From outer space? Sask. farmers baffled after discovering strange wreckage in field
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
U.S. stocks are drifting Tuesday amid a vacuum of market-moving data, while U.S. regulators shook the cryptocurrency world again by filing charges against another mega player in the industry.
The S&P 500 was 0.2% higher in midday trading, and it's near the edge of what traders call a bull market. It's almost 20% above where it was in mid-October, as a long-predicted recession has yet to hit and excitement around artificial intelligence has helped a select group of stocks to soar.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 61 points, or 0.2%, at 33,624, as of 11 a.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% higher.
This upcoming week has few top-tier economic reports and corporate earnings updates to help Wall Street answer its main question. It wants to know which will happen first: a recession or inflation falling enough to get the Federal Reserve to start cutting interest rates, which have climbed so high they've hurt various parts of the economy.
That's why next week looms large. The U.S. government will publish its latest monthly updates on inflation, and the Federal Reserve will meet on interest-rate policy. The bet on Wall Street is that the Fed may hold off on hiking rates, which would be the first time that's happened in more than a year, but could resume raising rates in July.
Some of the strongest action was in the cryptocurrency world after the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Coinbase with operating its trading platform as an unregistered national securities exchange, broker and clearing agency.
Shares of its parent, Coinbase Global, tumbled 13.8% after the SEC also accused it of being liable for some of Coinbase's violations. Other charges focused on Coinbase's staking-as-a-service program, where users get payments for their crypto almost like earning interest from a traditional bank savings account.
Coinbase criticized the SEC's approach to crypto, saying "the solution is legislation that allows fair rules for the road to be developed transparently and applied equally, not litigation."
A day earlier, the SEC filed 13 charges against another huge crypto trading platform, Binance, and its founder. Bitcoin was at $26,000 Tuesday, down from US$27,000 on Sunday, according to CoinDesk.
Elsewhere in markets, oil prices were mixed following gains driven earlier in the week by Saudi Arabia's announcement that it would cut production to boost crude's price. A barrel of U.S. crude was 0.1% higher at $72.20. A barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, sank 0.3% to $76.48.
Both were close to $120 a year ago but have fallen amid worries about a strapped global economy's need for fuel.
On the winning side of Wall Street was Gitlab, which soared 29.8% after the software development platform gave a revenue forecast for the fiscal year that topped analysts' expectations. It also said it expects to turn in a milder loss than Wall Street had forecast, as it benefits from a rush into artificial intelligence.
A frenzy around AI has helped a handful of stocks soar to immense gains this year, including Nvidia's 166% surge. That's helped drive much of the S&P 500's gains in 2023, but it's also caused critics to question whether a bubble is forming. They also say the furor around AI may be masking weakness underneath the S&P 500's surface.
Even though the S&P 500 is nearing a bull market, almost as many stocks within it are down this year as up as worries remain about falling corporate profits, still-high inflation and much higher interest rates than a year ago.
Blunting some of that criticism, many banks were rising Tuesday.
They've been under pressure because the Fed's fastest flurry of rate hikes in decades has pushed some bank customers to pull their deposits and put them into money-market funds paying more in interest. At the same time, rate hikes have knocked down values of bonds and other investments banks made when rates were low.
The pressure has caused several high-profile bank failures and pushed Wall Street to punish stocks of other banks as it hunts for possible victims. But Zions Bancorp rose 6.7% for the largest gain in the S&P 500. Comerica was close behind with a 6.3% rise.
Some of the banks under the harshest scrutiny also climbed, including a 7.4% jump for PacWest Bancorp.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 3.71% from 3.69% late Monday. It helps set rates for mortgages and other important loans.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were moving modestly higher across much of Europe.
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 0.9% after government data showed Japanese wages rose 1% over a year earlier in April but growth slowed from the previous month's 1.3%.
Australia's S&P ASX 200 fell 1.2% to 7,129.60 Australia's central bank lifted its benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percentage points to 4.1% and warned further rises could follow. That came after inflation was stronger than expected at 6.8% in the January-March quarter.
----
AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Joe McDonald contributed
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
Another suspect is in custody in connection with the gold heist at Toronto Pearson International Airport last year, police say.
Hailey and Justin Bieber are going to be parents. The couple announced the news on Thursday on Instagram, both sharing a video that showcases Hailey Bieber's growing belly.
High levels of lead detected in authenticated locks of Ludwig van Beethoven's hair suggest that the composer had lead poisoning, which may have contributed to ailments he endured over the course of his life, including deafness, according to new research.
A B.C. man has been convicted of assault with a weapon after using a skid-steer Bobcat to chase two homeless people from his lawn, injuring one of them in the process.
A southwestern Ontario woman has received an $8,400 bill from a hospital in Windsor, Ont., after she refused to put her mother in a nursing home she hated -- and she says she has no intention of paying it.
If you're cruising down a highway and realize you have a flat tire, you may want to think twice before stopping to fix it on the side of the road.
Miss Teen USA resigned Wednesday, sending further shock waves through the pageant community just days after Miss USA said she would relinquish her crown.
A Conservative government led by Pierre Poilievre would not legislate on, nor use the notwithstanding clause, on abortion, his office says, as anti-abortion protesters gather on Parliament Hill.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
The stakes have been set for a bet between Vancouver and Edmonton's mayors on who will win Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
A grieving mother is hosting a helmet drive in the hopes of protecting children on Manitoba First Nations from a similar tragedy that killed her daughter.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
A P.E.I. lighthouse and a New Brunswick river are being honoured in a Canada Post series.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.