump-fueled events, too. Specifically, President Trump has recently intensified his attacks on the Federal Reserve, increasing his criticism of the central bank and its monetary policies, particularly regarding interest rates, which the president believes are too high.
In his war with the Fed, Trump has vocalized his desire to see Fed Chair Jerome Powell replaced, and, most recently, has announced the firing of Fed Governor Lisa Cooksomething Cook is challenging through the courts.
Many economists fear Trump is trying to destroy the Feds independence and staff it with loyalists who will do his bidding, which would put the faith that global institutions and governments have in Americas central bank. This fear has already impacted the value of the U.S. dollar, which is also considered a traditional safe-haven asset.
The Fed is widely expected to reduce interest rates by 0.25% on September 17. The rate cut, if it happens, would likely lead to a further decline in the dollars value. As Reuters notes, non-yielding gold often performs well in a low-interest-rate environment.
Tariff uncertainty
A final likely reason gold is up in recent days is Trumps tariffs. Not his imposition of them, but the possibility that most of the tariffs Trump has levied against countries since the spring are illegal and thus unenforceable.
A U.S. appeals court vote of 74 on August 29 against the Trump Administration leaves open the possibility that the U.S. government may have to repay most of the tariffs it has collected so far. The ruling casts further uncertainty over the U.S. and global economiesand is a significant factor in why U.S. markets are down on their first trading day after the Labor Day holiday.
As noted by Reuters, the court has allowed the tariffs to remain in place until October 14, and the Trump Administration has already said it will appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, setting up a significant courtroom showdown that could greatly curtailor reinforceTrumps power.
Until then, investors seem to believe that gold may be one of the best bets as a hedge against the ongoing economic uncertainty.
U.S. stocks are tumbling on Tuesday, and some of Wall Street’s biggest stars are leading the way lower.The S&P 500 sank 1.2% and was on track for its worst loss in a month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 498 points, or 1.1%, as of 9:37 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was down a market-leading 1.4%. All three are still close to their recently set records.Nvidia and other companies that have benefited from the frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology were some of the heaviest weights on the market. They have soared for years on expectations that they’re at the vanguard of the next revolution for the global economy. But they’ve also shot so high that critics say their prices have simply become too expensive.Nvidia, whose chips are powering much of the move into AI, fell 2.3%. Broadcom, another chip giant, fell 2.1%.The overall stock market was feeling pressure from rising yields in the bond market, where the 10-year Treasury yield climbed to 4.27% from 4.23% late Friday. When bonds are paying more in interest, investors are less willing to pay high prices for stocks.Longer-term bond yields are on the rise around the world, in part because of worries about how difficult it will be for governments to repay their growing mountains of debt.In the United States, Treasury yields are feeling additional pressure from President Donald Trump’s attacks on the Federal Reserve for not cutting interest rates sooner. The fear is that a less independent Fed will be less likely to make the unpopular decisions needed to keep inflation under control, such as keeping short-term interest rates higher than investors would like.Tuesday was also the first opportunity for trading in the U.S. Treasury market after a federal appeals court ruled that Trump overstepped his legal authority when announcing sweeping tariffs on almost every country on Earth, though it left the tariffs in place for now. While the tariffs have created confusion and may have hurt the U.S. job market, they also have brought in revenue that could help the U.S. government pay some of its debt.In another signal about increasing worries in financial markets, the price of gold rose 1% and was near its record. The metal has often provided a haven for investors in times of uncertainty.On Wall Street, Constellation Brands tumbled 6.4% after the beer, wine and spirits company warned that it’s seen a slowdown in purchases of its high-end beers, particularly among its Hispanic customers. That pushed it to slash its forecast for profit this fiscal year.Kraft Heinz slipped 1.4% after announcing that it’s splitting into two, a decade after a merger of the brands created one of the biggest food companies on the planet.One of the companies will include shelf stable meals and include brands such as Heinz, Philadelphia cream cheese and Kraft Mac & Cheese. The other will include the Oscar Mayer, Kraft Singles and Lunchables brands. The official names of the two companies will be released later.Among the market’s few gainers was PepsiCo, which jumped 3.5% after an investment firm said it sent suggestions to the company’s board to reaccelerate its growth and boost financial performance. The investor, Elliott Management, has a history of buying into companies and then pushing for big changes that can lead to better stock performance.In stock markets abroad, indexes slumped across Europe, with Germany’s DAX losing 2%. That was after a more mixed finish in Asia, where indexes rose 0.9% in Seoul but fell 0.5% in Hong Kong.
AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
Stan Choe, AP Business Writer
