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  • Dow leaps 500 points as US stocks recover most of Friday’s wipeout

    NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are rallying on Monday and grabbing back most of their sharp loss from last week, when worries about how President Donald Trump’s tariffs may be punishing the economy sent a shudder through Wall Street.

    The S&P 500 jumped 1.3% in afternoon trading to claw back more than three quarters of Friday’s drop. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 507 points, or 1.2%, with an hour remaining in trading, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.8% higher.

    Idexx Laboratories helped lead the way and soared 26.9% after the seller of veterinary instruments and other health care products reported a stronger profit for the spring than analysts expected. It also raised its forecast for profit over the full year.

    Tyson Foods likewise delivered a bigger-than-expected profit for the latest quarter, and the company behind the Jimmy Dean and Hillshire Farms brands climbed 2.6%.

    They helped offset a 3.7% drop for Berkshire Hathaway after Warren Buffett’s company reported a drop in profit for its second quarter from a year earlier. The weakening was due in part to the falling value of its investment in Kraft Heinz.

    The pressure is on U.S. companies to deliver bigger profits after their stock prices shot to record after record recently. The jump in stock prices from a low point in April raised criticism that the broad market had become too expensive.

    Stocks just sank to their worst week since May not so much on that criticism but on worries that Trump’s tariffs may be hitting the U.S. economy following a longer wait than some economists had expected. Job growth slowed sharply last month, and the unemployment rate worsened to 4.2%.

    Trump reacted to the disappointing jobs numbers by firing the person in charge of compiling them. He also continued his criticism of the Federal Reserve, which could lower interest rates in order to shoot adrenaline into the economy. The Fed has instead been keeping rates steady this year, in part because lower rates can send inflation higher, and Trump’s tariffs may be set to increase prices for U.S. households.

    Friday’s stunningly weak jobs report did raise expectations on Wall Street that the Fed will cut interest rates at its next meeting in September. That caused Treasury yields to slump in the bond market, and they slipped a bit more on Monday.

    The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.19% from 4.23% late Friday.

    The two-year yield, which moves more closely with expectations for Fed action, edged down to 3.67% from 3.69%.

    “In our view, if the Fed starts to cut rates at its September meeting, we believe this would be supportive for markets,” according to David Lefkowitz, head of US equities at UBS Global Wealth Management.

    Such hopes, combined with profit reports from big U.S. companies that have largely come in better than expected, could help steady a U.S. stock market that may have been due for some turbulence. Before Friday, the S&P had gone more than a month without a daily swing of 1%, either up or down.

    This upcoming week may feature fewer fireworks on Wall Street following last week’s jobs report and profit updates from some of the U.S. stock market’s most influential companies. This week’s highlights will likely include earnings reports from The Walt Disney Co., McDonald’s and Caterpillar, along with updates on U.S. business activity.

    On Wall Street, Wayfair jumped 12.3% after the retailer of furniture and home decor said accelerating growth helped it make more in profit and revenue during the spring than analysts expected.

    Tesla rose 2.3% after awarding CEO Elon Musk 96 million shares of restricted stock valued at approximately $29 billion. The move, coming six months after a judge ordered the company to revoke his massive pay package, could remove potential worries that Musk may leave the company.

    CommScope soared 88.6% after reaching a deal to sell its connectivity and cable business to Amphenol for $10.5 billion in cash. Amphenol rose 3.6%

    American Eagle Outfitters jumped 23.3% after Trump weighed in on the debate surrounding the retailer’s advertisements, which extol actor Sydney Sweeney’s great jeans. Some critics thought the reference to the blonde-haired and blue-eyed actor’s “great genes” may be extolling a narrow set of beauty standards. “Go get ’em Sydney!” Trump said on his social media network.

    On the losing side of Wall Street was On Semiconductor, which fell 13.6% after it only matched analysts’ expectations for profit in the latest quarter. The company, which sells to the auto and industrial industries, said it’s beginning to see “signs of stabilization” across its customers.

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

    South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.9%, and France’s CAC 40 climbed 1.1%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 was an outlier with a drop of 1.2%.

    ___

    This version has been corrected to say that the U.S. stock market had its worst week last week since May, not April.

    ___

    AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

    0 min
  • Vast majority of US adults are stressed about grocery costs

    NEW YORK (AP) — The vast majority of U.S. adults are at least somewhat stressed about the cost of groceries, a new poll finds, as prices continue to rise and concerns about the impact of President Donald Trump’s tariffs remain widespread.

    About half of all Americans say the cost of groceries is a “major” source of stress in their life right now, while 33% say it’s a “minor” source of stress, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Only 14% say it’s not a source of stress, underscoring the pervasive anxiety most Americans continue to feel about the cost of everyday essentials.

