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Stocks moved slightly lower in midday Friday trading as investors returned from the Christmas holiday. Trading is expected to be light. The S&P 500 index was down 0.1% as of 12:15 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite was down less than 0.1%. Institutional investors are largely closed out of their positions for the year. The S&P 500 has climbed nearly 18% this year, helped by the deregulatory policies of the Trump administration as well as investor optimism about the future of artificial intelligence. Gold and silver prices continued to climb, with silver rising more than 7% to $76.88 an ounce. Gold was up 1.4%. Both precious metals have risen this year as investors have looked for safe havens outside of stocks and bonds, and silver has also risen sharply due supply constraints. Miners like Freeport-McMoRan were among the biggest gainers Friday. Earlier surges in gold prices partly reflected worries during the U.S. government shutdown. Expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will cut interest rates further in the new year, weakening the dollar against other currencies, have also fueled buying of gold. Shares of Target rose 2% after The Financial Times reported that an activist investor is taking a stake in the retail giant. U.S. crude oil fell nearly 2% and Brent crude fell more than 1%. Markets in Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, and Indonesia were closed. Most European markets remained closed Friday.
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E-Commerce
A number of airlines are waiving change fees ahead of what is expected to be a major winter storm forecast to hit the Northeast on Friday afternoon, affecting millions of people traveling after Christmas, during one of the busiest times of the year. A winter storm warning from the National Weather Service (NWS) is in effect for New York City, New Jersey, and Connecticut from Friday afternoon through Saturday, for up to 9 inches of snow and freezing temperatures, creating the potential hazardous travel conditions, flight delays, and cancellations. 1-6 inches of snow is expected from northeastern Pennsylvania up into New England; while freezing rain and sleet, are expected south into Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and West Virginia. American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and JetBlue Airways have issued fee waivers for travelers flying into a number of airports including, New Yorks John F. Kennedy International Airport, New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport, and Philadelphia International Airport, according to CNBC. The big three carriers, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and American Airlines, have issued travel alert for the following airports, and are allowing those whose plans may be affected, to rebook without change fees. DELTA AIR LINES Airports: New York, NY (JFK), New York, NY (LGA), Newark, NJ (EWR) , Philadelphia, PA (PHL), White Plains, NY (HPN) Impacted travel dates: December 26-27, 2025 Ticket must be reissued on or before: December 30, 2025 Booked travel must begin no later than: December 30, 2025 UNITED Airports: Allentown, PA (ABE), Albany, NY (ALB), Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, PA (AVP), Hartford, CT (BDL), Boston, MA (BOS), Newark, NJ (EWR), Ithaca, NY (ITH), New York, NY (JFK), Johnstown, PA (JST), New York, NY (LGA), Harrisburg, PA (MDT), Philadelphia, PA (PHL), Providence, RI (PVD), Rochester, NY (ROC), State College, PA (SCE) Syracuse, NY, US (SYR) For tickets booked before or on: December 23, 2025 Impacted travel dates: December 26-27, 2025 Ticket must be reissued on or before: December 31, 2025 AMERICAN AIRLINES Airports: Boston, MA (BOS), New York, NY (JFK), New York, NY (LGA), Newark, NJ (EWR) , Philadelphia, PA (PHL), White Plains, NY (HPN) For tickets booked before or on: December 24, 2025 Impacted travel dates: December 26-27, 2025 Ticket must be reissued on or before: December 31, 2025 For the most up-to-the-minute information, travelers should check the status of their flights frequently. For international travelers flying on Singapore Airlines, the airline has already announced multiple cancellations for flights between New York’s JFK and New Jersey’s Newark airports, and its Singapore and Frankfurt hubs.
