NEW YORK (AP) — A slide for market superstar Nvidia helped pull U.S. stock indexes down from their records. The S&P 500 fell 0.6% Monday, coming off its 57th all-time high of the year so far. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite dropped 0.6% from its own record. Nvidia was the market’s heaviest weight after China said it’s probing the chip giant for potential antitrust violations. Stocks in Hong Kong jumped after top Chinese leaders agreed on a “moderately loose” monetary policy. Prices for oil and gold rose following the ouster of Syrian leader Bashar Assad. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below. NEW YORK (AP) — A slide for market superstar Nvidia on Monday is helping to pull U.S. stock indexes down from their records. The S&P 500 fell by 0.3% in afternoon trading, coming off its 57th all-time high of the year so far. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 57 points, or 0.1%, as of 1:53 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite pulled back 0.3% from its own record. Nvidia's drop of 2.1% was by far the heaviest weight on the S&P 500 after China said it's investigating the company over suspected violations of Chinese anti-monopoly laws. Nvidia has skyrocketed to become one of Wall Street’s most valuable companies because its chips are driving much of the world’s move into artificial-intelligence technology. That gives its stock’s movements more sway on the S&P 500 than nearly every other. Nvidia's fall overshadowed gains in Hong Kong and for Chinese stocks trading in the United States on hopes that China will deliver more stimulus for the world's second-largest economy. Roughly half the stocks in the S&P 500 also rose. The week’s highlight for Wall Street will arrive midweek when the latest updates on inflation arrive. Economists expect Wednesday’s report to show the inflation that U.S. consumers are feeling remained stuck at roughly the same level last month. A separate report on Thursday, meanwhile, could show an acceleration in inflation at the wholesale level. They’re the last big pieces of data the Federal Reserve will get before its meeting next week on interest rates. The widespread expectation is still that the central bank will cut its main interest rate for the third time this year. The Fed has been easing its main interest rate from a two-decade high since September to offer more help for the slowing job market, after bringing inflation nearly all the way down to its 2% target. Lower interest rates can ease the brakes off the economy, but they can also offer more fuel for inflation. Expectations for a series of cuts from the Fed have been a major reason the S&P 500 has set so many all-time highs this year. On Wall Street, Interpublic Group rose 5.8% after rival Omnicom said it would buy the marketing and communications firm in an all-stock deal. The pair had a combined revenue of $25.6 billion last year. Omnicom, meanwhile, sank 9.3%. Macy’s climbed 1.5% after an activist investor, Barington Capital Group, called on the retailer to buy back at least $2 billion of its own stock over the next three years and make other moves to help boost its stock price. Super Micro Computer rose 4.6% after saying it got an extension that will keep its stock listed on the Nasdaq through Feb. 25, as it works to file its delayed annual report and other required financial statements. Earlier this month, the maker of servers used in artificial-intelligence technology said an investigation found no evidence of misconduct by its management or by the company’s board following the resignation of its public auditor . In the oil market, a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude rallied 2% to $68.56 following the overthrow of Syrian leader Bashar Assad, who sought asylum in Moscow after rebels. Brent crude, the international standard, was mostly unchanged at $71.05. The price of gold also rose 1% amid the uncertainty created by the end of the Assad family’s 50 years of iron rule. In stock markets abroad, the Hang Seng jumped 2.8% in Hong Kong after top Chinese leaders agreed on a “moderately loose” monetary policy for the world’s second-largest economy. That’s a shift away from a more cautious, “prudent” stance for the first time in 10 years. A major planning meeting later this week could also bring more stimulus for the Chinese economy. U.S.-listed stocks of several Chinese companies climbed, such as a 13.1% jump for electric-vehicle company Nio and a 9.1% rise for Alibaba Group. Stocks in Shanghai, though, were roughly flat. In Seoul, South Korea’s Kospi slumped 2.8% as the fallout continues from President Yoon Suk Yeol 's brief declaration of martial law last week in the midst of a budget dispute. In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.19% from 4.15% late Friday. ___ AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed. Stan Choe, The Associated PressWEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — An online spat between factions of Donald Trump's supporters over immigration and the tech industry has thrown internal divisions in his political movement into public display, previewing the fissures and contradictory views his coalition could bring to the White House. The rift laid bare the tensions between the newest flank of Trump's movement — wealthy members of the tech world including billionaire Elon Musk and fellow entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and their call for more highly skilled workers in their industry — and people in Trump's Make America Great Again base who championed his hardline immigration policies. The debate touched off this week when Laura Loomer , a right-wing provocateur with a history of racist and conspiratorial comments, criticized Trump’s selection of Sriram Krishnan as an adviser on artificial intelligence policy in his coming administration. Krishnan favors the ability to bring more skilled immigrants into the U.S. Loomer declared the stance to be “not America First policy” and said the tech executives who have aligned themselves with Trump were doing so to enrich themselves. Much of the debate played out on the social media network X, which Musk owns. Loomer's comments sparked a back-and-forth with venture capitalist and former PayPal executive David Sacks , whom Trump has tapped to be the “White House A.I. & Crypto Czar." Musk and Ramaswamy, whom Trump has tasked with finding ways to cut the federal government , weighed in, defending the tech industry's need to bring in foreign workers. It bloomed into a larger debate with more figures from the hard-right weighing in about the need to hire U.S. workers, whether values in American culture can produce the best engineers, free speech on the internet, the newfound influence tech figures have in Trump's world and what his political movement