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NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks nudged higher ahead of a week with several data reports that could dictate by how much or even whether the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at its next meeting in a week. The S&P 500 added 0.2% and finished just below its record set last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.5% to a record. AppLovin and Robinhood Markets helped lead the market after learning they will join the S&P 500 index later this month. Trading across Wall Street was relatively quiet ahead of updates coming later this week on the job market and inflation.

AppLovin and Robinhood Markets helped lead the market after learning they will join the S&P 500 index later this month, along with Emcor Group. Many investment funds directly mimic the index or at least compare their performance against it, so a stock’s joining the list of the 500 largest companies can draw investors’ dollars immediately.

AppLovin climbed 10.2%, and Robinhood jumped 13.4% while Emcor slipped 0.1%. They will replace three companies that have shrunk enough in size to get demoted to S&P’s index of small stocks, the SmallCap 600. Those stocks, MarketAxess Holdings, Caesars Entertainment and Enphase Energy, ranged from a 3.5% loss to a 0.3% gain.

EchoStar jumped 15.1% after saying it agreed to sell spectrum licenses to Elon Musk’s SpaceX for $17 billion in cash and stock. SpaceX also agreed to pay for roughly $2 billion of interest payments on EchoStar debt through November 2027.

The deal will help SpaceX’s Starlink business develop direct-to-cell service, and it knocked down stocks of other telecoms. Verizon sank 1.8%, and AT&T dropped 1.7%.

PNC Financial Services Group slipped 0.6% after it said it would pay $4.1 billion to buy FirstBank, a bank owner based in Lakewood, Colorado.

Trading across most of the market was relatively quiet ahead of several updates coming later this week on the economy and inflation. They could alter expectations among traders, who at the moment are unanimously forecasting the Fed will cut its main interest rate for the first time this year at its meeting two Wednesdays from now.

Investors tend to love such cuts because they can give a boost to the economy and to prices for investments. The downside of them is that they can also push inflation higher.

So far this year, the Fed has been more worried about the potential of inflation worsening because of President Donald Trump’s tariffs than about the job market. But a slew of recent reports showing the U.S. job market is slowing may be changing minds.

On Tuesday, the U.S. government will release preliminary revisions for job growth numbers it reported through March, and it could show that hiring was weaker than earlier thought.

Reports on inflation will follow on Wednesday and Thursday, showing how much prices rose last month at the wholesale and at the consumer levels. Bigger rises there than expected could tie the Fed’s hands. Officials would need to decide which problem is more pressing, either the job market or inflation, because they have only one tool to fix either. And raising or lowering interest rates to help one tends to hurt the other in the short term.

U.S. companies have been trying several ways to preserve their profits in the face of tariffs, which push up prices for things imported to the country. Many industrial companies are talking about their ability to raise own prices, according to strategists at Morgan Stanley led by Michelle Weaver. Companies that sell nonessentials directly to consumers, meanwhile, are talking more about stockpiled inventories, which could be delaying the hit that U.S. households will feel.

In the bond market, Treasury yields continued to ease as expectations remain high for the Fed to cut interest rates. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.07% from 4.10% late Friday and from 4.28% last Tuesday.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 1.5% for one of the larger gains after Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced that he plans to resign.

Analysts said Ishiba’s announcement was expected for some time and welcomed it as moving things forward, although uncertainty remains as the ruling Liberal Democratic Party will need to hold an election to choose a new leader. Ishiba will remain prime minister until his successor is chosen and approved by parliament.

Also Monday, Japan’s Cabinet Office said the economy expanded at a stronger rate in the fiscal first quarter than previously estimated, at a seasonally adjusted 2.2% annualized rate, better than the earlier 1.0% rate as solid consumer spending and inventories lifted growth more than previously thought.

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AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chief Justice John Roberts on Monday let President Donald Trump remove a member of the Federal Trade Commission, the latest in a string of high-profile firings allowed for now by Supreme Court.

Trump first moved to fire Rebecca Slaughter in the spring, but she sued and lower courts ordered her reinstated because the law allows commissioners to be removed only for problems like misconduct or neglect of duty.

Roberts halted those decisions in a brief order, responding to an appeal from the Trump administration on the court’s emergency docket.

The Justice Department has argued that the FTC and other executive branch agencies are under Trump’s control and the Republican president is free to remove commissioners without cause.

Slaughter’s lawsuit over her firing will keep playing out, as Roberts asked her lawyers to respond to the Trump administration’s arguments by next week.

