lucky calico online casino login philippines

superace88 referral code In this article COST Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT A Costco Wholesale store in Connecticut. Lindsey Nicholsonp | Getty Images Costco on Thursday beat Wall Street's quarterly earnings and sales estimates, as e-commerce sales jumped and shoppers bought jewelry, luggage and furniture. Here is how the warehouse club did for the fiscal first quarter compared to what Wall Street expected, according to a survey of analysts by LSEG: Earnings per share: $4.04 vs. $3.79 expected Revenue: $62.15 billion vs. $62.08 billion expected In the three-month period that ended Nov. 24, Costco's net income rose to $1.80 billion, or $4.04 per share, from $1.59 billion, or $3.58 per share in the year-ago period. Revenue increased from $57.80 billion in the year-ago period. Costco has benefited from its reputation for selling bulk items at better value, as U.S. households feel the cumulative effect of higher food and housing prices. The membership-based club also hiked its annual membership fee for the first time in about seven years. The quarterly results are the first Costco has reported since that fee increase took effect in September. Costco's membership fee revenue came in at $1.17 billion, compared to the $1.16 billion Wall Street had expected. It jumped by almost 8% year over year, excluding the impact of foreign exchange rates. But on the company's earnings call, CFO Gary Millerchip said the membership fee hike didn't have much of an effect yet because of deferred accounting. It represented less than 1% of fee growth in the quarter, he said. Comparable sales for the company increased 5.2% year over year. In the U.S., comparable sales rose 5.2% as well. Customers visited Costco's stores and website more during the quarter. Traffic rose 5.1% globally and 4.9% in the U.S. The company's average ticket was up 0.1% worldwide and 0.3% in the U.S., including the negative impact of gas deflation and foreign exchange rates. If adjusted to exclude those, average ticket would have risen 2% worldwide and 2.3% in the U.S. Gold and jewelry, gift cards, home furnishings, sporting goods, health and beauty aids, luggage kiosk and hardware were all up double digits year over year, Millerchip said. In Costco's fresh category, which includes items like produce, sales grew by high single-digits in the quarter, Millerchip said. Sales of meat were up by double-digits, as some members continued to purchase pricier premium cuts and other gravitated more toward low-cost options, he said. E-commerce sales rose 13% in the quarter compared with the year-ago period. The company is gaining market share by shipping big and bulky items, CEO Ron Vachris said on the company's earnings call, and it hit nearly 1 million deliveries in the quarter, which was a new record. Membership renewal rates were 90.4% worldwide, down one tenth of a percent, Millerchip said on the company's call. He said renewal rates are down slightly as the popularity of digital signsup grow. He said dthe digital signups tend to renew at a slightly lower rate. It ended the quarter with 77.4 million paid household members, an approximately 8% year over year increase, or 138.8 million cardholders. Costco also hit new records in its U.S. bakery division by selling 4.2 million pies in the three days prior to Thanksgiving and selling 274,000 whole pizzas in its food courts across the country on Halloween, Vachris said on the call. Costco opened seven new clubs in the quarter and plans to open 29 during the fiscal year, including three relocations, Vachris said. Ten of those clubs will be outside of the U.S. The company has a total of nearly 900 clubs, with 617 in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. As of Thursday's close, shares of Costco are up nearly 50% so far this year, surpassing the 27% gains of the S&P 500 during the same period. Shares closed at $988.39 on Thursday. Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO This is the biggest AI winner two years after ChatGPT's debut — and it's not Nvidia Goldman Sachs has a trading strategy to score a few big wins before year end Bernstein says this tech stock is its best idea for 2025, could be added to S&P 500 Oracle is on pace for the best year since 1999. What led to the meteoric riseGREEN LAKE, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin man who faked his own drowning this summer and left his wife and three children has been located in Eastern Europe and is communicating with law enforcement, but he has not committed to returning home, authorities said. Ryan Borgwardt began communicating with authorities Nov. 11, after they tracked him down, Green Lake County Sheriff Mark Podoll said Thursday. The sheriff showed a video that Borgwardt sent police that