Stock market today: Wall Street slips as technology stocks drag on the market NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks slipped as Wall Street closes out a holiday-shortened week. The S&P 500 fell 1.6% Friday and the the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 475 points, or 1.1%. The Nasdaq composite is down 2%. Technology stocks were the biggest drag on the market. The S&P 500 is still headed for its second consecutive annual gain of more than 20%, the first time that has happened since 1997-1998. In Asia, Japan’s benchmark index surged as the yen remained weak against the dollar. Stocks in South Korea fell after the main opposition party voted to impeach the country’s acting leader. 10 tips from experts to help you change your relationship with money in 2025 NEW YORK (AP) — As the calendar changes to 2025, you might be thinking about how to approach your relationship with money in the new year. Whether you’re saving to move out of your parents’ house or pay off student loan debt, financial resolutions can help you stay motivated. If you’re planning to make financial resolutions for the new year, experts recommend that you start by evaluating the state of your finances in 2024. Then, set specific goals and make sure they’re attainable for your lifestyle. Most Americans blame insurance profits and denials alongside the killer in UHC CEO death, poll finds WASHINGTON (AP) — Most Americans believe health insurance profits and coverage denials share responsibility for the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO — although not as much as the person who pulled the trigger. So says a new poll from NORC at the University of Chicago. It finds that about 8 in 10 Americans say that the person who committed the killing has “a great deal” or “a moderate amount” of responsibility for the Dec. 4 shooting of Brian Thompson. Still, some see suspect Luigi Mangione as a heroic figure. About 7 in 10 adults say coverage denials or health insurance profits also bear at least “a moderate amount” of responsibility for Thompson’s death. Another jackpot surpasses $1 billion. Is this the new normal? Remember this moment because it probably won’t last: A U.S. lottery jackpot is projected to soar above $1 billion, and that's still a big deal. Friday’s Mega Millions drawing is worth an estimated $1.15 billion. The prize has evoked headlines across the country, despite the nation's top 10 jackpots already having boasted billion-dollar payouts. Jonathan Cohen is the author of the book “For a Dollar and a Dream: State Lotteries in Modern America.” He says he expects jackpots to continue to grow in size. Larger payouts attract more media attention, increase ticket sales and bring in new players. How the stock market defied expectations again this year, by the numbers NEW YORK (AP) — What a wonderful year 2024 has been for investors. U.S. stocks ripped higher and carried the S&P 500 to records as the economy kept growing and the Federal Reserve began cutting interest rates. The benchmark index posted its first back-to-back annual gains of more than 20% since 1998. The year featured many familiar winners, such as Big Tech, which got even bigger as their stock prices kept growing. But it wasn’t just Apple, Nvidia and the like. Bitcoin and gold surged and “Roaring Kitty” reappeared to briefly reignite the meme stock craze. Richard Parsons, prominent executive who led Time Warner and Citigroup, dies at 76 NEW YORK (AP) — Richard Parsons, one of corporate America’s most prominent Black executives who held top posts at Time Warner and Citigroup, has died. He was 76. Parsons died Thursday at his Manhattan home. He was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2015 and cited “unanticipated complications” from the disease for cutting back on work a few years later. Financial services company Lazard confirmed his death. Parsons was a longtime member of the company's board. His friend Ronald Lauder told The New York Times that the cause of death was cancer. Parsons stepped down Dec. 3 from the boards of Lazard and Lauder’s company, Estée Lauder, citing health reasons. He had been on Estée Lauder’s board for 25 years. Israel strikes Houthi rebels in Yemen's capital while the WHO chief says he was meters away JERUSALEM (AP) — A new round of Israeli airstrikes in Yemen has targeted the Houthi rebel-held capital of Sanaa and multiple ports. The World Health Organization’s director-general said Thursday's bombardment took place just “meters away” as he was about to board a flight in Sanaa. He says a crew member was hurt. The strikes followed several days of Houthi attacks and launches setting off sirens in Israel. Israel's military says it attacked infrastructure used by the Houthis at the airport in Sanaa, power stations and ports. The Israeli military later said it wasn’t aware that the WHO chief was at the location in Yemen. At least three people were reported killed and dozens injured in the Sanaa airport strike. Holiday shoppers increased spending by 3.8% despite higher prices New data shows holiday sales rose this year even as Americans wrestled with still high prices in many grocery necessities and other financial worries. According to Mastercard SpendingPulse, holiday sales from the beginning of November through Christmas Eve climbed 3.8%, a faster pace than the 3.1% increase from a year earlier. The measure tracks all kinds of payments including cash and debit cards. This year, retailers were even more under the gun to get shoppers in to buy early and in bulk since there were five fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Mastercard SpendingPulse says the last five days of the season accounted for 10% of the spending. Sales of clothing, electronics and Jewelry rose. Finland stops Russia-linked vessel over damaged undersea power cable in Baltic Sea FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Finnish police say authorities detained a ship linked to neighboring Russia as they investigate whether it damaged a Baltic Sea power cable and several data cables. It was the latest incident involving disruption of key infrastructure. Police and border guards boarded the Eagle S and took control as they investigate damage to the Estlink-2 undersea power cable. The cable brings electricity from Finland to Estonia across the Baltic Sea. The cable went down on Wednesday. The incident follows damage to two data cables and the Nord Stream gas pipelines. Both have been termed sabotage. Climate-friendly electricity sees big battery projects soar again for 2024 2024 was another banner year for a source of electricity that is better for people’s lungs, better for climate change and may be reaching your home now when you turn on the lights or turn up the thermostat — large banks of batteries. Storing extra power in batteries effectively extends the hours of solar and wind power in a day. Storage is also important as global electricity demand rises. Last, it is important for increasingly frequent extreme weather events, worsened by climate change. Texas and California are embracing the benefits of batteries, but some other regions are dragging their feet.Federal fisheries proposal would slash commercial elver quota in 2025vslot.bet 。

Quebec premier wants to put a stop to prayer in parks and public places QUÉBEC — Quebec Premier François Legault says he's looking at ways to end prayer in public places, including parks, as his government promises to table new legislation to strengthen secularism in schools. Canadian Press Dec 6, 2024 2:16 PM Share by Email Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Print Share via Text Message Quebec Premier Francois Legault speaks during a news conference at the Premier’s office in Quebec City, Friday, December 6, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot QUÉBEC — Quebec Premier François Legault says he's looking at ways to end prayer in public places, including parks, as his government promises to table new legislation to strengthen secularism in schools. Legault made the comments during a press conference in Quebec City on Friday to mark the end of the fall legislative session. He said he wants to send a "very clear message to Islamists" that Quebec will fight against any disrespect of its fundamental values, including secularism. The premier said that recent reports of teachers allowing prayers in classrooms and preventing girls from playing sports, which have triggered an outcry in Quebec, are "totally unacceptable." "There are teachers who are bringing Islamist religious concepts into Quebec schools," he said. "I will definitely not tolerate that. We don't want that in Quebec." Legault then went a step further when asked by a reporter if he was also bothered by prayer in public places. "Seeing people on their knees in the streets, praying, I think we have to ask ourselves the question. I don't think it's something we should see," he said, adding that his government is considering whether it can legislate on the issue. He went on to say he doesn't want to see people praying "in public parks or public streets." When questioned about the constitutionality of banning public prayer, he said the government is "looking at all possibilities, including the use of the notwithstanding clause," which allows governments to override certain sections of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Images of Muslims praying in Montreal have sparked controversy in recent months, including when a group gathered in a city park to celebrate Eid al-Adha last June, prompting the borough mayor to muse about banning all religious events in public parks. In a statement, the Canadian Muslim Forum said Legault's comments suggest that some politicians view Muslims as second-class citizens. "These remarks add to a pattern of political rhetoric that unfairly targets Quebecers, especially those of Muslim faith, based solely on their backgrounds," the statement reads. Legault's comments come as the province grapples with a series of reports about Muslim religious practices appearing in some of the province's public schools. On Friday, Education Minister Bernard Drainville declared the government will introduce a new bill aimed at reinforcing secularism in Quebec schools. The announcement followed a Friday report in La Presse that documented students at a high school in Laval, north of Montreal, praying in classrooms and hallways and disrupting a play focused on sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy prevention. Drainville told reporters in Quebec City that the behaviour does not represent "our Quebec" and is "completely intolerable and unacceptable." "These acts of a religious nature clearly contravene secularism obligations," he said in a social media statement. "One can easily imagine the psychological impact that some of these behaviours may have had on students." The news story is the latest in a growing number of incidents reported at Quebec schools involving Muslim teachers and students. The wave of allegations was sparked by a government investigation, made public in October, that found a toxic climate at a Montreal elementary school. The report found that a group of teachers at Bedford school, mostly of North African descent, yelled at and humiliated students. Some teachers didn’t believe in learning disabilities and attributed students’ difficulties to laziness. Subjects like science and sex education were either ignored or barely taught, and girls were prevented from playing soccer. Eleven teachers have since been suspended from the school. The government is now looking into 17 schools it believes may have breached the province's secularism law. The report on those schools