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Tag: Government regulations

  • In Wyoming, Bill Gates moves ahead with nuclear project aimed at revolutionizing power generation

    In Wyoming, Bill Gates moves ahead with nuclear project aimed at revolutionizing power generation

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    Bill Gates and his energy company are starting construction at their Wyoming site for a next-generation nuclear power plant he believes will “revolutionize” how power is generated.

    Gates was in the tiny community of Kemmerer Monday to break ground on the project. The co-founder of Microsoft is chairman of TerraPower. The company applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in March for a construction permit for an advanced nuclear reactor that uses sodium, not water, for cooling. If approved, it would operate as a commercial nuclear power plant.

    The site is adjacent to PacifiCorp’s Naughton Power Plant, which will stop burning coal in 2026 and natural gas a decade later, the utility said. Nuclear reactors operate without emitting planet-warming greenhouse gases. PacifiCorp plans to get carbon-free power from the reactor and says it is weighing how much nuclear to include in its long-range planning.

    The work begun Monday is aimed at having the site ready so TerraPower can build the reactor as quickly as possible if its permit is approved. Russia is at the forefront for developing sodium-cooled reactors.

    Gates told the audience at the groundbreaking that they were “standing on what will soon be the bedrock of America’s energy future.”

    “This is a big step toward safe, abundant, zero-carbon energy,” Gates said. “And it’s important for the future of this country that projects like this succeed.”

    Advanced reactors typically use a coolant other than water and operate at lower pressures and higher temperatures. Such technology has been around for decades, but the United States has continued to build large, conventional water-cooled reactors as commercial power plants. The Wyoming project is the first time in about four decades that a company has tried to get an advanced reactor up and running as a commercial power plant in the United States, according to the NRC.

    It’s time to move to advanced nuclear technology that uses the latest computer modeling and physics for a simpler plant design that’s cheaper, even safer and more efficient, said Chris Levesque, the company’s president and chief executive officer.

    TerraPower’s Natrium reactor demonstration project is a sodium-cooled fast reactor design with a molten salt energy storage system.

    “The industry’s character hasn’t been to innovate. It’s kind of been to repeat past performance, you know, not to move forward with new technology. And that was good for reliability,” Levesque said in an interview. “But the electricity demands we’re seeing in the coming decades, and also to correct the cost issues with today’s nuclear and nuclear energy, we at TerraPower and our founders really felt it’s time to innovate.”

    A Georgia utility just finished the first two scratch-built American reactors in a generation at a cost of nearly $35 billion. The price tag for the expansion of Plant Vogtle from two of the traditional large reactors to four includes $11 billion in cost overruns.

    The TerraPower project is expected to cost up to $4 billion, half of it from the U.S. Department of Energy. Levesque said that figure includes first-of-its-kind costs for designing and licensing the reactor, so future ones would cost significantly less.

    Most advanced nuclear reactors under development in the U.S. rely on a type of fuel — known as high-assay low-enriched uranium — that’s enriched to a higher percentage of the isotope uranium-235 than the fuel used by conventional reactors. TerraPower delayed its launch date in Wyoming by two years to 2030 because Russia is the only commercial supplier of the fuel, and it’s working with other companies to develop alternate supplies. The U.S. Energy Department is working on developing it domestically.

    Edwin Lyman co-authored an article in Science on Thursday that raises concerns that this fuel could be used for nuclear weapons. Lyman, the director of nuclear power safety with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the risk posed by HALEU today is small because there isn’t that much of it around the world. But that will change if advanced reactor projects, which require much larger quantities, move forward, he added. Lyman said he wants to raise awareness of the danger in the hope that the international community will strengthen security around the fuel.

    NRC spokesperson Scott Burnell said the agency is confident its current requirements will maintain both security and public safety of any reactors that are built and their fuel.

    Gates co-founded TerraPower in 2008 as a way for the private sector to propel advanced nuclear energy forward to provide safe, abundant, carbon-free energy.

    The company’s 345-megawatt reactor could generate up to 500 megawatts at its peak, enough for up to 400,000 homes. TerraPower said its first few reactors will focus on supplying electricity. But it envisions future reactors could be built near industrial plants to supply high heat.

    Nearly all industrial processes requiring high heat currently get it from burning fossil fuels. Heat from advanced reactors could be used to produce hydrogen, petrochemicals, ammonia and fertilizer, said John Kotek at the Nuclear Energy Institute.

    It’s significant that Gates, a technological innovator and climate champion, is betting on nuclear power to help address the climate crisis, added Kotek, the industry group’s senior vice president for policy.

    “I think this has helped open people’s eyes to the role that nuclear power does play today and can play in the future in addressing carbon emissions,” he said. “There’s tremendous momentum building for new nuclear in the U.S. and the potential use of a far wider range of nuclear energy technology than we’ve seen in decades.”

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    The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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  • Stock market today: Asian markets mixed following hotter-than-expected US jobs report

    Stock market today: Asian markets mixed following hotter-than-expected US jobs report

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    HONG KONG — Asian markets were mixed on Monday after a jobs report released Friday came in hotter than expected, while the euro fell after French President Emmanuel Macron dissolved the National Assembly following a setback in Sunday’s parliamentary election.

    U.S. futures fell and oil prices rose.

    Markets in China, Hong Kong, Australia and Taiwan were closed for holidays.

    In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index was up 0.9% at 39,038.16 after government data on Monday showed Japan’s economy contracted at an annualized 1.8% pace in January-March, an upward revision from the previously announced 2% drop.

    South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.4% to 2,711.43.

    Meanwhile, in Europe, far-right parties made major gains in parliamentary elections Sunday, leading French President Emmanuel Macron to announce that he was dissolving the National Assembly and calling a snap legislative election. This caused the euro to drop to its lowest price in nearly a month. The euro was trading at $1.0752 early Monday, down from $1.0778.

    On Friday, the S&P 500 fell 0.1% to 5,346.99, the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.2% to 38,798.99, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.2% to 38,798.99.

    U.S. employers added 272,000 jobs in May, up from April and more than economists expected. The report also showed the unemployment rate rising for a second straight month. Overall, that signals continued strength in the jobs market, with some minor signs of weakening. The strong jobs market has supported consumer spending and the broader economy, but it has also been complicating the Federal Reserve’s path ahead for interest rates.

    The yield on the 10-year Treasury jumped to 4.43% from 4.29% just before the jobs report was released. The two-year yield, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed, jumped to 4.89% from 4.74% prior to the report’s release.

    Wall Street is hoping for at least one cut to the Fed’s benchmark interest rate before the year ends. The central bank raised its interest rate to its highest level in more than two decades in an attempt to cool inflation to its target of 2%. However, inflation has been stubbornly hovering around 3% after dropping sharply over the last two years. A strong economy could keep fueling price increases.

    A cooler economy can pull inflation lower and prompt the Fed to deliver the cuts to interest rates that traders desire. The danger is if the slowdown overshoots and turns into a recession, which would ultimately hurt stock prices.

    Economic data from last week hinted that the economy could be cooling. The latest reports show that manufacturing contracted in May, worker productivity isn’t as strong as economists thought and job openings are dropping.

    Fed officials are expected to hold interest rates steady at their meeting later in this week. After the jobs report came out, investors took even more bets off the table that the Fed would cut rates at its July meeting, according to data from CME Group.

    Wall Street has also been monitoring earnings from retailers, which have shown that customers have been pulling back on items that aren’t essentials. Consumer spending has been the main support for the economy, but stubborn inflation is hurting consumers, especially those with lower incomes.

    GameStop, the troubled video game retailer at the center of the meme stock craze, slumped 39.4% after reporting another quarterly loss and saying it planned to sell up to 75 million more shares.

    In other dealings, U.S. benchmark crude oil gained 20 cents to $75.73 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

    Brent crude, the international standard, was up 16 cents to $79.78 per barrel.

    The U.S. dollar rose to 157.08 Japanese yen from 156.83 yen.

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  • Former tech exec admits to fraud involving a scheme to boost Getty Images shares, authorities say

    Former tech exec admits to fraud involving a scheme to boost Getty Images shares, authorities say

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    SAN FRANCISCO — A former technology executive has pleaded guilty to a single count of fraud involving a scheme to artificially inflate the share price of photo and video distributor Getty Images, federal officials said Friday.

    Robert Scott Murray, who was chief executive of the networking-equipment maker 3Com for several months in 2006, was charged with securities fraud for an alleged attempt to manipulate Seattle-based Getty’s share price. Murray owned roughly 300,000 shares of Getty Images Holding Inc. in April 2023, according to a Department of Justice statement alleging that the investor sought to boost Getty’s stock in order to unload his position for a greater profit.

    According to statement by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Murray first issued a series of news releases calling on the company to sell itself or to add Murray to its board. Murray issued those releases through Trillium Capital, a self-described venture investment business in Massachusetts whose sole owner and manager was Murray himself, federal authorities said.

    Then, on April 24, 2023, Trillium announced a supposed bid to acquire Getty Images outright at a price of $10 a share — nearly twice the stock’s closing price a day earlier. While the company’s stock rose that day, its price remained well short of $10.