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E-Commerce
High-speed rail systems are found all over the globe. Japans bullet train began operating in 1964. China will have 31,000 miles (50,000 kilometers) of high-speed track by the end of 2025. The fastest train in Europe goes almost 200 mph (320 kph). Yet high-speed rail remains absent from most of the U.S. Stephen Mattingly, a civil engineering professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, explains why high-speed rail projects in much of the country so often go off track. Dr. Stephen Mattingly discusses the problems that come with implementing high-speed rail in the U.S. The Conversation has collaborated with SciLine to bring you highlights from the discussion, edited for brevity and clarity. How is high-speed rail different from conventional trains? Stephen Mattingly: With conventional rail, were usually looking at speeds of less than 80 mph (129 kph). Higher-speed rail is somewhere between 90, maybe up to 125 mph (144 to 201 kph). And high-speed rail is 150 mph (241 kph) or faster. Theres also a difference in the infrastructure for these different rail lines. Is there anything in the U.S. thats considered high-speed rail? Mattingly: The Acela train operates in the Northeast Corridor and serves Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. In some parts of the corridor, the Acela runs on infrastructure that accommodates the trains maximum 150 mph (241 kph) speed. Why has the U.S. been slow to adopt this? Mattingly: Except for some in the northeastern U.S., not many cities have enough travel between them and are at the correct distance to support an investment in high-speed rail, because its not necessarily going to take a huge number of cars off the road. Trains are not a replacement for auto travel; they compete more directly with air. High-speed rail competes best with air when the trip is between one-and-a-half to three hours. Within that range, a trains door-to-door travel time is typically faster than air. Thats because of the additional security time required for air travel: sitting around in the airport, the time it takes to load and unload and all of that. For longer distancesmore than three hoursthe trains travel time starts to get noncompetitive with air. Thats because for every three or four hours of high-speed rail travel, air travel only takes one hour. Go lower than thata trip of less than an hour-and-a-halfand cars become the more attractive choice. That said, what are the advantages of high-speed rail? Mattingly: First, the environmental benefit is an advantage. High-speed rail has lower carbon emissions than air travel, especially on a per passenger basis. You can load more people onto a train than most planes. Then, of course, its speed makes it a viable way to commute when compared with conventional rail. Our current Amtrak system, outside the Northeast Corridor, is really a leisure travel mode, as opposed to business travel mode. What large-scale projects are in the works here in the U.S.? Mattingly: Some higher-speed rail is in Florida, and Brightline, a private train company, is proposing to improve the existing line with more of a high-speed capability. Theres also a proposed line in Texas to run between Dallas and Houston. The Texas project has a lot of challenges with eminent domain, which is the right of government to take private property for public use after providing compensation. A federal grant to help fund the line was recently terminated, and a strategic partner pulled out of the project. With delays, costs inevitably begin to increase. Californias high-speed rail project for its Central Valley actually has about 120 miles (193 kilometers) of track laid down. And its working on slowly building that out. There are some other proposals in the Pacific Northwest, but those are more ideas than projects at this point. When these systems are proposed, theyre often positioned as a replacement for auto travel. But Im incredibly skeptical that auto travel will significantly decrease with a new public transit mode that deposits you within a larger metropolitan destination, which may not even have the public transportation to take you to your final destination. Regional networks of high-speed rail could connect more exurban or rural areas to hub airports and enhance economic development in these regions. In this case, a public high-speed rail system could receive public money, just like the federal government has done with the interstate highway system and all the other road investments that weve made over the past century and longer. But Im not sure that high-speed rail will be a solution for congested freeways between cities for any place outside of the Northeast Corridor. What is your central message about high-speed rail? Mattingly: I love high-speed rail as a technology. For specific applications, its beneficial, especially from an environmental perspective. But thecountry has to be very careful in its choices on where those public investments in high-speed rail would actually make sense and be worthwhile investments. So Im hesitant to make large investments without really understanding what the outcomes are. SciLine is a free service based at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a nonprofit that helps journalists include scientific evidence and experts in their news stories. Stephen Mattingly is a professor of civil engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Category:
E-Commerce
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