Stock market today: Nvidia helps pull US indexes higher
NEW YORK (AP) — Nvidia helped pull U.S. stock indexes higher after they stumbled in the morning on worries about escalations in the Russia-Ukraine war. The S&P 500 rose 0.4% Tuesday. The Nasdaq composite also erased an early loss to turn 1% higher, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.3%. Nvidia rallied ahead of its profit report for the latest quarter, which is coming on Wednesday. Strategists say it appears to be the most anticipated event left on the calendar this year for Wall Street. Walmart rose after topping profit forecasts, while Treasury yields eased.
What to know about Howard Lutnick, Trump’s pick for commerce secretary
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Howard Lutnick, head of brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald and cryptocurrency enthusiast, as his nominee for commerce secretary. Trump made the announcement Tuesday on his social media platform, Truth Social. Lutnick is a co-chair of Trump’s transition operation helping to find the team that will work in the next administration. Here are five things to know about the billionaire who made the cut to lead Commerce.
Reuters hires former Post and AP executive editor Sally Buzbee to lead US, Canada news operation
NEW YORK (AP) — Reuters has hired Sally Buzbee, former executive editor of The Washington Post and The Associated Press, to be its top news editor in the United States and Canada. She will replace Kieran Murray, who will run the news agency’s live events business. Buzbee left the Post in June rather than carry out a new publisher’s reorganization plan that would have effectively demoted her. She led the AP’s news operation before leaving for the Post in 2021. A longtime AP editor, she had run the outlet’s Washington bureau before becoming senior vice president and executive editor in 2017.
German police break up an environmental activists’ camp near Tesla plant outside Berlin
BERLIN (AP) — German police have broken up a protest camp housing environmental activists in a forest near the Tesla electric car factory in Grünheide outside Berlin, citing violations of public safety and order. The protesters, who were removed Tuesday, had occupied the forest near the Tesla plant since the end of February over concerns about water and deforestation. Police were first deployed at the protest camp on Monday to temporarily evacuate parts of the camp with tree houses due to a planned search for unexploded World War II ordnance. However, the activists refused to leave and instead climbed high up some of the trees. German news agency dpa reported that police eventually pulled six people out of tree houses because they did not want to leave voluntarily.
Money to respond to climate change is key to UN talks in Baku. Nations are finding ways to raise it
BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Big money to respond to climate change is key to the United Nations talks underway in Azerbaijan. Vulnerable nations say they need as much as $1.3 trillion to cope with damage they’ve already suffered from extreme weather events, and to adapt to a warming planet. Wealthy nations haven’t been willing to pay nearly that much. One way they’re talking about bridging the big gap is through leverage. That’s the idea that big loans can attract other loans and private spending to add up quickly. Smaller nations are skeptical of any plan that depends heavily on loans. Many are already drowning in debt and fear even more.
Nvidia rivals focus on building a different kind of chip to power AI products
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — Building the current crop of artificial intelligence chatbots has relied on specialized computer chips pioneered by Nvidia, which dominates the market and made itself the poster child of the AI boom. But the same qualities that make those graphics processor chips, or GPUs, so effective at creating powerful AI systems from scratch make them less efficient at putting AI products to work. That’s opened up the AI chip industry to rivals who think they can compete with Nvidia in selling so-called AI inference chips that are more attuned to the day-to-day running of AI tools and designed to reduce some of the huge computing costs of generative AI.
Trump’s treasury pick could give an indication of what he plans to do about tariffs
WASHINGTON (AP) — One of the top remaining vacancies in President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed Cabinet is his treasury secretary — and the views of his top contenders there reflect broader questions about how the president-elect might wield tariffs in his new administration. Billionaire investor Scott Bessent, considered a leading candidate, has talked up tariffs as a negotiating ploy. Another prominent contender, Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, has expressed more support for broad tariffs. Lutnick is co-chair of Trump’s transition operation and is helping put forward candidates for key roles, including treasury. Trump is also looking at other potential candidates as he decides who can best implement his economic agenda — and how big a role tariffs will play.
Congressional panel urges toughing the US-China trade relationship
WASHINGTON (AP) — A congressional panel has recommended that the U.S. toughen its trade relationship with Beijing. That would roll back a nearly 25-year-old decision that helped bring about China’s rapid economic growth but that many in Washington now see as hurting U.S. interests. In its annual report to Congress released on Tuesday, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission called for the first time for ending permanent normal trade relations with Beijing. It echoes moves by prominent Republican lawmakers as the trade war with China is expected to intensify under President-elect Donald Trump. Sen. Marco Rubio, Trump’s choice for secretary of state, has called the favorable trading relationship with China “one of the most catastrophic decisions” the U.S. has made.
Japan records trade deficit for the fourth month straight despite export recovery
TOKYO (AP) — Japan racked up a trade deficit in October for the fourth month in a row, as a weak yen and the rising price of energy kept import costs high. The Finance Ministry said Wednesday that the red ink totaled 461 billion yen, or $3 billion. Japan’s exports in October managed to recover from a slowdown over the recent months, gaining 3.1% from the same month a year earlier, as shipments grew in equipment for semiconductor production. But imports, which grew 0.4%, were still bigger than exports. A major uncertainty over trade is looming because of the reelection of Donald Trump as U.S. president.
Trump picks Dr. Oz to run Medicare and Medicaid, Linda McMahon for Education, Lutnick for Commerce
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump has tapped billionaire professional wrestling mogul Linda McMahon to be secretary of the Education Department, tasked with overseeing an agency Trump has promised to dismantle. He also selected Dr. Mehmet Oz, a former television talk show host and heart surgeon, to head the agency that oversees health insurance programs for millions of older, poor and disabled Americans. And Trump chose Wall Street executive Howard Lutnick to lead the Commerce Department. All three have been has been outspoken supporters of Trump, and McMahon and Lutnick have helped lead his transition team.
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