    Getty issued its own news release the next day casting doubt on the offer, calling it an “unsolicited, non-binding and highly conditioned proposal” aimed at acquiring “an unstated volume of outstanding shares.” Trillium, it said, had not provided Getty’s board with any evidence that it was “sufficiently credible to warrant engagement.”

    The SEC called the bid “false and misleading,” noting that Murray and Trillium made no effort to raise the funds necessary for the acquisition. What’s more, the SEC noted that “Murray started to liquidate his Getty Images stock within minutes after the market opened on April 24, without even waiting for Getty to respond to his announced offer.” The Justice Department statement asserted that Murray sold all of his Getty shares “within less than one hour for approximately $1,486,467.”

    Murray could not be reached for comment. An email directed to an address on the Trillium website bounced back to The Associated Press, while multiple calls to Trillium’s published phone number yielded only busy signals.

    Murray will appear in federal court in Boston at a later date, the Justice Department stated.

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  • Former tech exec admits to fraud involving a scheme to boost Getty Images shares, authorities say

    Former tech exec admits to fraud involving a scheme to boost Getty Images shares, authorities say

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    SAN FRANCISCO — A former technology executive has pleaded guilty to a single count of fraud involving a scheme to artificially inflate the share price of photo and video distributor Getty Images, federal officials said Friday.

    Robert Scott Murray, who was chief executive of the networking-equipment maker 3Com for several months in 2006, was charged with securities fraud for an alleged attempt to manipulate Seattle-based Getty’s share price. Murray owned roughly 300,000 shares of Getty Images Holding Inc. in April 2023, according to a Department of Justice statement alleging that the investor sought to boost Getty’s stock in order to unload his position for a greater profit.

    According to statement by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Murray first issued a series of news releases calling on the company to sell itself or to add Murray to its board. Murray issued those releases through Trillium Capital, a self-described venture investment business in Massachusetts whose sole owner and manager was Murray himself, federal authorities said.

    Then, on April 24, 2023, Trillium announced a supposed bid to acquire Getty Images outright at a price of $10 a share — nearly twice the stock’s closing price a day earlier. While the company’s stock rose that day, its price remained well short of $10.

    Getty issued its own news release the next day casting doubt on the offer, calling it an “unsolicited, non-binding and highly conditioned proposal” aimed at acquiring “an unstated volume of outstanding shares.” Trillium, it said, had not provided Getty’s board with any evidence that it was “sufficiently credible to warrant engagement.”

    The SEC called the bid “false and misleading,” noting that Murray and Trillium made no effort to raise the funds necessary for the acquisition. What’s more, the SEC noted that “Murray started to liquidate his Getty Images stock within minutes after the market opened on April 24, without even waiting for Getty to respond to his announced offer.” The Justice Department statement asserted that Murray sold all of his Getty shares “within less than one hour for approximately $1,486,467.”

    Murray could not be reached for comment. An email directed to an address on the Trillium website bounced back to The Associated Press, while multiple calls to Trillium’s published phone number yielded only busy signals.

    Murray will appear in federal court in Boston at a later date, the Justice Department stated.

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  • Norfolk Southern will pay $15M fine as part of federal settlement in Ohio derailment

    Norfolk Southern will pay $15M fine as part of federal settlement in Ohio derailment

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    The federal government agreed to a modest $15 million fine for Norfolk Southern over last year’s disastrous derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, and the railroad promised to pay more than $300 million to complete the efforts to improve safety that it announced after the crash and address community health concerns.

    Residents who had to evacuate their homes after the derailment were generally underwhelmed by the deal the Environmental Protection Agency and Justice Department announced Thursday that doesn’t include any criminal charges. This federal settlement comes two days after a federal judge signed off on the railroad’s $600 million class action settlement with residents whose lives were disrupted.

    In addition to the civil penalty, Norfolk Southern agreed to reimburse the EPA an additional $57 million in response costs and set up a $25 million health care fund to pay for 20 years of medical exams in the community. The railroad will also pay $25 million to $30 million for long-term monitoring of drinking water and groundwater.

    Many East Palestine residents feel this settlement doesn’t do nearly enough to a company that just reported a $527 million profit in the fourth quarter of last year and $53 million in the first quarter after the derailment costs. The railroad’s CEO received $13.4 million in total compensation last year.

    “Honestly, no amount can ever make this right, but it should be at least enough to hurt them a little bit. I’m sure that’s not going to hurt their bottom line at all,” Jami Wallace said.

    EPA Administrator Michael Regan said the fine is the largest allowed under the Clean Water Act, and the railroad agreed to continue paying all of the cleanup costs. Plus he said Norfolk Southern committed to meaningful safety improvements

    “This settlement is historic in many ways and will begin to make up for some of the damage caused to the residents of East Palestine. And it would absolutely push the industry in the direction that we would like for the industry to go,” Regan said. “Again, if some of these provisions that we’ve secured and locked in had been in place, we may not even be where we are today. ”

    But the railroad won’t face criminal charges, and this latest settlement won’t add anything to Norfolk Southern’s roughly $1.7 billion in total costs related to the derailment because the Atlanta-based company was already anticipating those costs.

    Neither this federal settlement nor the class action settlement seem like enough to Krissy Ferguson.

    “Slaps on the wrist. A $15 million fine? And I can never go back to my home again?” Ferguson said.

    But resident Misti Allison said it is encouraging to see the investigations and lawsuits against the railroad start to wrap up, and the cleanup is expected to be done sometime later this year.

    “I think this is a great step, but let’s continue to make sure the community is made whole,” Allison said.

    The safety improvements Norfolk Southern promised to follow through on include adding about 200 more trackside detectors to spot overheating bearings. It has also promised to invest in more than a dozen advanced inspection portals that use an array of cameras to take hundreds of pictures of every passing railcar. The railroad estimated that those improvements will cost $244 million through 2025.

    A bill in Congress that would require Norfolk Southern and the rest of the major freight railroads to make more significant changes has stalled, although the industry has promised to make improvements on its own.

    Norfolk Southern officials said they believe the relatively small size of this settlement reflects how much the railroad has already done, including paying $780 million in cleanup costs and providing $107 million in aid to residents and the communities affected.

    “We are pleased we were able to reach a timely resolution of these investigations that recognizes our comprehensive response to the community’s needs and our mission to be the gold standard of safety in the rail industry,” CEO Alan Shaw said. “We will continue keeping our promises and are invested in the community’s future for the long haul.”

    After Thursday’s announcement, the only remaining federal investigation is the National Transportation Safety Board’s probe into the cause of the Feb. 3, 2023, derailment. That agency plans to announce its conclusions about what went wrong that night at a hearing in East Palestine on June 25. Republicans in Congress have said they might be willing to look at rail safety reforms after that report.

    Ferguson said it feels like Norfolk Southern is rushing to resolve things before the NTSB report comes out.

    The NTSB has said previously that the derailment was likely caused by an overheating bearing that wasn’t caught in time by the trackside detectors the railroad relies on to spot mechanical problems. The head of the NTSB also said that the five tank cars filled with vinyl chloride didn’t need to be blown open to prevent an explosion because they were actually starting to cool off even though the fire continued to burn around them.

    The railroad is still working to resolve a lawsuit Ohio filed against it after the derailment.

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  • Senate passes bill improving air safety and service for travelers, a day before FAA law expires

    Senate passes bill improving air safety and service for travelers, a day before FAA law expires

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    WASHINGTON — The Senate has passed a $105 billion bill designed to improve air safety and customer service for air travelers, a day before the law governing the Federal Aviation Administration expires.

    The bipartisan bill, which comes after a series of close calls between planes at the nation’s airports, would boost the number of air traffic controllers, improve safety standards and make it easier for customers to get refunds after flights are delayed or canceled.

    It passed the Senate 88-4. The legislation now goes to the House, which is out of session until next week. The Senate also passed a one-week extension that would give the House time to pass the bill while ensuring the FAA isn’t forced to furlough around 3,600 employees.

    The bill stalled for several days this week after senators from Virginia and Maryland objected to a provision that would allow an additional 10 flights a day to and from the heavily trafficked Reagan Washington National Airport. Other senators have tried to add unrelated provisions, as well, seeing it as a prime chance to enact their legislative priorities.

    But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called a vote Thursday evening after it became clear that senators would not be able to agree on amendments to the bill before it expired. After the bill passed, leaders in both parties worked out how to pass an extension and ensure the law does not expire Friday. The House passed a one-week extension earlier this week.

    The FAA has been under scrutiny since it approved Boeing jets that were involved in two deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019. The Senate legislation would govern FAA operations for the next five years and put several new safety standards in place.

    The bill would increase the number of air traffic controllers and require the FAA to use new technology designed to prevent collisions between planes on runways. It would require new airline planes to have cockpit voice recorders capable of saving 25 hours of audio, up from the current two hours, to help investigators.

    It would also try to improve customer service for flyers by requiring airlines to pay a refund to customers for flight delays — three hours for a domestic flight and six for an international one. Lawmakers tweaked the bill this week to make it even easier for customers to receive refunds, revising language that would have put most of the onus on the customer to request them. The change put the Senate bill more in line with new regulations issued by President Joe Biden’s administration last week.

