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U.S. stocks are drifting around their records on Thursday as technology stocks keep rising and as Wall Street keeps ignoring the shutdown of the U.S. government. The S&P 500 rose 0.1%, coming off its latest all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 68 points, or 0.2%, as of 1:58 p.m. ET, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% higher and hovering above its own record. Thursdays on Wall Street typically mean investors are reacting to the latest weekly tally of U.S. workers applying for unemployment benefits. But D.C.s shutdown means this weeks report on jobless claims has been delayed. An even more consequential report, Fridays monthly tally of jobs created and destroyed across the economy, will likely also not arrive on schedule. That increases uncertainty when much on Wall Street is riding on investors hopes that the job market will slow by a precise amount: enough to convince the Federal Reserve to keep cutting interest rates, but not by so much that it leads to a recession. “The Fed has been on record that they are very data dependent, and the lack of data from public sources is likely to be problematic,” said Brian Rehling, head of global fixed-income strategy at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. So far, the U.S. stock market has looked past the delays of such data. Shutdowns of the U.S. government have tended not to hurt the economy or stock market much, and the thinking is that this one could be similar, even if President Donald Trump has threatened large-scale firings of federal workers this time around. That left corporate announcements as the main drivers of trading on Thursday. Stocks in the chip and artificial-intelligence industries climbed after OpenAI announced partnerships with South Korean companies for Stargate, a $500 billion project aimed at building AI infrastructure. Samsung Electronics rose 3.5% in Seoul, and SK Hynix jumped 9.9%. The announcement also sent ripples around the world. On Wall Street, Advanced Micro Devices climbed 3.7%, and Broadcom gained 2.2%. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., a major maker of chips, saw its stock that trades in the United States slip 0.3%. Excitement around AI and the massive spending underway because of it has been a major reason the U.S. stock market has hit record after record, along with hopes for easier interest rates. But AI stocks have become so dominant, and so much money has poured into the industry, that worries are rising about a potential bubble that could eventually lead to disappointment for investors. Occidental Petroleum fell 7.8% after it agreed to sell its chemical business, OxyChem, to Berkshire Hathaway for $9.7 billion in cash. It could be the final big purchase for Berkshire Hathaway with famed investor Warren Buffett as its CEO. Fair Isaac jumped 20.7% after announcing a program that will allow mortgage lenders to access and distribute FICO credit scores directly to their customers, cutting out such big credit bureaus as TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian. TransUnions stock tumbled 9.5%, while Equifax slid 7.7%. The stock of the United Kingdoms Experian fell 3.6% in London. Londons FTSE 100 edged down by 0.2%, but indexes were much stronger across Europe and Asia. South Koreas Kospi jumped 2.7%, for one of the biggest gains following the big jumps for Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury ticked down to 4.09%, from 4.12% late Wednesday. By Stan Choe, AP business writer AP Writers Teresa Cerojano and Matt Ott contributed.
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E-Commerce
Six months after Elon Musk left the Trump administration to the great relief of Tesla investors worried about boycotts, the world’s richest man has announced some good news: Sales of Tesla cars are back. Well, maybe. The electric vehicle maker run by Musk reported Thursday that car sales jumped 7% in the three months through September after plunging for most of the year, as people turned off by his embrace of President Donald Trump and far-right politicians in Europe balked at buying his cars. But the jump comes with a significant caveat: Tesla benefited from consumers taking advantage of a $7,500 tax credit before it expired on September 30, a surge in buying that helped all EV makers. In fact, many Tesla rivals saw sales jump more. Fellow EV maker Rivian Automotive reported a 32% increase. Tesla stock rose sharply on the sales news, but then fell into losses as financial analysts expressed skepticism about whether the new number signals a true turnaround, given all the anti-Musk backlash. I dont think most people are any more enamored with Elon now than they were a few months ago,” said Telemetry Insight’s Sam Abuelsamid. “I expect this is more a blip for Tesla than the restart of growth. Even a big Tesla bull, Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities, was cautious, noting there are “still demand issues. Tesla stock dropped 3%, to $446, in early afternoon trading in New York. Still, it was a blowout number with sales hitting 497,099 vehicles versus 462,890 in the same period last year. Analysts expected sales to fall slightly to 456,000. Investors cheered Musks decision in April to leave Washington for Austin, Texas, where Tesla is headquartered. But he is still heavily involved in political and social wars, alienating potential car buyers. On Wednesday, he posted on X that he was canceling his Netflix subscription because of critical comments made by an employee of the streaming services company, which appeared to spark a wave of cancellations in turn. The sharp fall in Tesla stock Thursday was remarkable, as investors have been surprisingly optimistic about the company in recent weeks despite terrible financial figures. Investors drove the stock up 34% in September alone in a bet that Musks planned new, cheaper version of his best-selling Model Y will recharge sales. Musk has also been successful in shifting investor attention away from cars to other aspects of the businessthe rollout of its driverless robotaxi service planned for several cities and its Optimus robots for factory work and household chores. Driving the stock higher has also been Musks apparent renewed focus on the company. To help keep his attention on the company, Tesla’s board proposed last month a new pay package that would allow Musk to earn $1 trillion over the next several years if he meets certain financial goals. The pay package, unprecedented for U.S. companies already known for outsized CEO compensation, recently drew criticism from Pope Leo in an interview lamenting widening income gaps. If Musk meets his pay goals, he could be setting a record on top of his own record. He recently became the first person ever to hit $500 billion in net worth, at least according to rich list compiler Forbes magazine. The 7% sales rise in the last quarter compares with a 13% plunge in the first three months of the year when Musk led Trumps government cost-cutting efforts at the Department of Government Efficiency. In the following three months through June, sales plunged 13% again. The anti-Musk backlash in Europe had also been fierce, with sales plunging 40% in more than two dozen countries after he publicly supported far-right politicians there. Musk called the British prime minister an “evil tyrant” who belongs in prison and told Germans that “things will get very, very much worse” in their country if they didnt vote for the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party. Protests broke out in several cities, including a hanging of the billionaire in effigy in Milan and posters in London likening him to a Nazi. For her part, the Tesla head of the board of directors who approved Musks latest pay package recently told Bloomberg that she is not sure if Musks politics have had any impact on the companys finances. Robyn Denholm has earned nearly $700 million in compensation for serving on the board since 2014, a package that itself has drawn criticism. Tesla reports third-quarter earnings later this month. Profits for the previous quarter fell 16% as the company continued to lose market share to European EV makers and fast-growing Chinese rivals, such as BYD. Musk’s new robotaxi service launched in Austin in June and has had some hitches, with reports of the cabs stopping suddenly for no reason and driving in the opposing lane in one instance. But Musk has said the driverless rides will be available in several other cities by the end of next year. By Bernard Condon, AP business writer
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E-Commerce
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