is expected in January, but Drainville says he can already confirm that the government is going to act. Quebec used the notwithstanding clause to shield the province's controversial secularism law, Bill 21, from constitutional challenges. That law prevents certain public sector workers, including teachers and police officers, from wearing religious symbols on the job. The government also invoked the clause to protect its contentious language law, Bill 96. On Friday, Legault said the protection of Quebec's identity has been one of his top priorities over the last year and repeated his claims that temporary immigration is threatening the French language in Montreal. He also reiterated that he's "open" to the idea of a Quebec constitution, following a recent recommendation from a committee tasked with coming up with ways to boost Quebec's autonomy. He said a constitution could enshrine Quebec's values, including secularism and equality between men and women. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 6, 2024. — By Maura Forrest in Montreal The Canadian Press See a typo/mistake? Have a story/tip? This has been shared 0 times 0 Shares Share by Email Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Print Share via Text Message Get your daily Victoria news briefing Email Sign Up More Religion News Notre Dame's reopening will begin with an archbishop's knock on the doors. Here's what comes next Dec 6, 2024 12:06 PM A 40-year-old Christian commune faces an uncertain future Dec 6, 2024 11:39 AM Australian leader blames antisemitism for arson that extensively damaged a Melbourne synagogue Dec 6, 2024 3:05 AM

Chancellor Rachel Reeves explains how Leeds will benefit from being home of National Wealth Fund

Musk spent over a quarter of a billion dollars to help elect TrumpGodzilla and King Kong surely weren't born big. They began small and grew over time to their gargantuan sizes even if the movies don't tell their childhood stories. Likewise, huge companies of today were once much smaller (unless perhaps they were spin-offs). Investors who spotted them early had opportunities to make fortunes. Are You Missing The Morning Scoop? Wake up with Breakfast news in your inbox every market day. Sign Up For Free » Can you still find such monsters in the making? Three Motley Fool contributors think so. Here's why they think biotech stocks CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CRSP) , Summit Therapeutics (NASDAQ: SMMT) , and Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ: VKTX) could become much larger. An underrated stock with two approvals under its belt David Jagielski (CRISPR Therapeutics): If you're looking for stocks with mammoth upside, you might be tempted to look for risky stocks that don't have any approved drugs or treatments yet. But with CRISPR Therapeutics, you already have a stock that has an approved treatment -- it simply isn't far along in its rollout. In December 2023, regulators approved Casgevy, which is a gene-editing therapy the company has been developing with Vertex Pharmaceuticals . It was approved as a treatment for sickle cell disease for patients 12 years and older. Then, a month later, it was also approved to treat people with transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia (for the same age group). Casgevy can be a game changer for patients with these rare blood disorders as it is a one-time functional cure. CRISPR will share in the profits with Vertex on Casgevy (collecting 40% of them), which could potentially help the company get to profitability. Currently, its operations are well funded with CRISPR reporting more than $1.9 billion in cash and marketable securities as of the end of September. For a business that has burned through $92.7 million in cash over the past nine months, that can provide it with a lot of runway and time to grow its operations and work on other treatments in its pipeline. At a modest market cap of just $4 billion, there's a lot of room for CRISPR to get a whole lot more valuable in the future as it scales its operations and Casgevy starts to generate revenue. Buying the healthcare stock now can be a great move for long-term investors. Already showing monster potential Keith Speights (Summit Therapeutics): It's practically unheard of for a company with no product on the market to have a market cap of $14 billion. But Summit Therapeutics is no ordinary company. The drugmaker in-licensed cancer immunotherapy ivonescimab in January 2023. That has turned out to be a brilliant move in retrospect. Earlier this year, Akeso (which originally developed ivonescimab) announced the drug beat Merck 's blockbuster immunotherapy Keytruda in a head-to-head late-stage study targeting non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). How big of a deal was this news? Consider that Keytruda was the world's best-selling drug last year, raking in sales of around $25 billion. Summit owns the commercial rights in the U.S., Canada, and Europe of a cancer immunotherapy that could be even more powerful than Keytruda. Granted, Summit can't ride on the clinical success achieved by Akeso. The company must conduct its own clinical studies to hopefully win approval for ivonescimab in the U.S. and elsewhere. However, that's exactly what it's doing with initial results expected from a late-stage study of the immunotherapy as a second-line treatment for NSCLC in mid-2025. Summit is also evaluating ivonescimab in another late-stage trial as a first-line treatment for NSCLC. Wall Street's consensus is that Summit's share price could soar more than 40% over the next 12 months. I'm not sure if this price target will be achieved, but it wouldn't surprise me if that's an overly pessimistic goal assuming the company announces positive clinical results next year. Summit Therapeutics is already showing monster potential. I