    In addition, the bill would prohibit airlines from charging extra for families to sit together and triple the maximum fines for airlines that violate consumer laws. And it would require the Transportation Department to create a “dashboard” so consumers can compare seat sizes on different airlines.

    The FAA says that if the law expires Friday, the 3,600 employees would be furloughed without a guarantee of back pay starting at midnight. The agency would also be unable to collect daily airport fees that help pay for operations, and ongoing airport improvements would come to a halt.

    No one in “safety critical” positions — like air traffic controllers — would be affected if the deadline is missed, the FAA says, and the safety of the flying public would not be at risk.

    Still, failure to pass the popular bipartisan bill by May 10 would be the latest setback after months of delays on the measure, and another example of Congress struggling to pass major legislation, even when it has broad support.

    Opening the Senate on Thursday, Schumer urged senators to come to an agreement soon. “Absolutely nobody should want us to slip past the deadline because that would needlessly increase risks for so many travelers and so many federal workers,” he said.

    Virginia Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, both Democrats, had pushed for a vote on their amendment to block the additional long-haul flights at Virginia’s Reagan National. They say the airport is restricted in size and too busy already, pointing to a close call there between two planes earlier in April that they said is a “flashing red warning light.”

    Several Western lawmakers have argued for more flights at the airport, saying it is unfair to consumers that there is a restriction on long-haul flights. The provision’s chief proponent is Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, the top Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, who has argued that San Antonio should have a direct flight from the airport. Cruz blocked a vote on Kaine and Warner’s amendment when Schumer tried to bring it up shortly before final passage.

    Airlines are also split on the idea of additional flights at Reagan National. Delta Airlines has argued for more flights, while United Airlines, with a major operation at farther-out Dulles Airport, has lobbied against the increase.

    The House last year passed its own version of the FAA legislation without additional Reagan National flights after intense, last-minute lobbying from the Virginia delegation — a bipartisan vote on an amendment to the FAA bill that saw members aligning not by party but geographic location. Lawmakers use the airport frequently as it’s the closest Washington airport to the Capitol, and Congress has long tried to have a say in which routes have service there.

    “Some of our colleagues were too afraid to let the experts make the call,” Kaine and Warner said in a statement Thursday evening. “They didn’t want to show the American people that they care more about a few lawmakers’ desire for direct flights than they care about the safety and convenience of the traveling public. That is shameful and an embarrassment.”

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  • Stock market today: Wall Street holds steady after its 3-day winning streak

    Stock market today: Wall Street holds steady after its 3-day winning streak

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    NEW YORK — U.S. stocks are holding relatively steady Tuesday as trading on Wall Street calms following some sharp recent swings.

    The S&P 500 was 0.2% higher in afternoon trading, coming off a strong three-day winning streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 42 points, or 0.1%, as of 1:00 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% higher.

    Kenvue, the company whose brands include Band-Aids and Tylenol, rose 6.1% after topping analysts’ forecasts for both profit and revenue in the latest quarter.

    The Walt Disney Co. sank 10% despite reporting stronger results for its latest quarter than analysts expected. Its revenue fell a bit shy of forecasts, and it expects its entertainment streaming business to soften in the current quarter.

    They’re among the tail end of companies reporting their results for the first three months of the year. The majority of companies has so far been beating forecasts for earnings, but they’re not getting as big a boost to their stock prices afterward as they usually do, according to FactSet. Not only that, companies that fall short of profit expectations have seen their stock prices sink by more the following day than they have historically.

    That could suggest investors are listening to critics who have been calling the U.S. stock market broadly too expensive following its run to records this year. For stock prices to climb further, either profits will need to grow more dynamically or interest rates will need to fall.

    The latter still looks like a possibility on Wall Street following some events last week that traders found encouraging.

    Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell strongly suggested the central bank is still closer to cutting its main interest rate than hiking it, despite a string of stubbornly high readings on inflation this year. A cooler-than-expected jobs report on Friday, meanwhile, suggested the U.S. economy could pull off the balancing act of staying solid enough to avoid a bad recession without being so strong that it keeps inflation too high.

    After charging higher through the start of this year as hopes dimmed for cuts to interest rates by the Federal Reserve, Treasury yields have been regressing this month to offer some relief for the stock market.

    The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.43% from 4.49% late Monday. The two-year yield, which moves more closely with expectations for the Fed, slipped to 4.81% from 4.83%.

    While yields have been declining over the last week, strategists at Wells Fargo Investment Institute still expect long-term yields to remain high for a while. That’s in part because expectations are broadly for inflation to remain higher than hopes for some time. Luis Alvarado, global fixed income strategist, believes the 10-year yield will likely remain near its recent range.

    Elsewhere on Wall Street, Crocs jumped 7.3% after reporting better profit and revenue than expected. It benefited from strong growth internationally.

    International Flavors & Fragrances, which makes ingredients used in food and perfume, gained 4.9% after reporting better profit and revenue than expected. It also said it expects its revenue for the full year to come in at the higher end of its forecasted range.

    Lucid Group tumbled 13.3% after the electric-vehicle maker reported a worse loss for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

    Builders FirstSource fell 18.5% despite topping forecasts for profit and revenue. The supplier of building products said a weakening multi-family market and higher mortgage rates were creating challenges, and its forecast for how much cash it will generate this year came in below some analysts’ expectations.

    In stock markets abroad, indexes jumped 2.2% in Seoul and 1.6% in Tokyo but were mixed in the rest of Asia. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 advanced 1.4% after the central bank decided to keep interest rates unchanged.

    European stock indexes also rose.

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    AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

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  • Stock market today: Asian shares mostly higher, though China benchmarks falter

    Stock market today: Asian shares mostly higher, though China benchmarks falter

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    Asian markets forged higher Tuesday after another day of gains on Wall Street, although Hong Kong’s benchmark faltered.

    U.S. futures were nearly flat and oil prices edged higher.

    Tokyo’s Nikkei 225, reopening after a national holiday, jumped 1.6% to 38,835.10. Gains were led by semiconductor companies like Tokyo Electron, which closed 4.8% higher, and Advantest, which picked up 2.2%.

    The Kospi in South Korea surged 2.1% to 2,731.83, helped by big tech companies like Samsung Electronics, which racked up a 4.5% gain, and smaller rival SK Hynix, which added 3.7%.

    Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.5% to 18,470.90. But the Shanghai Composite index recovered from early losses, gaining 0.3% to 3,148.56.

    Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 advanced 1.3% to 7,781.70 after the central bank decided to keep interest rates unchanged at 4.35%.

    While the Reserve Bank of Australia has likely set the bar high for any rate hikes, it “will probably need to see several more months of soft data before it is confident that it can loosen policy settings. All told, rate cuts will likely take longer to materialize than most are anticipating,” Abhijit Surya of Capital Economics said in a commentary.

    Taiwan’s Taiex was up 0.6%, while India’s Sensex gave up 0.7% as the country began the third phase of its weeks’ long national elections process.

    On Monday, the S&P 500 rose 1% to 5,180.74. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.5% to 38,852.27, and the Nasdaq composite jumped 1.2% to 16,349.25.

    Tech stocks were at the forefront, with familiar ringleaders Nvidia and Super Micro Computer again pulling the market higher. They’ve had a couple hiccups recently, but a frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology has Nvidia up 86.1% for the year so far after Monday’s 3.8% gain. Super Micro is up 192.1% after its gain of 6.1%.

    Berkshire Hathaway added 1% after Warren Buffett’s company reported its latest quarterly results over the weekend.

    It helped to offset a 9.7% slide for Spirit Airlines, which reported a slightly worse loss than expected. The carrier said it’s facing increased competition in many of its markets, particularly between the United States and Latin America.

    Apple slipped 0.9% after Berkshire Hathaway revealed it had pared its stake in the tech giant.

    The U.S. stock market has been swinging since setting a record at the end of March. It sunk for weeks on fears that stubbornly high inflation would prevent or at least delay the Federal Reserve from delivering the cuts to interest rates that Wall Street craves.

    But markets found a burst of optimism at the end of last week following a cooler-than-expected jobs report. It suggested the U.S. economy could nail the tightrope walk of staying strong enough to avoid a bad recession, but not so firm that it puts too much upward pressure on inflation.

    Traders are betting on a nearly 89% chance that the Fed will cut its main interest rate at least once before the end of the year, according to data from CME Group. That’s up from from an 81.6% probability seen a week earlier. Lower rates would help ease the pressure on the economy and financial system.

    Goldman Sachs economist David Mericle said he still expects two cuts to rates this year, in July and November, after Fed Chair Jerome Powell “pushed back strongly against the possibility of further rate hikes” at his press conference last week.

    This week is relatively quiet. The bulk of companies in the S&P 500 have already reported their earnings for the first three months of the year, with more than three-quarters topping profit expectations, according to FactSet.

    But several more big names are still on the way, including The Walt Disney Co. and Uber Technologies.

    Corporate profit reports have been better than expected not just in the United States but also in Europe and Japan, according to strategists at Deutsche Bank. Global earnings growth is on track for a second straight quarter of growth following four consecutive declines.

    In other trading, benchmark U.S. crude oil added 24 cents to $78.72 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It gained 37 cents on Monday.