day from an undisclosed location. The sheriff said no charges have been filed and that he doesn't think they will be necessary while authorities “keep pulling at his heartstrings” to come home. Here are some things to know about Borgwardt and his disappearance: Borgwardt, who is in his mid-40s, lived with his wife and children in Watertown, a city of about 23,000 people northwest of Milwaukee that is known for its German heritage, parochial schools and two dams on the Rock River. The sheriff has said his department was told Aug. 12 that Borgwardt had not been heard from since the previous day, when he traveled about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from home to Green Lake to go kayaking. Borgwardt’s wife said he texted her at 10:49 p.m. to say he was heading to shore. Deputies found Borgwardt’s vehicle and trailer near Green Lake. His kayak was discovered on the lake, overturned and with a life jacket attached to it, in an area where the water is about 200 feet (60 meters) deep. An angler later found Borgwardt’s fishing rod. The search for his body continued for more than 50 days, with divers scouring the lake on several occasions. Clues — including that he reported his passport lost or stolen and obtained a new one a few months before he disappeared — led investigators to speculate that he made it appear that he had drowned to go meet a woman he had been communicating with in the Central Asian country of Uzbekistan. Podoll declined to comment when asked what he knew about the woman, but he said law enforcement contacted Borgwardt “through a female that spoke Russian.” His identity was confirmed through asking him questions that the sheriff said only Borgwardt would know and by a video he made and sent them Nov. 11. He has spoken with someone from the sheriff's department almost daily since. However Podoll said Thursday that Borgwardt's exact location in Eastern Europe was not known. Podoll said Chief Deputy Matt Vande Kolk has been the one communicating with Borgwardt and their conversations have all taken place via email. Vande Kolk told The Associated Press in an email Friday that authorities are trying to determine Borgwardt's exact location. But that might not be easy even with modern surveillance technology. Scott Shackelford, executive director of the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research at Indiana University, said authorities should be able to locate Borgwardt through his device's internet protocol address, a unique number assigned to every device connected to the internet. But he said it's very easy to mask an IP address and make it appear as if the device is in one country when it's really in another. Software exists that can route your IP address across the globe, Shackelford said. Police may not have the expertise, the manpower or any interest in digging through multiple layers of cyber deception, he said. Wearing an orange T-shirt, Borgwardt, unsmiling, looks directly at the camera, apparently filmed on a cellphone. Borgwardt says he is in his apartment and briefly pans the camera, but mostly shows a door and bare walls. “I’m safe and secure, no problem,” he says. Borgwardt has told authorities he overturned his kayak on the lake, dumped his phone in it and paddled an inflatable boat to shore. He told authorities he chose Green Lake because it is Wisconsin's deepest at 237 feet (over 72 meters). He then rode an electric bike stashed by a boat launch about 70 miles (110 kilometers) through the night to Madison, the sheriff said. From there, by Borgwardt's account, he traveled by bus to Detroit and then Canada, where he boarded a plane. Police are still verifying Borgwardt’s description of what happened, Podoll said. Borgwardt faked his death and fled because of “personal matters,” thinking it was the right thing to do, the sheriff said. Investigators found that he took out a $375,000 life insurance policy in January for his family. “He was just going to try and make things better in his mind, and this was the way it was going to be,” Podoll said. Borgwardt has not yet decided to return home, and if he does it will be of his own free will, according to Podoll. Deputies are stressing to him the importance of returning home and cleaning up the mess he made. The sheriff suggested that Borgwardt could be charged with obstructing the investigation into his disappearance, but so far no counts have been filed. The search for Borgwardt, which lasted more than a month, is said to have cost at least $35,000. Borgwardt told authorities that he did not expect the search to last more than two weeks, Podoll said, and his biggest concern is how the community will react to him if he returns. This story was updated to correct the spelling of Scott Shackelford’s last name, which had been misspelled “Shackleford.”