The court has previously allowed the firings of several other board members of independent agencies. It has suggested, however, that his power to fire has limitations at the Federal Reserve, a prospect that could soon be tested with the case of Fed Gov. Lisa Cook.

Monday’s order is the latest sign that the Supreme Court’s conservative majority has effectively abandoned a 90-year-old high court precedent that protected some federal agencies from arbitrary presidential action.

In the 1935 decision known as Humphrey’s Executor, the court unanimously held that presidents cannot fire independent board members without cause.

The decision ushered in an era of powerful independent federal agencies charged with regulating labor relations, employment discrimination, the airwaves and much else. But it has long rankled conservative legal theorists who argue the modern administrative state gets the Constitution all wrong because such agencies should answer to the president.

The agency at the center of the case was also the FTC, a point cited by lower-court judges in the lawsuit filed by Slaughter. She has ping-ponged in and out of the job as the case worked its way through the courts.

The FTC is a regulator created by Congress that enforces consumer protection measures and antitrust legislation. Its seats are typically comprised of three members of the president’s party and two from the opposing party.

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Associated Press writer Mark Sherman contributed to this report.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Not many franchises have fueled society’s timeless fascination with the boundless possibilities of a utopian future like “Star Trek.”

Next year the sprawling franchise will add more shows, Lego sets and even a Rose Parade Float in a yearlong celebration of its 60th anniversary.

The hefty lineup of “fan-centric” celebrations was announced by the franchise on its 59th anniversary Monday, known as Star Trek Day. The projects are the first wave, Paramount said in its announcement.

“The 60th anniversary celebrates “Space for Everybody,” extending an open invitation to celebrate the future that “Star Trek” aspires to — a future of HOPE, a future of EXPLORATION and a future where we rise to the challenge to BE BOLD,” the announcement read.

The sci-fi franchise began with the TV series created by Gene Roddenberry that debuted in 1966 and has since sprawled into a multi-billion dollar cultural phenomenon.

Today, fans, known as Trekkies, have enjoyed countless movies, spinoff shows and video games based on the original series.

Set in the Milky Way a couple hundred years in the future, the series followed the crew behind the starship USS Enterprise. Their journey led them to, “Boldy go where no man has gone before,” as William Shatner, who played Captain James T. Kirk, famously said at the top of every episode.

The yearlong celebration will kick off on New Year’s Day, with a float in the Rose Parade in California. The float “will reflect values of hope, inclusivity, exploration and unity,” the franchise representatives wrote in a statement.

The float will also feature the upcoming new series “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy” set to launch in early 2026 on Paramount+. The show will center on a group of young cadets who navigate the responsibilities of becoming Starfleet officers all the while juggling new friendships, love interests and enemies.

Paramount gave a first look of the show, which starts actors Holly Hunter and Paul Giamatti, during a Comic-Con event in late July.

The franchise also announced “Star Trek: Scout” a new original, animated YouTube-first series. Created by Nickelodeon Digital Studio in association with CBS Studio, the show is the first preschool extension of the franchise. It follows three 8-year-old friends as they train to become future Starfleet Explorers.

The first two episodes of the 20-episode run were released Monday, and the rest will roll out into the next year.

A new scripted podcast, “Star Trek: Khan” also released its first episode Monday. New episodes will air weekly and chronicle Khan’s descent into the iconic villain introduced in the 1982 film “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.”

Following the longstanding success of Lego partnerships with similar franchises like “Star Wars,” the company will partner with Paramount for the first time to bring “Star Trek” to life.

The franchise and the Lego company “have strong shared values of imagination, exploration and building a better tomorrow, making this an ideal partnership for fans of all ages,” the statement read.

A “Star Trek” cruise will set sail in late February “filled with once-in-a-lifetime experiences in celebration of the franchise’s 60th anniversary,” according to the statement. Various “Star Trek” actors, including Shatner and Walter Koenig, will join the voyage.

Online broker Robinhood Markets will join the S&P 500 index after riding the popularity of cryptocurrencies to profitability and an all-time high stock price.

The company is set to join the benchmark index on Sept. 22, along with mobile technology platform AppLovin and construction company Emcor Group.

Robinhood is having one of its best years since going public in 2021 after struggling early on. It closed below its IPO price of $38 on its first day of trading. The stock remained volatile over the next few years, finishing 2023 at $12.74 per share.