    Brent crude, the international standard, was also up 24 cents at $83.57 per barrel.

    The dollar rose to 154.49 Japanese yen from 153.90 yen. The euro was nearly unchanged at $1.0769.

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  • Macron puts trade and Ukraine as top priorities as China’s Xi opens European visit in France

    Macron puts trade and Ukraine as top priorities as China’s Xi opens European visit in France

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    PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron put trade disputes and Ukraine-related diplomatic efforts on top of the agenda for talks Monday with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who arrived in France for a two-day state visit opening his European tour.

    In Paris, Xi first joined a meeting with Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen meant to address broader European Union concerns. The discussions will be closely watched from Washington, a month before President Joe Biden is expected to pay his own state visit to France.

    In his introductory remarks, Macron said the meeting would address trade issues and how to ensure “fair competition,” then the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. France seeks to convince China to use its influence to move Russia toward ending the war in Ukraine.

    “We are at a turning point in our history” as the Europe-China relationship faces challenges, Macron said, adding that “the future of our continent will very clearly also depend on our ability to develop balanced relations with China.”

    At the start of the meeting, Xi said “the world today has entered a new period of turbulence and change,” adding that “as two important forces in the world, China and Europe should … continuously make new contributions to world peace and development.”

    Xi’s European trip, the first in five years, seeks to rebuild relations at a time of global tensions. After France on Monday and Tuesday, he will head to Serbia and Hungary.

    Macron, a strong advocate of Europe’s economic sovereignty, raised French concerns about a Chinese anti-dumping investigation into cognac and other European brandy, and tensions over French cosmetics and other sectors. He recently denounced trade practices of China and the United States as shoring up protections and subsidies.

    The EU launched an investigation last year into Chinese subsidies and could impose tariffs on electric vehicles exported from China. The 27-member bloc last month opened another probe into Chinese wind turbine makers.

    “For trade to be fair, access to both markets needs to be reciprocal,” von der Leyen said after the meeting. “Our market is and remains open to fair competition and to investments, but it is not good for Europe if it harms our security and makes us vulnerable.”

    She said that Europe “will not waver from making tough decisions needed to protect its economy and its security.”

    On Ukraine, von der Leyen urged Xi to stand by China’s commitment not to provide any lethal equipment to Russia. She said she encouraged him to exert more effort to curtail dual use goods to Russia that end up on the battlefield in Ukraine.

    “Given the existential nature stemming from this threat for both Ukraine and Europe, this does affect the EU-China relations,” she said.

    China claims neutrality in the Ukraine war. Last year, Macron appealed to Xi to “bring Russia to its senses,” but the call was not followed by any apparent action by Beijing.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin recently announced plans to visit China this month.

    As France prepares to host the Summer Olympics, Macron said he would ask Xi to use his influence to make the Games “a diplomatic moment of peace.”

    “French authorities are pursuing two objectives that are ultimately contradictory,” said Marc Julienne, director of the Center for Asian Studies at the French Institute of International Relations. “In short, we think that Xi can help us, but at the same time we fear that he could help Putin.”

    Xi’s visit marks the 60th anniversary of France-China diplomatic relations, and follows Macron’s trip to China in April 2023. Macron prompted controversy on that trip when he said France wouldn’t blindly follow the U.S. in getting involved in crises that are not its concern, apparently referring to China’s demands for unification with Taiwan.

    Several groups — including International Campaign for Tibet and France’s Human Rights League — urged Macron to put human rights issues at the heart of his talks with Xi. Protesters demonstrated in Paris as Xi arrived on Sunday, calling for a free Tibet.

    Amnesty International called on Macron to demand the release of Uyghur economics professor Ilham Tohti, who was jailed in China for life in 2014 on charges of promoting separatism, and other imprisoned activists.

    On Monday, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders staged a protest in front of the Arc de Triomphe monument to denounce Xi’s visit, calling the Chinese president “one of the greatest predators of press freedom.” The group says 119 journalists are imprisoned in the country.

    Macron said in an interview published Sunday that he will raise human rights concerns.

    On Monday afternoon, a ceremony took place at the Invalides monument in the presence of both presidents’ wives, Peng Liyuan and Brigitte Macron. Macron and Xi also were to conclude a French-Chinese economic forum and join their wives for a state dinner.

    The second day of the visit is meant to be more personal. Macron has invited Xi to visit the Tourmalet Pass in the Pyrenees mountains, where the French leader spent time as a child to see his grandmother. The trip is meant to be a reciprocal gesture after Xi took Macron last year to the residence of the governor of Guangdong province, where his father once lived.

    ___

    Associated Press writers Barbara Surk in Nice, France; Angela Charlton in Paris and Stephen Graham in Berlin contributed to this story.

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  • Trump Media’s newly hired auditing firm was just busted by the SEC for ‘massive fraud’

    Trump Media’s newly hired auditing firm was just busted by the SEC for ‘massive fraud’

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    SAN FRANCISCO — The Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday charged an auditing firm hired by Trump Media and Technology Group just 37 days ago with “massive fraud” — though not for any work it performed for former President Donald Trump’s media company.

    The SEC charged the accounting firm BF Borgers and its owner, Benjamin F. Borgers, with “deliberate and systematic failures” in more than 1,500 audits. The charges include failing to abide by accounting rules, fabricating documentation to cover up its shortcomings, and falsely stating in audit reports that its work met audit standards.

    To settle the SEC charges, BF Borgers agreed to pay a $12 million fine while its owner agreed to pay a fine of $2 million, according to the SEC. Benjamin Borgers did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

    BF Borgers and Benjamin Borgers also agreed to permanent suspensions, effective immediately, that will prevent them handling SEC-related matters as accountants.

    Trump Media named BF Borgers as its auditor on March 28, according to the company’s most recent annual report filing. The company disclosed at the time that BF Borgers had also handled its audits before the company went public by merging with a cash-rich shell company called Digital World Acquisition Corp.

    The company had previously cycled through at least two other auditors — one that resigned the account in July 2023 and another that was terminated by the board in March, just as it was re-hiring BF Borgers.

    In a statement, Trump Media said it “looks forward to working with new auditing partners in accordance with today’s SEC order.”

    The SEC found that BF Borgers’ shortcuts included copying audit documentation from a previous year, changing relevant dates and then passing it off as current documentation. In addition to falsely documenting work that was never actually done, that fake documentation detailed planning meetings with clients that never occurred and “falsely represented” that both Benjamin Borgers and another reviewer had approved the audit work.

    “Ben Borgers and his audit firm, BF Borgers, were responsible for one of the largest wholesale failures by gatekeepers in our financial markets,” said Gurbir Grewal, director of the SEC’s enforcement division. “Thanks to the painstaking work of the SEC staff, Borgers and his sham audit mill have been permanently shut down.”

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  • US jobs report for April will likely point to a slower but still-strong pace of hiring

    US jobs report for April will likely point to a slower but still-strong pace of hiring

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    WASHINGTON — The American economy likely delivered another solid hiring gain in April, showing continuing durability in the face of the highest interest rates in two decades.

    The Labor Department is expected to report Friday that employers added a healthy 233,000 jobs last month, down from a sizzling 303,000 in March but still a decidedly healthy total, according to a survey of forecasters by the data firm FactSet.

    The unemployment rate is forecast to stay at 3.8%. That would make it the 27th straight month with a jobless rate below 4% — the longest such streak since the 1960s.

    The state of the economy is weighing on voters’ minds as the November presidential campaign intensifies. Despite the strength of the job market, Americans remain generally exasperated by high prices, and many of them assign blame to President Joe Biden.

    Yet America’s job market has repeatedly proved more robust than almost anyone had predicted. When the Federal Reserve began aggressively raising rates two years ago to fight a punishing inflation surge, most economists expected the resulting jump in borrowing costs to cause a recession and drive unemployment to painfully high levels.

    The Fed raised its benchmark rate 11 times from March 2022 to July 2023, taking it to the highest level since 2001. Inflation did steadily cool as it was supposed to — from a year-over-year peak of 9.1% in June 2022 to 3.5% in March.

    Yet the resilient strength of the job market and the overall economy, fueled by steady consumer spending, has kept inflation persistently above the Fed’s 2% target. As a result, the Fed is delaying any consideration of interest rate cuts until it gains more confidence that inflation is steadily slowing toward its target.

    So far this year, monthly job growth is averaging 276,000, up from an already solid 251,000 last year.

    “If you look at the last couple of months, it has been a safe bet to take the optimistic side,’’ said Aaron Terrazas, chief economist at the employment website Glassdoor.

    That said, the job market has been showing some signs of eventually slowing. This week, for example, the government reported that job openings fell in March to 8.5 million, the fewest in more than three years. Yet that is still a vast number of vacancies: Before 2021, monthly job openings had never topped 8 million, a threshold they have now exceeded every month since March 2021.

    The number of Americans quitting their jobs — a figure that generally reflects confidence in finding a better position elsewhere — fell in March to its lowest level since January 2021.

    A more stable workforce, Terrazas said, is helping many businesses run more efficiently.