Quest Partners LLC acquired a new stake in STAG Industrial, Inc. ( NYSE:STAG – Free Report ) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 14,471 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $566,000. Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Earnest Partners LLC lifted its stake in STAG Industrial by 2.2% in the 2nd quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 3,652,984 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $131,727,000 after purchasing an additional 78,189 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of STAG Industrial by 6.2% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,865,673 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $103,333,000 after acquiring an additional 167,532 shares during the period. Boston Trust Walden Corp increased its holdings in shares of STAG Industrial by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 2,552,752 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $92,052,000 after acquiring an additional 25,779 shares during the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. increased its holdings in shares of STAG Industrial by 7.0% during the 2nd quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,776,042 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $64,045,000 after acquiring an additional 115,480 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund lifted its holdings in STAG Industrial by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 937,342 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $36,641,000 after purchasing an additional 10,746 shares during the last quarter. 88.67% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds. Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades STAG has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of STAG Industrial from $41.00 to $38.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Wedbush raised their price objective on shares of STAG Industrial from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on STAG Industrial from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on STAG Industrial from $42.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $41.13. STAG Industrial Price Performance STAG Industrial stock opened at $36.48 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $6.65 billion, a PE ratio of 36.85 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.42. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $37.81 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $37.64. STAG Industrial, Inc. has a one year low of $34.09 and a one year high of $41.63. STAG Industrial Dividend Announcement The business also recently declared a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a $0.1233 dividend. This represents a $1.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.06%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. STAG Industrial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 149.49%. About STAG Industrial ( Free Report ) We are a REIT focused on the acquisition, ownership, and operation of industrial properties throughout the United States. Our platform is designed to (i) identify properties for acquisition that offer relative value across CBRE-EA Tier 1 industrial real estate markets, industries, and tenants through the principled application of our proprietary risk assessment model, (ii) provide growth through sophisticated industrial operation and an attractive opportunity set, and (iii) capitalize our business appropriately given the characteristics of our assets. Featured Articles Want to see what other hedge funds are holding STAG? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for STAG Industrial, Inc. ( NYSE:STAG – Free Report ). Receive News & Ratings for STAG Industrial Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for STAG Industrial and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes drifted lower following some potentially discouraging data on the economy. The S&P 500 fell 0.5% Thursday, its third loss in the last four days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite dropped 0.7% from its record set the day before. A report earlier in the morning said more U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than forecast. A separate update showed that inflation at the wholesale level was hotter last month than economists expected. Adobe sank after issuing weaker-than-expected financial forecasts. Treasury yields rose in the bond market. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below. NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes are drifting lower Thursday following some potentially discouraging data on the economy . The S&P 500 slipped 0.3%, potentially on track for its third loss in the last four days. That would count as a stumble amid a big rally that’s carried the index toward the close of one of its best years of the millennium . The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 154 points, or 0.4%, as of 1:45 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.3% from its record set the day before. A report earlier in the morning said more U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than expected. A separate update, meanwhile, showed that inflation at the wholesale level, before it reaches U.S. consumers, was hotter last month than economists expected. Neither report points to imminent disaster, but they tug at one of the hopes that’s driven the S&P 500 to 57 all-time highs so far this year : Inflation is slowing enough to convince the Federal Reserve to keep cutting interest rates, while the economy is remaining solid enough to stay out of a recession. Of the two reports, the weaker update on the job market may be the bigger deal for the market, according to Chris Larkin, managing director, trading and investing, at E-Trade from Morgan Stanley. A surge in egg prices may have been behind the worse-than-expected inflation numbers. “One week