suspect it will fulfill that potential if ivonescimab wins U.S. regulatory approval. You can still get in on the ground floor Prosper Junior Bakiny (Viking Therapeutics): Weight-loss management is the hottest therapeutic area in the pharmaceutical industry right now. Although the companies dominating the field are the usual suspects, a notable mid-cap biotech called Viking Therapeutics is looking to make waves in this market. Viking's lead anti-obesity candidate, VK2735, reported excellent results in phase 2 studies. It might still be a few years until VK2735 earns regulatory approval, but Viking Therapeutics is not a one-trick pony. The company is working on an oral version of VK2735 -- something many patients would choose over the weekly injections the original formulation comes with. Furthermore, Viking Therapeutics has another promising weight-loss candidate in preclinical studies . And I have yet to mention the drugmaker's VK2809, an investigational medicine for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis -- a liver disease with obesity as a risk factor -- and Viking's VK0214, an investigational therapy for a rare nervous system disease called X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy. Many smaller drugmakers tend to hyperfocus on a single medicine, a strategy that allows them to avoid spreading their resources thin. Viking Therapeutics, though, is taking a different approach. The company is showing signs of one of the most critical factors successful biotechs need: innovation. There are still risks involved here. Viking's late-stage studies for VK2735 could flop. However, the company is looking increasingly attractive. In a decade, it could join the ranks of highly successful drugmakers. It's not too late to get in on the ground floor. Should you invest $1,000 in CRISPR Therapeutics right now? Before you buy stock in CRISPR Therapeutics, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now... and CRISPR Therapeutics wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $898,809 !* Stock Advisor provides investors with an easy-to-follow blueprint for success, including guidance on building a portfolio, regular updates from analysts, and two new stock picks each month. The Stock Advisor service has more than quadrupled the return of S&P 500 since 2002*. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of November 18, 2024 David Jagielski has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Keith Speights has positions in Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Prosper Junior Bakiny has positions in Vertex Pharmaceuticals. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends CRISPR Therapeutics, Merck, Summit Therapeutics, and Vertex Pharmaceuticals. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . 3 Monster Stocks in the Making was originally published by The Motley Fool

Canadians' confidence in a strengthening economy has taken a hit since president-elect Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election Nov. 5 , according to new polling data from Nanos. There are now almost four times as many Canadians who think the economy is likely to get weaker in the next six months, rather than stronger, the Weekly Bloomberg Nanos Canadian Confidence Index found. One month ago, about twice as many Canadians thought the economy would get weaker within six months, rather than stronger, according to Nanos' research. Trump on Nov. 25 threatened to slap a 25-per-cent tariff on all imports from Canada and from Mexico until those countries stemmed what he said is a tide of drugs and illegal immigrants coming into the U.S. – something that no doubt added to chilled consumer confidence, according to Nanos' chief data scientist Nik Nanos. Nanos surveyed 1,000 Canadians in months leading up to Dec. 6, with its survey dropping 250 responses each month and adding 250 new ones to create a rolling total. Its index for expectations dropped below 50 per cent for the first time in about a year, and was at 48.69, as of Dec. 6. That is nearing the year low of 46.03, one year ago . Concerns about jobs are on the rise, and are becoming more significant than are fears of inflation or housing, Nanos said. Nanos separately tracks what the company calls a pocketbook index, which is based on perceptions of personal finances and job security. When that index is mixed with the expectations index, it creates what the company calls an economic mood index. The newest measure for that index is 51.54 out of 100 Canada-wide. British Columbians have a slightly more sour economic mood than do counterparts in the rest of Canada, given their score of 50.3 out of 100, according to Nanos. The finding that British Columbians are feeling less confident than other Canadians about their economic futures conforms with what other surveys have found. B.C. small-business owners are the least confident in Canada that their ventures will perform better in the next three months, according to a Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) survey conducted in October for a November report . Their responses determined that they were also the second least confident in Canada that their businesses will perform better in 12 months than they are today, according to the survey. Only Newfoundland-based small-business owners in October said that they were less confident than counterparts B.C. for that year-ahead outlook. What makes the low confidence about economic improvement within 12 months most striking is that B.C.’s small-business confidence rate for one year in the future has historically, on average, been No. 1 among provinces, B.C.-based CFIB policy analyst Emily Boston told BIV. “It's not just the comparison over time, it's comparison to where we are relative to other provinces in Canada,” she said. [email protected] @GlenKorstrom glenkorstrom.bsky.social