    “When firms have high numbers of workers quitting,” he said, “that takes up time to find and train new workers. It’s incredibly destructive at the company level.”

    Now, “there are finally people in seat who know what they’re doing, know the processes, know the systems. You don’t need to waste a lot of resources on training.”

    Economists have noted that hiring has recently been concentrated in three employment sectors: healthcare and social assistance; leisure and hospitality (largely hotels, restaurants and bars); and government. Those three categories accounted for nearly 70% of job growth in March.

    More concerningly, the progress against inflation has stalled, raising doubts about the likely timetable for Fed rate cuts, which would, over time, reduce the cost of mortgages, auto loans and other consumer and business borrowing. Most economists envision no rate cuts before fall at the earliest.

    On a month-over-month basis, consumer inflation hasn’t declined since October. The 3.5% year-over-year inflation rate for March was still running well above the Fed’s 2% target.

    The central bank’s inflation fighters will be watching Friday’s jobs report for any signs that the inflation picture might be shifting. From the Fed’s perspective, Terrazas said, “the best outcome we can hope for Friday is slower but still solid payroll growth, steady employment and, most importantly, slowing wage pressure.”

    Many economists say that year-over-year increases in hourly pay must slow to about 3.5% to be consistent with the Fed’s inflation goals. That probably didn’t happen last month: The forecasters surveyed by FactSet project that hourly wages rose 4% from a year earlier, just below the 4.1% year-over-year rise in March.

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  • Stock market today: Global markets wobble after Fed sticks with current interest rates

    Stock market today: Global markets wobble after Fed sticks with current interest rates

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    HONG KONG — World markets wobbled in Thursday trading after U.S. stocks swung to a mixed finish with the Federal Reserve delaying cuts to interest rates.

    U.S. shares were set to rise, as the futures for the S&P 500 surged 0.5% and for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were 0.4% higher.

    European markets opened mixed ahead of a busy day for corporate earnings. London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.4% to 8,155.28 in early trading. Germany’s DAX edged less than 0.1% lower to 17,925.06 and the CAC 40 in Paris lost 0.7% to 7,926.97.

    Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index slipped 0.1% and closed at 38,236.07.

    The Japanese yen surged as much as 2% in early Asia hours Thursday, driven by speculation of another round of yen-buying intervention by Japanese authorities and a weaker U.S. dollar following the Fed meeting. Later, the yen reversed its course and erased its previous gains. The dollar was trading at 155.44 yen, up from 154.91 yen.

    “As expected, Japan’s Ministry of Finance, via the Bank of Japan, was back selling U.S. dollars to stabilize the yen. Indeed, the Japanese government is digging into their sizable 1.2 trillion USD war chest, looking to take profit on the dollar they bought back in 2000,” Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, said in a commentary. He said the hope was to stabilize the yen at around 155-157 to the dollar.

    In South Korea, the Kospi was down 0.3% to 2,683.65 after official data showed consumer prices in April rose 2.9% year on year, a slower pace compared to March.

    Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index added 2.4% to 18,187.56. Other markets in China remained closed for the Labor Day holiday.

    Elsewhere, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.2% to 7,587.00.

    On Wednesday, the S&P 500 fell 0.3% to 5,018.39 after the Fed held its main interest rate at its highest level since 2001, just as markets expected. The index had rallied as much as 1.2% in the afternoon before giving up all the gains at the end of trading.

    The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2% to 37,903.29, and the Nasdaq composite lost 0.3% to 15,605.48.

    On the downside for financial markets, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said out loud the fear that’s recently sent stock prices lower and erased traders’ hopes for imminent cuts in interest rates: “In recent months, inflation has shown a lack of further progress toward our 2% objective.” He also said that it will likely take “longer than previously expected” to get confident enough to cut rates, a move that would ease pressure on the economy and investment prices.

    At the same time, though, Powell calmed a fear swirling in the market that inflation has remained so high that additional hikes to rates may be necessary.

    “I think it’s unlikely that the next policy rate move will be a hike,” he said.

    The Fed also offered financial markets some assistance by saying it would slow the pace of how much it’s shrinking its holdings of Treasurys. Such a move could grease the trading wheels in the financial system, offering stability in the bond market.

    Traders themselves had already downshifted their expectations for rate cuts this year to one or two, if any, after coming into the year forecasting six or more.

    Powell had already hinted rates may stay high for a while. That was a disappointment for Wall Street after the Fed earlier had indicated it was penciling in three cuts to rates during 2024.

    In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude ended three days of decline and rose 58 cents to $79.58 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, was up 69 cents to $84.13 a barrel.

    In currency trading, the euro cost $1.0713, up from $1.0709.

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  • Federal Reserve says interest rates will stay at two-decade high until inflation further cools

    Federal Reserve says interest rates will stay at two-decade high until inflation further cools

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    WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve on Wednesday emphasized that inflation has remained stubbornly high in recent months and said it doesn’t plan to cut interest rates until it has “greater confidence” that price increases are slowing sustainably to its 2% target.

    The Fed issued its decision in a statement after its latest meeting, at which it kept its key rate at a two-decade high of roughly 5.3%. Several hotter-than-expected reports on prices and economic growth have recently undercut the Fed’s belief that inflation was steadily easing. The combination of high interest rates and persistent inflation has also emerged as a potential threat to President Joe Biden’s re-election bid.

    “In recent months,” Chair Jerome Powell said at a news conference, “inflation has shown a lack of further progress toward our 2% objective.”

    “It is likely that gaining greater confidence,” Powell added, “will take longer than previously expected.”

    The Fed chair stressed, as he has before, that the central bank’s decision on when to cut rates will depend on the latest economic data.

    The central bank’s latest message reflects an abrupt shift in its timetable on interest rates. As recently as their last meeting on March 20, the Fed’s policymakers had projected three rate reductions in 2024, likely starting in June. Rate cuts by the Fed would lead, over time, to lower borrowing costs for consumers and businesses, including for mortgages, auto loans and credit cards.

    But given the persistence of elevated inflation, financial markets now expect just one rate cut this year, in November, according to futures prices tracked by CME FedWatch.

    The Fed’s more cautious outlook stems from three months of data that pointed to chronic inflation pressures and robust consumer spending. Inflation has cooled from a peak of 7.1%, according to the Fed’s preferred measure, to 2.7%, as supply chains have eased and the cost of some goods has actually declined.

    Average prices, though, remain well above their pre-pandemic levels, and the costs of services ranging from apartment rents and health care to restaurant meals and auto insurance continue to surge. With the presidential election six months away, many Americans have expressed discontent with the economy, notably over the pace of price increases.

    On Wednesday, the Fed also said it would slow the pace at which it’s unwinding one of its biggest COVID-era policies: Its purchase of several trillion dollars in Treasury securities and mortgage-backed bonds, an effort to stabilize financial markets and keep longer-term rates low.

    The Fed is now allowing $95 billion of those securities to mature each month, without replacing them. Its holdings have fallen to about $7.4 trillion, down from $8.9 trillion in June 2022, when it began reducing them. On Wednesday, the Fed said it would, in June, reduce its holdings at a slower pace, and allow a total of $60 billion of bonds to run off each month.

    By cutting back its holdings, the Fed could contribute to keeping longer-term rates, including mortgage rates, higher than they would be otherwise. That’s because as it reduces its bond holdings, other buyers will have to buy the securities instead, and rates might have to rise to attract the needed buyers.

    The U.S. economy is healthier and hiring stronger than most economists thought it would be at this point. The unemployment rate has remained below 4% for more than two years, the longest such streak since the 1960s. And while economic growth reached just a 1.6% annual pace in the first three months of this year, consumer spending grew at a robust pace, a sign that the economy will keep expanding.

    That economic strength has led some Fed officials to speculate that the current level of interest rates might not be high enough to have the cooling effect on the economy and inflation that they need — and that the policymakers might even need to switch back to rate increases.

    But at Wednesday’s news conference, Powell sought to dispel such speculation, saying, “I think it’s unlikely that the next policy rate move will be a hike.”

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  • Regulators close Philadelphia-based Republic First Bank, first US bank failure this year

    Regulators close Philadelphia-based Republic First Bank, first US bank failure this year

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    WASHINGTON — Regulators have closed Republic First Bank, a regional lender operating in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.

    The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Friday it had seized the Philadelphia-based bank, which did business as Republic Bank and had roughly $6 billion in assets and $4 billion in deposits as of Jan. 31.

    Fulton Bank, which is based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, agreed to assume substantially all of the failed bank’s deposits and buy essentially all of its assets, the agency said.

    Republic Bank’s 32 branches will reopen as branches of Fulton Bank as early as Saturday. Republic First Bank depositors can access their funds via checks or ATMs as early as Friday night, the FDIC said.

    The bank’s failure is expected to cost the deposit insurance fund $667 million.

    The lender is the first FDIC-insured institution to fail in the U.S. this year. The last bank failure — Citizens Bank, based in Sac City, Iowa — was in November.

    In a strong economy an average of only four or five banks close each year.

    Rising interest rates and falling commercial real estate values, especially for office buildings grappling with surging vacancy rates following the pandemic, have heightened the financial risks for many regional and community banks. Outstanding loans backed by properties that have lost value make them a challenge to refinance.