doesn’t negate what has been a relatively steady stream of solid labor market data, but the Fed is primed to be sensitive to any signs of a softening jobs picture,” he said. Traders see it as a near-certainty that the Fed will cut its main interest rate at its meeting next week. If they’re correct, it would be a third straight cut by the Fed after it began lowering rates in September from a two-decade high. It’s hoping to support a slowing job market after getting inflation nearly all the way down to its 2% target. Lower rates would give a boost to the economy and to prices for investments, but they could also provide more fuel for inflation. A cut next week would have the Fed following other central banks, which eased rates on Thursday. The European Central Bank cut rates by a quarter of a percentage point, as many investors expected, and the Swiss National Bank cut its policy rate by a steeper half of a percentage point. Following its decision, Switzerland’s central bank pointed to uncertainty about how U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s victory will affect economic policies, as well as about where politics in Europe is heading. Trump has talked up tariffs and other policies that could upend global trade. He rang the bell marking the start of trading at the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday to chants of “USA.” On Wall Street, Adobe fell 13.5% despite reporting stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The company gave forecasts for profit and revenue in its upcoming fiscal year that fell a bit shy of analysts’. Warner Bros. Discovery soared 15.6% after unveiling a new corporate structure that separates its streaming business and film studios from its traditional television business. CEO David Zaslav said the move "enhances our flexibility with potential future strategic opportunities,” raising speculation about a spinoff or sale. Kroger rose 2.5% after saying it would get back to buying back its own stock now that its attempt to merge with Albertsons is off . Kroger’s board approved a program to repurchase up to $7.5 billion of its stock, replacing an existing $1 billion authorization. In stock markets abroad, European indexes held relatively steady following the European Central Bank’s cut to rates. Asian markets were stronger. Indexes rose 1.2% in Hong Kong and 0.8% in Shanghai as leaders met in Beijing to set economic plans and targets for the coming year. South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.6% for its third straight gain of at least 1%, as it pulls back following last week’s political turmoil where its president briefly declared martial law. In the bond market, the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield rose to 4.31% from 4.27% late Wednesday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed, rose to 4.18% from 4.16%. ___ AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed. Stan Choe, The Associated Press

Percentages: FG .418, FT .750. 3-Point Goals: 10-26, .385 (Butler 5-9, Campbell 2-3, Khayat 1-2, M.Johnson 1-4, Thomas 1-7, Exacte 0-1). Team Rebounds: 1. Team Turnovers: 1. Blocked Shots: 1 (Towns). Turnovers: 10 (Campbell 4, M.Johnson 3, Butler, Felt, Towns). Steals: 6 (Campbell 2, Green, Khayat, M.Johnson, Thomas). Technical Fouls: None. Percentages: FG .500, FT .909. 3-Point Goals: 8-20, .400 (Karasinski 2-4, Smith 2-4, B.Johnson 2-6, Hopf 1-1, Branson 1-2, Goodin 0-1, Hacker 0-2). Team Rebounds: 0. Team Turnovers: 1. Blocked Shots: 4 (Branson 2, Hacker 2). Turnovers: 9 (Branson 2, Hopf 2, B.Johnson, Hacker, Karasinski, Smith, Whitaker). Steals: 6 (Smith 3, Doyle, Hopf, Karasinski). Technical Fouls: None. A_1,282 (2,196).Green is poised to help scale Mechanized AI's revolutionary technology and drive operational excellence as the company enters a phase of rapid growth. ATLANTA , Dec. 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Mechanized AI , a pioneer in the enterprise AI and application modernization space, proudly announces the designation of Amy Green as its new Chief Operating Officer. With over 15 years of industry experience, Green brings a wealth of expertise in operations, professional services and technology product marketing to the trailblazing enterprise AI and application transformation startup. Her appointment underscores Mechanized AI's commitment to combining groundbreaking technology with top-tier leadership to maintain its competitive edge in the marketplace. Based in Dallas , Green joins the team with an extensive background in operational management and strategic execution at Deloitte Consulting, where she built and grew the Product Engineering group within their Application Modernization & Innovation practice with Charles Wright , CEO of Mechanized AI. Prior to this, Green served on Deloitte's Global Strategy & Innovation team, where she advised teams across the global network on bringing technology products to market and driving scalable growth. A former Executive Search Consultant with Russell Reynolds Associates, Green has advised Fortune 100 clients on complex leadership challenges and recruited top executives to lead transformation at public and private organizations. Previously, Green also served as Strategic Engagement Director at AIG within the Office of the Chief Technology Officer. Green obtained her undergraduate degree from Harvard University and her MBA from UC San Diego's Rady School of Management. "Amy's deep expertise in managing world-class organizations will be critical to ensure we have the people, processes and technology in the right places to drive our operations forward," says Wright. "Her mastery of leading companies through transformation journeys and category creations will be invaluable as we roll out new products and strengthen our collaboration with strategic partners. Amy has already hit the ground running as COO and she will be a crucial asset in building a client-centric business as we position