The stock has tripled in 2025 so far, trading at more than $100 per share. That follows a similar gain in 2024.

An increased interest in cryptocurrency amid a friendlier regulatory environment for the digital currency has helped turn around the online broker’s profits. The company lost 61 cents per share in 2023, but sharply reversed course in 2024 for a profit of $1.56 per share. Wall Street expects the company to close out 2025 with $1.64 per share in profit.

The company has been benefitting from the government’s hands off approach to cryptocurrency and regulation during President Donald Trump’s tenure. Earlier this year, the Securities and Exchange Commission closed an investigation into the company. The SEC declined to pursue enforcement action over allegations that Robinhood failed to register certain crypto assets on its platform as securities.

Robinhood was also at the center of the original “meme stock” craze in 2021 that centered on heavy trading of GameStop and AMC Entertainment. The company had to temporarily restrict trading of those companies amid a dispute between online activist retail investors and institutional investors.

Shares of Robinhood surged 13.8% in morning trading, while AppLovin shares jumped 11.5%.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Skyrocketing housing values and a shortage of homes on the market gave homeowners the upper hand for years when it came time to sell. That’s no longer a given.

Across the country, it’s getting tougher for sellers to drive a hard bargain. A dearth of home shoppers who can afford to buy and uncertainty about the outlook for the economy, jobs and mortgage rates is putting pressure on sellers to give ground at the negotiating table.

In some markets, mainly in the South and West, homeowners who are eager to sell are more likely to give buyers a better deal. This could include a lower price, up-front money to nudge down the buyer’s mortgage rate, and funds for closing costs and any repairs or improvements that may pop up after the home inspection.

The reasons: Would-be buyers balk at what they view as unreasonable asking prices, while at the same time new construction is giving buyers more options and putting pressure on sellers to make their homes more appealing.

As a result, while the national median home listing price rose slightly in July, some metro areas saw a decline, signaling a reversal in the power dynamic between buyers and sellers. It’s rare to see the type of eye-popping bidding wars that exploded home values by roughly 50% nationally earlier this decade. Low-ball offers are more common.

Despite this hopeful trend, the housing market remains mired in a slump. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes are running about 1.3% below where they were through the first seven months of last year, when they sank to their lowest level in nearly 30 years.

The national median home listing price rose slightly in July from a year earlier to $439,450, according to Realtor.com. The real estate listing company found the most a homebuyer who earns the median U.S. household income can afford to spend on a home is $298,000. The analysis assumes a 20% down payment and a 30-year mortgage at a fixed rate of 6.74%. By those criteria, 7 out of 10 home shoppers are priced out of the market.

The housing market has been in a rut since 2022, when mortgage rates began climbing from historic lows. The number of homes available for sale sank while prices kept rising.

Nationally, more homes are going on sale and remaining unsold longer because buyers have been unwilling or unable to make a deal. Active listings — a tally that encompasses all homes on the market except those pending a finalized sale — increased in July for the 21st month in a row, climbing nearly 25% from a year earlier, according to Realtor.com.

The inventory of homes for sale across the U.S. has increased gradually as the market has slowed and is now at a level where supply and demand are more balanced. But in states like Texas and Florida, the number of homes on the market has climbed sharply, partly because those states are hotbeds of new home construction.

Home shoppers may now have more leverage relative to sellers in the South and West, where home inventory has risen in the single digits, compared to pre-pandemic levels. Conditions are tougher in markets in the Midwest and Northeast, where the supply of homes remains 40% and 50% below pre-pandemic levels, respectively, according to Realtor.com.

After roughly two months on the market and three open houses, Doug McCormick’s home has yet to receive a single offer.

The retired business owner and his wife initially listed the 4-bedroom, 4.5-bath house located in Evergreen, a mountain community about 30 miles west of Denver, for $1.3 million. They lowered their asking price to about $1.28 million. That, too, failed to bring in a buyer.

McCormick, 80, says he’s hoping mortgage rates ease a bit and bring out more buyers. But he’s also considering just renting the property.

“That’s something that’s kind of in the back of my mind,” he said. “I keep reminding myself you only need one buyer.”

McCormick’s situation is not unique. As demand has slowed, more sellers have resorted to lowering their initial asking price — often multiple times — to no avail.

“Even though we are seeing a substantial amount of price reductions, sometimes it’s not enough to move the home, it’s still sitting,” said Annie Foushee, an agent with Redfin in Denver.