    Last month, an investor group including Steven Mnuchin, who served as U.S. Treasury secretary during the Trump administration, agreed to pump more than $1 billion to rescue New York Community Bancorp, which has been hammered by weakness in commercial real estate and growing pains resulting from its buyout of a distressed bank.

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  • New federal rule would bar ‘noncompete’ agreements for most employees

    New federal rule would bar ‘noncompete’ agreements for most employees

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    WASHINGTON — U.S. companies would no longer be able to bar employees from taking jobs with competitors under a rule approved by a federal agency Tuesday, though the rule is sure to be challenged in court.

    The Federal Trade Commission voted Tuesday 3-2 to ban measures known as noncompete agreements, which bar workers from jumping to or starting competing companies for a prescribed period of time. According to the FTC, 30 million people — roughly one in five workers — are now subject to such restrictions.

    The Biden administration has taken aim at noncompete measures, which are commonly associated with high-level executives at technology and financial companies but in recent years have also ensnared lower-paid workers, such as security guards and sandwich-shop employees. A 2021 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis found that more than one in 10 workers who earn $20 or less an hour are covered by noncompete agreements.

    When it proposed the ban in January 2023, FTC officials asserted that noncompete agreements harm workers by reducing their ability to switch jobs for higher pay, a step that often provides most workers with their biggest pay increases. By reducing overall churn in the job market, the agency argued, the measures also disadvantage workers who aren’t covered by them because fewer jobs become available as fewer people leave their positions. They can also hurt the economy overall by limiting the ability of other businesses to hire needed employees, the FTC said.

    The rule, which doesn’t apply to workers at non-profits, is to take effect in four months unless it is blocked by legal challenges.

    “Noncompete clauses keep wages low, suppress new ideas and rob the American economy of dynamism,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said. “We heard from employees who, because of noncompetes, were stuck in abusive workplaces.”

    Some doctors, she added, have been prevented from practicing medicine after leaving practices.

    Business groups have criticized the measure as casting too wide a net by blocking nearly all noncompetes. They argue that highly paid executives are often able to win greater pay in return for accepting a noncompete.

    “It’ll represent a sea change,” said Amanda Sonneborn, a partner at King & Spalding in Chicago who represents employers that use noncompetes. “They don’t want somebody to go to a competitor and take their customer list or take their information about their business strategy to that competitor.”

    But Alexander Hertzel-Fernandez, a professor at Columbia University who is a former Biden administration Labor Department official, argued that lower-income workers don’t have the ability to negotiate over such provisions.

    “When they get their job offer,” he said, “it’s really a take-it-or-leave-it-as-a-whole,” he said.

    The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said Tuesday that it will file a lawsuit to block the rule. It accused the FTC of overstepping its authority.

    “Noncompete agreements are either upheld or dismissed under well-established state laws governing their use,” said Suzanne Clark, the chamber’s CEO. “Yet today, three unelected commissioners have unilaterally decided they have the authority to declare what’s a legitimate business decision and what’s not by moving to ban noncompete agreements in all sectors of the economy.”

    Two Republican appointees to the FTC, Melissa Holyoak and Andrew Ferguson, voted against the proposal. They asserted that the agency was exceeding its authority by approving such a sweeping rule.

    Noncompete agreements are banned in three states, including California, and some opponents of noncompetes argue that California’s ban has been a key contributor to that state’s innovative tech economy.

    John Lettieri, CEO of the Economic Innovation Group, a tech-backed think tank, argues that the ability of early innovators to leave one company and start a competitor was key to the development of the semiconductor industry.

    “The birth of so many important foundational companies could not have happened, at least not in the same way or on the same timeline and definitely not in the same place, had it not been for the ability of entrepreneurs to spin out, start their own companies, or go to a better company,” Lettieri said.

    The White House has been stepping up its efforts to protect workers as the presidential campaign heats up. On Tuesday, the Labor Department issued a rule that would guarantee overtime pay for more lower-paid workers. The rule would increase the required minimum salary level to exempt an employee from overtime pay, from about $35,600 currently to nearly $43,900 effective July 1 and $58,700 by Jan. 1, 2025.

    Companies will be required to pay overtime for workers below those thresholds who work more than 40 hours a week.

    “This rule will restore the promise to workers that if you work more than 40 hours in a week, you should be paid more for that time,” said Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su.

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  • Earth Day: How one grocery shopper takes steps to avoid ‘pointless plastic’

    Earth Day: How one grocery shopper takes steps to avoid ‘pointless plastic’

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    ALBANY, N.Y. — Nature wraps bananas and oranges in peels. But in some modern supermarkets, they’re bagged or wrapped in plastic too.

    For Judith Enck, that’s the epitome of pointless plastic. The baby food aisle is similarly distressing for her, with its rows and rows of blended fruits, vegetables and meat in single-use pouches that have replaced glass jars.

    Less than 10% of plastic is recycled. Most is buried, burned or dumped. Recycling rates for glass, aluminum and cardboard are far higher. And cardboard or paper packaging is biodegradable.

    The global theme for Earth Day on Monday is planet vs. plastic. Plastic production continues to ramp up globally and is projected to triple by 2050 if nothing changes. Most of it is made from fossil fuels and chemicals. As the world transitions away from using fossil fuels for electricity and transportation, plastics offer a lifeboat for oil and gas companies as a market that can grow.

    The Earth Day environmental movement is calling for “the end of plastics for the sake of human and planetary health.” People are increasingly breathing, eating and drinking tiny particles of plastic, though researchers say more work is necessary to determine its effect on human health. Millions of tons of plastic wind up in the ocean each year.

    This week, thousands of negotiators and observers representing most of the world’s nations are gathering in Ottawa to craft a treaty to try to end the rapidly escalating levels of plastic pollution.

    Plastic is everywhere in modern society. That’s evident whenever you go grocery shopping, said Enck, a former Environmental Protection Agency regional administrator who now heads up the advocacy group Beyond Plastics. There are things shoppers can do if they want to use less plastic.

    On a recent trip to the Honest Weight Food Co-op in Albany, Enck bought almond butter and yogurt in glass containers. She asked that her fish be wrapped in paper and not placed in a plastic bag. She steered clear of bagged carrots and breezed past the lettuce packed in what she calls “plastic coffins.”

    She keeps reusable shopping bags in her car, a common practice in New York since the state banned plastic carryout bags several years ago.

    “Even small steps make a difference because big supermarkets notice when people ask for less packaged material. Also, our kids pay attention. If they’re shopping with us and you talk about why you’re reaching for the glass jar rather than the plastic jar, it’s an opportunity for education,” she said.

    This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

    AP: How do you avoid plastic packaging and products at the grocery store?

    I tell everyone you’re not going to be perfect, but do the best you can and focus on things you buy most often. I just could not keep buying those plastic orange juice jugs. So what I did on the juice was, I bought a really nice glass pitcher with a lid on it. And for juices and lemonade, I only buy the frozen concentrate. You avoid the plastic altogether. It takes a little bit of time to melt it and add three cans of water. But most people can manage that.

    AP: Many shoppers start in the produce aisle. What are some tips?

    I bring reusable cloth produce bags because I don’t want to use those thin plastic bags. So if I need a couple of apples, a couple of avocados, I’ll put them right into my reusable produce bag. I try to buy loose carrots rather than carved carrots in little plastic bags. I will never, ever buy bananas if they’re in a plastic bag, which in my store they usually are not, but I have seen that sometimes. It’s pretty easy to buy loose peppers. I never put broccoli into a plastic bag. You know, you don’t need a lot of those produce bags.

    The real dilemma is the fresh berries. Now they do come in number two plastic, which is supposed to be recyclable. I know that Driscoll’s is starting to sell strawberries in a little cardboard box, which I am waiting for.

    AP: What do you do when plastic is unavoidable?

    For crackers, you can recycle the outside box if it’s cardboard, but then there’s usually a plastic bag inside or a waxy bag that you can’t recycle. But you can use that waxy bag or those little plastic bags if you have pets. I don’t have a pet, but my friends use bread bags and chip bags when they pick up pet poop. So why buy pet poop bags, you can just save those.

    I do use regular trash bags. I don’t knock myself out on that. I try not to fill it up. If you can reduce your waste generation, you’re not buying as many bags. I think it’s very important to compost at home if you have the space.

    AP: Where have you seen improvement?

    The household goods aisle. I am excited about the changes. For detergent you can get concentrates. I only use powder in the dishwasher. I strongly recommend that people avoid the plastic pods. And you can recycle the cardboard boxes from the powdered soaps. You don’t have to get it in plastic. I also think the beverage aisle has some real opportunities for recycling. Better than most other aisles.

    AP: What could be done so shoppers have more options?

    The nice thing about paper, cardboard, glass and metal is it can be easily made from recycled content. And it actually is recyclable. You can put it in your recycling bin. And if it gets littered, the paper in the cardboard, in particular, doesn’t stick around for centuries.

    If we were to pass a strong packaging law to reduce plastic packaging at the state or national level, you would have packaging engineers thinking about what happens after the packaging is used. New York is considering a law right now that would reduce plastic packaging. Unless we adopt new laws, it’s not going to change because the voluntary pledges by companies are falling short across the board. That’s the only way to solve this.