    Other financial stressors — like the cost of housing or the amount of money in their bank accounts — are also broadly felt, but they weigh more heavily on younger Americans, who are less likely than older adults to have significant savings or own property.

    The survey also found that about 4 in 10 Americans under age 45 say they’ve used what are known as “buy now, pay later” services when spending on entertainment or restaurant meals or when paying for essentials like groceries or medical care.

    Adam Bush, 19, based in Portland, New York, is one of those younger Americans who has used pay-later services for things like groceries or entertainment. Bush works as a welder, fabricating parts for trucks for Toyota, and makes under $50,000 per year.

    “I just keep watching the prices go up, so I’m looking for the cheapest possible stuff,” he said. “Hot pockets and TV dinners.”

    Everyone is stressed about groceries

    Groceries are one of the most far-reaching financial stressors, affecting the young and old alike, the poll finds. While Americans over age 60 are less likely than younger people to feel major financial anxiety about housing, their savings, child care, or credit card debt, they are just as worried about the cost of groceries.

    Esther Bland, 78, who lives in Buckley, Washington, said groceries are a “minor” source of stress — but only because her local food banks fill the gap. Bland relies on her Social Security and disability payments each month to cover her rent and other expenses — such as veterinary care for her dogs — in retirement, after decades working in an office processing product orders.

    “I have no savings,” she said. “I’m not sure what’s going on politically when it comes to the food banks, but if I lost that, groceries would absolutely be a major source of stress.”

    Bland’s monthly income mainly goes toward her electric, water and cable bills, she said, as well as care of her dogs and other household needs.

    “Soap, paper towels, toilet paper. I buy gas at Costco, but we haven’t seen $3 a gallon here in a long time,” she said. “I stay home a lot. I only put about 50 miles on my car a week.”

    According to the poll, 64% of the lowest-income Americans — those who have a household income of less than $30,000 a year — say the cost of groceries is a “major” stressor. That’s compared with about 4 in 10 Americans who have a household income of $100,000 or more.

    But even within that higher-income group, only about 2 in 10 say grocery costs aren’t a worry at all.

    Women and Hispanic adults are especially economically anxious

    Housing is another substantial source of worry for U.S. adults — along with their savings, their income and the cost of health care. About half of U.S. adults say housing is a “major” source of stress, according to the poll, while about 4 in 10 say that about the amount of money they get paid, the amount of money they have saved and the cost of health care.

    About 3 in 10 say credit card debt is a “major” source of stress, while about 2 in 10 say that about the cost of child care and student debt.

    But some groups are feeling much more anxiety about their finances than others. Women, for instance, are more likely than men to report high levels of stress about their income, savings, the cost of groceries and the cost of health care. Hispanic adults are also particularly concerned about housing costs and both credit card and student debt. About two-thirds of Hispanic adults say the cost of housing is a “major” source of stress, compared with about half of Black adults and about 4 in 10 white adults.

    Some people are making changes to their lifestyle as a result of high costs. Shandal LeSure, 43, who works as a receptionist for a rehabilitation hospital in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and makes between $85,000 and $100,000 a year, said she’s started shopping for groceries at less expensive stores.

    “It’s an adjustment,” she said. “Sometimes the quality isn’t as good.”

    Many US adults have used ‘buy now, pay later’ services

    As they stretch limited budgets, about 3 in 10 U.S. adults overall say they’ve used “buy now, pay later” services such as Afterpay or Klarna to purchase groceries, entertainment, restaurant meals or meal delivery, or medical or dental care, according to the poll.

    Bland, the Washington state retiree, said she’s paid for pet surgery with a pay-later plan.

    Younger Americans are much likelier than older people to have used pay-later plans for entertainment, groceries or restaurant meals, but there’s no age gap on medical care. Black and Hispanic people are also especially likely to adopt the plans.

    An increasing share of “buy now, pay later” customers are having trouble repaying their loans, according to recent disclosures from the lenders. The loans are marketed as a safer alternative to traditional credit cards, but there are risks, including a lack of federal oversight. Some consumer watchdogs also say the plans lead consumers to overextend themselves financially.

    LeSure said she’s used pay-later services for things like new clothes, while she balances debt payments for a car loan, student loans and medical bills. She’s also turned to them to cover hotel costs after being evicted.

    “That’s been able to help me stretch my dollar,” she said.

    ___

    Sanders reported from Washington.

    ___

    The AP-NORC poll of 1,437 adults was conducted July 10-14, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

    ___

    The Associated Press receives support from the Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.

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