The median home listing price in Austin fell 4.9% in July from a year earlier, while in Miami it dropped 4.7%. Among other metro areas that had sharp drops in their listing price were: Chicago (4.4%), Los Angeles (4.2%) and Denver (4%).

Lindsay Olesberg and her husband, John, know what it’s like to navigate both sides of the housing slump.

The couple listed their 4-bedroom, 3.5-bath home outside Albuquerque for $835,000 in June 2024 after John, a research scientist, got a new job in Texas. The plan: Sell their house, move to Austin and buy a home there. It took more than a year, during which the couple lowered their asking price several times, temporarily took the home off the market and had some offers fall through.

In the end, they agreed to sell for $40,000 below their original listing price.

Buying a home was much easier. The Olesbergs had little trouble finding homes they liked and could afford in Austin, where home inventory was up nearly 60% in July compared to pre-pandemic levels.

They bought a five-bedroom, three-bath house in Austin for $735,000, or $30,000 below its initial listing price. The seller also agreed to cover $1,000 in fees.

“We got less for our house in New Mexico than we would have wanted,” said Lindsay Olesberg, 59, a Bible teacher. “But at the same time, you also knew it was a buyer’s market in Austin, so the prices were coming down.”

In markets where buyers now have the upper hand, sellers who can afford to wait are often opting to pull their listing rather than be pressured into coming way down on price.

Tammy Tullis put her home in the Miami suburb of South Miami on the market in June. But the four-bedroom, 3.5-bath house didn’t receive many offers initially, so she dropped her $2.8 million asking price by $100,000. That helped drive turnout during an open house, but she only received low-ball offers.

“They were like $400,000-$500,000 off the mark,” said Tullis, 51.

Last month, the finance consultant took the listing down. She may relist it sooner, rather than later.

“I want to sell, but I’m not in a rush-rush,” Tullis said.

The Trump administration has pushed the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, saying doing so will help the housing market. But homebuyers – and politicians – should keep in mind that the central bank only directly influences short-term rates, while most mortgages are based on the yield of the 10-year Treasury. So, lower mortgage rates wouldn’t be a given, even if the Fed cuts rates next week, as the market expects.

And while lower mortgage rates would boost home shoppers’ purchasing power, they also could bring in more buyers, giving sellers less incentive to keep lowering prices.

Economists generally expect the average rate on a 30-year mortgage to remain near the mid-6% range this year.

To most people the film industry is impenetrable, but even if you can’t channel your inner Seth Rogen and land a job as a Hollywood boss like in Apple TV’s hit satire The Studio, you can still have a modest impact on Hollywood today.

Anyone can sign up to attend a test screening before a movie is completed. Visual effects are rough, color hasn’t been corrected, and the score is built up of snippets of music from other movies. The previews help filmmakers and studios gauge how audiences feel about an upcoming release and of course, figure out how to make more money out of the film by making tweaks. All that assumes the thing isn’t a complete turkey from start to finish, of course. Remember Disney’s 2013 remake of “The Lone Ranger” starring Armie Hammer and Johnny Depp? Me, either.

Ads on social media, flyers distributed at the movie theater, or emails alert people to these screenings. You can also Google “test screenings near me” and you’re on your way, baby!

Once you and the at-capacity crowd are settled in your seats, the movie begins. When it ends, you fill out a survey explaining your feelings on the film. You rate the movie, every character, and every performance on a scale of five. You’ll list your three favorite and least favorite scenes, and judge the pacing of the movie on the Goldilocks scale: was it too fast, too slow, or just right?

The most important questions are “would you recommend this movie to people?” and “would you recommend seeing it in the theater?”

After all the surveys are completed, a portion of the audience will be asked to remain in their seats. They are the focus group, who are recorded and more thoroughly interrogated. They receive some compensation in the form of a $12 million mansion in the Hollywood hills, or a gift card or movie passes. Usually it’s a gift card or movie passes, but I’m holding out.

Filmmakers might make changes to the film after a test screening, as they did, for example, with 1982’s Bladerunner, insisting that a voiceover added a more positive ending so that the female love interest didn’t “expire” weeks after it ended. Test audiences for Back to the Future also insisted on knowing whether Doc’s dog Einstein survived a test run in the DeLorean time machine instead of, er… disappearing.

More typically your input from the test screening will be used to craft the movie’s marketing campaign. Favorite scenes appear in trailers, enticing audiences to have the great time you (hopefully) did.

Join me at a test screening soon, and start saving for a cravat and a director’s chair.