    ___

    McDermott reported from Providence, R.I.

    ___

    The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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  • Morning sickness? Prenatal check-ups? What to know about new rights for pregnant workers

    Morning sickness? Prenatal check-ups? What to know about new rights for pregnant workers

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    Pregnant employees have the right to a wide range of accommodations under new federal regulations for enforcing the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act that supporters say could change workplace culture for millions of people.

    The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the agency in charge of enforcing the law, adopted an expansive view of conditions related to pregnancy and childbirth in its proposed regulations, including a controversial decision to include abortion, fertility treatment and birth control as medical issues requiring job protections.

    The rules, which were adopted on a 3-2 vote along partisan lines, were published Monday and offer extensive guidelines for addressing more routine difficulties of pregnancy, such as morning sickness, back pain and needing to avoid heavy lifting. Labor advocates say the law will be especially transformative for pregnant women in low-wage jobs, who are often denied simple requests like more bathroom breaks.

    Here’s what to know about the law and the EEOC regulations.

    Congress passed the law with bipartisan support in December 2022 following a decade-long campaign by women’s rights and labor advocates, who argued that the 1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act did little to guarantee women would receive the accommodations they might need at work.

    The law stated only that pregnant workers should be treated the same as other employees, not that they deserved special consideration. To get their requests met, many pregnant workers therefore needed to demonstrate they had physical limitations covered under the Americans With Disabilities Act, often creating insurmountable hurdles.

    The new law treats pregnancy and related conditions as themselves deserving of “reasonable accommodations” and places the burden on employers to prove “undue hardships” for denying any requests.

    The law applies to employers of at least 15 workers. The EEOC estimates it will cover roughly 1.5 million pregnant workers in any given year. The EEOC regulations published April 15 are set to go into effect in June.

    The EEOC’s 400-page document encompasses a wide array of conditions and relevant advice for employers.

    It states that workers are entitled to unpaid time off for situations such as prenatal appointments, fertility treatments, abortion, miscarriage, postpartum depression and mastitis, an infection that arises from breastfeeding. This includes workers who are not covered by federal family leave laws and those who have not been on the job long enough to accrue time off.

    Workers can ask for flexible working arrangements to deal with morning sickness, such as a later start time, clearance to work from home or permission to carry snacks in workplaces where eating is typically prohibited. If they can’t sit or stand for extended periods due to sciatica, which is common in late pregnancy, they can request a schedule adjustment so their commutes happen during less crowded hours.

    The regulations also allow workers to be exempted from tasks such as climbing ladders or heavy lifting. If those duties are essential to their jobs, they can still request a temporary dispensation, according to the EEOC.

    Employers don’t have to accommodate workers exactly as requested but they must offer reasonable alternatives. They cannot deny a request without clearing a high bar to prove doing so would cause “undue hardships” for the organization’s finances or operations. They cannot force workers to take unpaid leave if a reasonable accommodation is available.

    The EEOC emphasizes that it “should not be complicated or difficult” for pregnant workers to request accommodations. Workers don’t have to make requests in writing, use specific words, cite any laws, or in most cases, provide documentation such as doctors’ notes. Employers must respond quickly and have a conversation about how to reasonably accommodate a worker’s needs.

    Still, legal experts advise both workers and employers to document the process. A Better Balance, the non-profit that spearheaded the 10-year campaign for the law’s passage, advises workers to familiarize themselves with their legal rights and be as specific as possible about their limitations and the changes they they need.

    Workers who believe a request was denied illegally can file a complaint with the EEOC. They have 180 days to do so, though the deadline can be extended in some states.

    The EEOC included abortion among the conditions covered under the law. The rules state, however, that employers are not obligated to cover expenses related to the procedure or to offer health insurance that does.

    The EEOC regulations argue that including abortion is consistent with the agency’s longstanding interpretation of other laws under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, including the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.

    But the decision drew condemnation from Republican lawmakers who had championed the law’s passage. The five-member EEOC’s two Republican members voted against the regulations.

    In a statement explaining her dissent, Commissioner Andrea Lucas said the agency broadened the scope of the law “to reach virtually every condition, circumstance, or procedure that relates to any aspect of the female reproductive system” in ways that “cannot reasonably be reconciled with the text” of the law.

    Melissa Losch, a labor and employment attorney at the New Orleans-based firm McGlinchey Stafford, said she expects the regulations to give rise to further litigation. Losch cited the example of a worker living in a state with a restrictive abortion law requesting time off to undergo the procedure in another state. The EEOC rules provide “no good answer” about whether granting such a request would conflict with restrictive state abortion laws, she added.

    On February 27, a federal judge blocked enforcement of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act for Texas state employees, a ruling that came in response to a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Paxton argued the law was unconstitutional because it was part of a spending bill that passed in the House without a majority of members present, and the judge ruled in his favor.

    Gedmark, of A Better Balance, said she was optimistic the Biden administration would prevail in its expected appeal of the ruling. In the meantime, federal and private sectors workers in Texas are covered by the law.

    But in her dissenting statement, Lucas warned that if the Texas case or any future lawsuits succeed in overturning the law, the EEOC’s divisive rules have “all but extinguished” the chances of a bipartisan effort to reenact it.

    Employers have been obligated to abide by the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act since it took effect on June 27, 2023, though the EEOC regulations provided guidance on how to do so.

    The law swiftly made a difference to many low-wage workers, according to Gedmark.

    A Better Balance, which operates a helpline, has “heard an overwhelmingly positive experience from workers,” she said. Last summer, the organization worked with some women whose employers stopped resisting requests for accommodations as soon as the law took effect, Gedmark said.

    Some workers reported their employers were still operating under the old legal framework, handing them pages of disability paperwork to fill out in response to requests.

    The EEOC said it received almost 200 complaints alleging violations of the law by the time the fiscal year ended on Sept. 30, 2023.

    Gedmark said the success of the law will depend on enforcement and raising awareness.

    “If workers don’t know about the law and don’t know about their rights, then it really undermines the purpose of the law,” she said.

    ____

    The Associated Press’ women in the workforce and state government coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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  • Stock market today: Asian shares gain despite Wall Street’s tech-led retreat

    Stock market today: Asian shares gain despite Wall Street’s tech-led retreat

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    Asian shares advanced on Thursday even after sinking technology stocks sent Wall Street lower in the S&P 500’s worse losing streak since the start of the year.

    U.S. futures were lower, while oil prices gained.

    Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 climbed 0.3% to 38,079.70 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong gained 1.3% to 16,468.07.

    The Shanghai Composite index added 0.6% to 3,089.02.

    South Korea’s Kospi led the region’s gains, surging 2.2% to 2,642.02.

    In Australia, the S&P/ASX 500 rose 0.4% to 7,638.10.

    On Wednesday, the S&P 500 lost 0.6%, to 5,022.21. It’s down 4.4% since setting a record late last month.

    The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.1% to 37,753.31, and the Nasdaq composite sank 1.1% to 15,683.37.

    Tech stocks slumped after ASML, a Dutch company that’s a major supplier to the semiconductor industry, reported weaker orders for the start of 2024 than analysts expected. Its stock trading in the United States slumped 7.1%.

    Nvidia dropped 3.9%, and Broadcom sank 3.5% to serve as the two heaviest weights on the S&P 500.

    The weakness for tech overshadowed stronger-than-expected profit reports from some big companies, including United Airlines. It soared 17.4% after reporting stronger results for the start of the year than analysts expected, lifted by strong demand from business fliers.

    Sharp tumbles for oil prices lessened investors’ worries about inflation, which in turn helped Treasury yields ease.

    The 10-year Treasury yield sank to 4.58% from 4.67% late Tuesday. The two-year yield, which moves more closely with expectations for the Fed, fell to 4.92% from 4.99%.

    Yields on Tuesday had returned to where they were in November after top officials at the Federal Reserve suggested the central bank may hold its main interest steady for a while. It wants to get more confidence that inflation is sustainably heading toward its target of 2%. Its main interest rate has been sitting at its highest level since 2001.

    High interest rates hurt prices for investments and increase the risk of a recession, but Fed officials are concerned after a string of reports this year has shown inflation remaining hotter than forecast.

    Traders are now mostly expecting just one or two cuts to interest rates from the Federal Reserve this year, according to data from CME Group. That’s down from forecasts for six or more at the start of the year.

    With little near-term help expected from an easing of interest rates, companies will need to deliver fatter profits to justify their big runs in stock price since autumn.

    Travelers slumped 7.4% after the insurer’s quarterly results fell short of forecasts. It had to contend with more losses from catastrophes.

    J.B. Hunt Transport Services fell 8.1% after reporting weaker revenue and results than expected. It was hurt in part by competition in the eastern part of the country and by higher wages for workers and other costs.

    On the winning side of Wall Street was Omnicom Group. It rose 1.6% after reporting stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The marketing and communications company highlighted growth trends in most markets around the world, outside the Middle East and Africa.

    The stock of Donald Trump’s social media company also continued to swing sharply, this time jumping 15.6%. That followed two straight losses of more than 14%. Experts say the stock is caught up in frenzied trading driven more by public sentiment around the former president than by the business prospects of the company.