stands for. Trump has not yet weighed in on the rift. His presidential transition team did not respond to questions about positions on visas for highly skilled workers or the debate between his supporters online. Instead, his team instead sent a link to a post on X by longtime adviser and immigration hard-liner Stephen Miller that was a transcript of a speech Trump gave in 2020 at Mount Rushmore in which he praised figures and moments from American history. Musk, the world's richest man who has grown remarkably close to the president-elect , was a central figure in the debate, not only for his stature in Trump's movement but his stance on the tech industry's hiring of foreign workers. Technology companies say H-1B visas for skilled workers, used by software engineers and others in the tech industry, are critical for hard-to-fill positions. But critics have said they undercut U.S. citizens who could take those jobs. Some on the right have called for the program to be eliminated, not expanded. Born in South Africa, Musk was once on an a H-1B visa himself and defended the industry's need to bring in foreign workers. “There is a permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent," he said in a post. “It is the fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley.” Trump's own positions over the years have reflected the divide in his movement. His tough immigration policies, including his pledge for a mass deportation, were central to his winning presidential campaign. He has focused on immigrants who come into the U.S. illegally but he has also sought curbs on legal immigration , including family-based visas. As a presidential candidate in 2016, Trump called the H-1B visa program “very bad” and “unfair” for U.S. workers. After he became president, Trump in 2017 issued a “Buy American and Hire American” executive order , which directed Cabinet members to suggest changes to ensure H-1B visas were awarded to the highest-paid or most-skilled applicants to protect American workers. Trump's businesses, however, have hired foreign workers, including waiters and cooks at his Mar-a-Lago club , and his social media company behind his Truth Social app has used the the H-1B program for highly skilled workers. During his 2024 campaign for president, as he made immigration his signature issue, Trump said immigrants in the country illegally are “poisoning the blood of our country" and promised to carry out the largest deportation operation in U.S. history. But in a sharp departure from his usual alarmist message around immigration generally, Trump told a podcast this year that he wants to give automatic green cards to foreign students who graduate from U.S. colleges. “I think you should get automatically, as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country," he told the “All-In" podcast with people from the venture capital and technology world. Those comments came on the cusp of Trump's budding alliance with tech industry figures, but he did not make the idea a regular part of his campaign message or detail any plans to pursue such changes.Council committee throws hands up on natural gas
Kettering General Hospital review a 'warm-up exercise' before funding cuts, says councillor
Aquadom USA Announces Discount on the Stunning EDGE LED Mirror for Autumn SaleJaipur: Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani said on Saturday that the set of allegations being levelled against the conglomerate in the US was another attack on the group from which it would emerge stronger and more resilient. Addressing the 51st Indian Gems and Jewellery Award function, the Adani Group Chairman referred to the “set of allegations from the US about compliance practices at Adani Green Energy” as one of the three attacks that had taken place against the Adani Group recently. “This is not the first time we have faced such challenges. What I can tell you is that every attack makes us stronger and every obstacle becomes a stepping stone for a more resilient Adani Group,” he said. “The fact is that despite a lot of the vested reporting, no one from the Adani side has been charged with any violation of the FCPA or any conspiracy to obstruct justice. Yet, in today’s world, negativity spreads faster than facts – and as we work through the legal process, I want to re-confirm our absolute commitment to world-class regulatory compliance,” Gautam Adani contended. Listing the other two attacks, he said: “First – in 2010, when we were investing in a coal mine in Australia, our objective was clear: How to make India energy secure – and replace every two tons of poor-quality Indian coal with one ton of high-quality coal from Australia? However, the resistance from NGOs was huge and lasted almost a decade.” He said the opposition was so intense that the group ended up funding the entire project of $10 billion with its own equity. “While we now have a world-class operating mine in Australia and it could be seen as a great sign of our resilience, the fact is that 100 per cent equity funding took away over $30 billion of debt financing from our green energy projects,” Gautam Adani said. “The next example is from January last year, just as we were getting ready to launch our Follow-on Public Offering. We faced a short-selling attack initiated from abroad. This was not a typical financial strike; it was a double hit – targeting our financial stability and pulling us into a political controversy. All of this was further amplified by certain media with vested interests. But even in the face of such adversity, our commitment to our principles remained strong,” the Adani Group chief pointed out. He said that after successfully raising Rs 20,000 crore from India’s largest-ever FPO, the group made the extraordinary decision to return the proceeds. “We then further demonstrated our resilience by raising capital from several international sources and proactively reducing our Debt to EBITDA ratio to below 2.5 times, an unmatched metric in the global infrastructure space,” he said. Gautam Adani further stated that the all-time record financial results of the group in the same year showcased its commitment to operational excellence. Not a single Indian or foreign credit rating agency downgraded the Adani Group and finally, the Supreme Court’s “affirmation of our actions validated our approach”, he added. He also said that over the years, he had come to accept that the roadblocks have to be faced as the price of pioneering. “The more bold your dreams, the more the world will scrutinize you. But it is precisely in that scrutiny that you must find the courage to rise, to challenge the status quo, and to build a path where none exists. To pioneer is to embrace the unknown, to break limits, and to believe in your vision even when the world cannot yet see it,” Gautam Adani asserted.