    In oil trading, U.S. benchmark crude picked up 8 cents to $82.77 per barrel. It had lost $2.67 on Wednesday.

    Brent crude, the international standard, gained 16 cents to $87.45 per barrel.

    The U.S. dollar slipped to 154.12 Japanese yen from 154.38 yen. The euro rose to $1.0689 from $1.0673.

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  • Stock market today: Asian shares are mixed, taking hot US inflation data in stride

    Stock market today: Asian shares are mixed, taking hot US inflation data in stride

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    BANGKOK — Asian shares were mixed Thursday after U.S. stocks fell on worries that what had seemed like a blip in the battle to bring down inflation may be a troubling trend.

    Oil prices edged higher and U.S. futures were flat.

    South Korean shares were little changed after the ruling conservative party suffered a crushing defeat in a parliamentary election. The Kospi edged less than 0.1% higher, to 2,706.96.

    The results were a huge political blow to President Yoon Suk Yeol, and Prime Minster Han Duck-soo and all Yoon’s senior presidential advisers except those in charge of security issues submitted their resignations Thursday.

    Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 lost 0.4% to 39,442.63 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong edged 0.1% lower, to 17,118.27.

    The Shanghai Composite index gained 0.2% to 3,032.01 and the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.4% to 7,813.60.

    Bangkok’s SET lost 0.3% and Taiwan’s Taiex was down 0.1%.

    On Wednesday, the S&P 500 dropped 0.9% to 5,160.64. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.1% to 38,461.51, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.8% to 16,170.36.

    Treasury yields leaped as bond prices fell, raising the pressure on the stock market, after a report showed inflation was hotter last month than economists expected. It’s the third straight report to suggest progress on bringing high inflation down may be stalling.

    For shoppers, that’s painful because of the potential for even higher prices at the store. For Wall Street, it raises fears that the Federal Reserve will hold back on delivering the cuts to interest rates that traders are craving and have been betting on.

    The Fed has been waiting for more evidence to show inflation is heading sustainably down toward its goal of 2%. After an encouraging cooling last year, the fear now is that inflation may be stuck after January’s, February’s and March’s inflation reports all came in hotter than expected, along with data on the economy generally.

    Prices for everything from bonds to gold fell immediately after the morning’s release of the inflation data.

    The yield on the 10-year Treasury jumped to 4.54% from 4.36% late Tuesday and is back to where it was in November. The two-year yield, which moves more on expectations for Fed action, shot even higher and rose to 4.97% from 4.74%.

    Traders sharply cut back on bets that the Fed could begin cutting rates in June. At the start of the year, they were forecasting six or more cuts through 2024.

    High interest rates work to undercut inflation by slowing the economy and hurting investment prices. The fear is that rates left too high for too long can cause a recession.

    Wall Street’s biggest losers on Wednesday included real-estate investment trusts, utility companies and other stocks that tend to get hurt most by high interest rates.

    Real-estate stocks in the S&P 500 fell 4.1% for the biggest loss by far among the 11 sectors that make up the index. That included a 6.1% drop for office owner Boston Properties and a 5.3% tumble for Alexandria Real Estate Equities.

    Higher interest rates could chill the housing industry by making mortgages more expensive. Homebuilder D.R. Horton fell 6.4%, Lennar sank 5.8% and PulteGroup dropped 5.2%.

    Big U.S. companies are lining up to report profits earned during the first three months of the year, and Delta Air Lines helped kick off the reporting season by delivering better-than-expected results.

    The airline said it’s seeing strong demand for flights around the world, and it expects the strength to continue through the spring. But it also refrained from raising its profit forecast for the full year. Its stock climbed as much as 4% during the morning before flipping to a loss of 2.3%.

    In other trading early Thursday, U.S. benchmark crude oil was unchanged at $86.21 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

    Brent crude, the international standard, added 2 cents to $90.50 per barrel.

    The U.S. dollar fell to 153.10 Japanese yen from 153.17 yen, trading near a 34-year high. The yen has weakened on expectations that the gap between interest rates in Japan, which are near zero, and those in the U.S. will remain wide for the foreseeable future.

    The euro fell to $1.0734 from $1.0746.

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  • Higher gas, rents keep US inflation elevated

    Higher gas, rents keep US inflation elevated

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    WASHINGTON — Consumer inflation remained persistently high last month, boosted by gas, rents, auto insurance and other items, the government said Wednesday in a report that will likely give pause to the Federal Reserve as it considers how often — or even whether — to cut interest rates this year.

    Prices outside the volatile food and energy categories rose 0.4% from February to March, the same accelerated pace as in the previous month. Measured from a year earlier, these core prices are up 3.8%, unchanged from the year-over-year rise in February. The Fed closely tracks core prices because they tend to provide a good read of where inflation is headed.

    Wednesday’s figures represent a disappointment for the White House. Republican critics of President Joe Biden have sought to pin the blame for high prices on the president and use it as a cudgel to derail his re-election bid. Polls show that despite a healthy job market, a near-record-high stock market and a decline inflation from its peak, many Americans blame Biden for high prices.

    The March figures, the third straight month of inflation readings well above the Fed’s 2% target, provide concerning evidence that inflation is stuck at an elevated level after having steadily dropped in the second half of 2023. The latest numbers threaten to torpedo the prospect of multiple rate cuts this year. Fed officials have made clear that with the economy healthy, they’re in no rush to cut their benchmark rate despite their earlier projections that they would do so three times this year.

    The report “pours cold water on the view that the faster readings in January and February simply represented the start of new-year price increases that were not likely to persist,” Kathy Bostjancic, chief economist at Nationwide, said in a research note. “The lack of moderation in inflation will undermine Fed officials’ confidence that inflation is on a sustainable course back to 2% and likely delays rate cuts to September at the earliest and could push off rate reductions to next year.”

    On Wall Street, traders sent stock prices tumbling and bond yields rising, reflecting fear that the Fed may delay interest rate cuts indefinitely. The broad S&P 500 stock index was off about 1% in late-morning trading.

    Chair Jerome Powell has stressed that the Fed’s policymakers need more confidence that inflation is steadily slowing to their target level before they will support a rate cut. Lower rates could fuel faster growth and potentially push inflation higher. Powell’s stance has elevated the profile of the monthly inflation data in determining when the Fed might start cutting rates. Lower rates would lead, over time, to reduced borrowing costs for businesses and consumers.

    Overall consumer prices rose 0.4% from February to March, the same as in the previous month. Compared with a year ago, prices rose 3.5%, up from a year-over-year figure of 3.2% in February.

    The Fed closely tracks a separate inflation gauge that has been coming in below the consumer price index, released Wednesday. Yet those figures will likely come in high enough to concern policymakers.

    The persistence of elevated U.S. inflation complicates Biden’s claims to be making steady progress against higher prices. The president has argued that further improvement would be possible if Republicans in Congress would back his policies, which include efforts to lower costs for prescription drugs, reduce so-called “junk fees,” and write off some student debts.

    Biden had previously suggested that lower inflation would lead the Fed to cut rates, but he hedged that prediction on Wednesday. “This may delay it a month or so,” Biden said at a news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, adding that he’s “not so sure” exactly what the Fed would do.

    The costs of owning a vehicle were a key reason why prices jumped last month: Auto insurance surged 2.6% in March and are up a dramatic 22% from a year ago. That increase reflects, in part, the rise in new-car prices over the past two years.

    Average auto repair costs increased 1.7% from February to March and are up a sharp 8.2% from a year earlier. And the price of gas to power most vehicles surged 1.7% last month. Prices for new and used cars, though, fell slightly.

    Clothing costs jumped 0.7% in March, the second straight month of sizable increases, though they have barely risen over the past year. Grocery prices, though, were unchanged last month and are just 1.2% higher than they were a year ago, providing some relief to consumers after the huge spikes in food prices in the previous two years.

    The chronically elevated inflation so far this year does suggest that American consumers, on average, remain confident enough to keep spending despite steady price increases, said Laura Rosner-Warburton, senior economist at MacroPolicy Perspectives, a consulting firm. Likewise, she said, the surge in auto insurance and repair costs reflect the previous sharp increases in auto sales prices.

    “It means that the consumer’s in good shape and accepting price increases still,” Rosner-Warburton said.

    Though inflation has plummeted from its peak of 9.1% in June 2022, average prices are still well above where they were before the pandemic. This has meant hardships for many lower-income families, whose wages may not have fully kept up with rising prices.

    Derrick Chubbs, president of the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, said his organization is providing 300,000 meals a day, even more than the 250,000 it supplied in November 2022. The people his organization serves, he said, increasingly include homeowners. And most of them are employed.

    Chubbs said the beneficiaries typically live paycheck-to-paycheck and are vulnerable to any sharp change in their financial circumstances. Most are still struggling to recover from the jump in costs over the past three years, including in rents, child care and car ownership — practically a necessity in a region with limited public transportation.

    “If anything throws them off, it’s going to take them a while to recover,” Chubbs said. “Just because things get better, that doesn’t mean that I’ve caught up with everything.”

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    By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER – AP Economics Writer

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