ourselves for sustainable growth." As COO, Green will oversee delivery and customer success, human resources, operations and marketing—key areas vital to Mechanized AI's ongoing success and ambitious growth objectives. She joins a veteran team of startup and consulting executives, including Aditya Muralidhar (Chief AI Officer), Matias Kreder (CTO), Ian Easton (CCO) and recently, Jenny Allen (CMO). "I'm honored to join Mechanized AI as COO and to collaborate with such a talented, passionate team in the rapidly evolving AI space," Green remarked. "Having had the privilege of working with Charles in the past, I'm confident in his ability to drive the company's vision and direction. Mechanized AI is uniquely positioned for growth and innovation, so I'm excited to help scale the organization and deliver impactful solutions that drive transformation for our clients." Launched in 2023, Mechanized AI has grown its team of experts by over 50 percent in 2024 and has locations throughout the U.S. and South America . Green's appointment comes at a pivotal moment as Mechanized AI expands its global operations and scales its enterprise AI and application modernization solutions across industries. About Mechanized AI: Mechanized AI was launched in 2023 to help companies unlock the power of enterprise AI and accelerate their application modernization journeys. Built and backed by a team with over four decades of combined AI/ML experience, the product suite enables end-to-end AI development and deployment and transforms traditional modernization workflows by automating complex, manual processes. The AI Factory platform is a turnkey solution to build Fortune 500-quality production AI for both enterprise and mid-market businesses. The mAI Modernize suite of products provides AI-powered code modernization for any tech stack, empowering clients to understand and modernize legacy code in hours versus months. For more information, set up a demo at Mechanized.ai , follow us on LinkedIn and X , and view open positions on our Careers page . View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mechanized-ai-announces-expansion-of-executive-team-with-appointment-of-amy-green-as-coo-302330807.html SOURCE Mechanized AI

Albertsons sues Kroger for failing to win approval of their proposed supermarket mergerDick Vitale announced earlier this year that he had been diagnosed with cancer again, but the legendary broadcaster shared much more positive news on Thursday. Vitale revealed in a social media post that his latest scans showed he is cancer-free. The 85-year-old shared a video promoting his book, which raises money for pediatric cancer causes, as well as the V Foundation. SANTA CLAUS came early as Dr Rick Brown called & said that my PET SCAN at 7 AM came back CLEAN OF CANCER ! OMG thanks so much to ALL of YOU for your Yes I’m cutting the nets down baby it’s my National Championship! @TheMontagGroup @jksports @TheVCEO @ESPNPR @ @WSB_Speakers pic.twitter.com/XGa1bJ8pzu — Dick Vitale (@DickieV) December 12, 2024 Vitale has had numerous battles with cancer in recent years . He has had to undergo multiple surgeries and various treatments. Vitale is an ESPN legend who has been with the network since its launch in 1979. The longtime ESPN announcer has not called a college basketball game since 2022, and it is unclear when or if he will call another. The latest update about his health was welcome news for the sports world and beyond. This article first appeared on Larry Brown Sports and was syndicated with permission.

Candel Therapeutics Announces $80 Million Proposed Public Offering

Banque Cantonale Vaudoise decreased its position in shares of iShares MSCI China A ETF ( BATS:CNYA – Free Report ) by 30.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,515 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,230 shares during the quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise owned about 0.07% of iShares MSCI China A ETF worth $228,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of CNYA. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in shares of iShares MSCI China A ETF during the second quarter valued at approximately $73,737,000. Lumbard & Kellner LLC bought a new stake in shares of iShares MSCI China A ETF during the first quarter valued at approximately $5,815,000. Matrix Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of iShares MSCI China A ETF during the second quarter valued at approximately $2,076,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its holdings in shares of iShares MSCI China A ETF by 136.8% during the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 124,496 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,153,000 after acquiring an additional 71,921 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Prism Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of iShares MSCI China A ETF by 8.9% during the third quarter. Prism Advisors Inc. now owns 393,897 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,963,000 after acquiring an additional 32,310 shares in the last quarter. iShares MSCI China A ETF Trading Down 3.2 % Shares of iShares MSCI China A ETF stock opened at $28.46 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $29.17 and a 200 day simple moving average of $26.87. iShares MSCI China A ETF has a 12-month low of $25.46 and a 12-month high of $35.58. The company has a market capitalization of $308.79 million, a P/E ratio of 12.12 and a beta of 0.44. iShares MSCI China A ETF Profile The iShares MSCI China A ETF (CNYA) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the MSCI China A Inclusion index, a market-cap-weighted index of Chinese A-share equities. CNYA was launched on Jun 13, 2016 and is managed by BlackRock. Recommended Stories Receive News & Ratings for iShares MSCI China A ETF Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for iShares MSCI China A ETF and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .

MEXICO CITY — In recent days, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has touted her country’s largest-ever seizure of fentanyl and highlighted multiple crackdowns on migrants headed toward to the United States. She was speaking to the press, but her most important audience is U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. Her campaign is widely seen as a desperate effort to head off his pledge to impose a 25% tariff on Mexican goods when he takes office next month. “The timing is no coincidence,” said Eduardo Guerrero, a security analyst in Mexico City. “President Sheinbaum’s agenda has changed radically with the triumph of Trump and with the threats he directed at Mexico.” There is deep anxiety here about the potentially devastating impacts of tariffs on an already sluggish economy that is heavily dependent on trade. The United States accounts for more than 80% of Mexico’s exports. “They were clearly not prepared for Trump winning the way he won, and Trump saying the things he has said since the election,” said Jorge Castañeda, a former foreign secretary. “So they are doing what they can to catch up, a little on the fly. To make Trump and the Americans in general feel like she is trying to do things to make Trump happy.” A telephone conversation between the two leaders didn’t seem to help. An elated Trump reported after the call on social media that Sheinbaum had “agreed to stop Migration through Mexico” and had committed to “effectively closing our Southern Border.” Sheinbaum disputed that, saying that Mexico’s position was not to close borders, but “to build bridges between governments and communities.” Mexican officials have been enlisting U.S. corporations, politicians and others to help dissuade Trump from imposing tariffs. “It’s better for Mexico to know about the tariff threat beforehand,” said Sofía Ramírez, who heads the economic think tank México, ¿cómo vamos? “This way they can at least formulate a response.” Officials even launched a highly publicized offensive against contraband goods from Asia, raiding a shopping center in downtown Mexico City and seizing thousands of toys and other products — an operation widely seen as a preemptive strike to discourage Trump from trying to punish Mexico for serving as a conduit for Chinese merchandise headed to the United States. Sheinbaum “realized that China is a big deal for Trump, and if she wants to stay on his good side, Mexico has to do more to prevent China from using Mexico as a back door to get into the U.S. market,” said Denise Dresser, a columnist and political scientist at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico. The president has denied that she is simply trying to placate Trump. Mexicans, she recently told reporters, “can be sure that we are never going to bow our head or be ashamed.” Sheinbaum must walk a fine line between her constituents, who don’t want to see Mexico humiliated — or go broke — and the unpredictable, impetuous Trump. Few expect Sheinbaum, a scientist of austere demeanor, to secure the kind of rapport with Trump enjoyed by her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a folksy, old-school populist who showered Trump with praise at every opportunity. “She is not going to go and campaign for Trump in the Rose Garden,” said Dresser, recalling López Obrador’s 2020 visit to the Trump White House. “He’s not going to call her, ‘Mi amiga Claudia,’ or sit and drink tequilas with her.” Trump views tariffs as a way to pressure countries to do what he wants. In issuing his threat against Mexico last month in a post on his social media platform, he wrote: “The Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!” It didn’t take long before Sheinbaum started trotting out accomplishments in those areas. On Dec. 4 — nine days after the tariff threat — Sheinbaum announced the seizure of more than a ton of fentanyl in two raids in the state of Sinaloa, a notorious cartel bastion and manufacturing hub for the synthetic opioid. The haul could have produced 20 million doses of fentanyl and yielded more than $400 million for organized crime, she told reporters. The operation, she said, had been planned for some time, countering suggestions in the Mexican media that it had been stage-managed to win over the Trump team. Completely shutting down the fentanyl trade is probably not possible, according to experts. Smugglers ship precursor chemicals from China to Mexico, where the opioid is produced in clandestine labs, before being transported across the U.S. border. It’s not clear whether Trump will be willing to compromise. “We don’t really know what Trump wants other than these blanket statements to ‘stop the drugs,’ ” Castañeda said. “Does he want to send in more DEA guys? More military? To go after kingpins again? Or go after shipments of the precursor chemicals coming in from China?” On migration, Sheinbaum has said that northbound migrant caravans were being “dealt with” — Mexican authorities have been breaking up the groups in southern Mexico. Mexico has been detaining more than 5,000 migrants a day, almost 50% more than during the final months of her predecessor’s term. This year, Mexico has reported more than 1.2 million apprehensions of migrants — a record for Mexico that even tops the total arrests by the U.S. Border Patrol along the U.S.-Mexico border during the same period. Will that be enough to mollify Trump? No one knows. “Both governments are kind of condemned to deal with each other,” Castañeda said. “There’s not much choice. She can’t make Trump go away and he can’t make her go away. So they will eventually get along.”

Stock market today: Wall Street drifts lower after weak signals on the economy NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes drifted lower following some potentially discouraging data on the economy. The S&P 500 fell 0.5% Thursday, its third loss in the last four days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0. Stan Choe, The Associated Press Dec 12, 2024 1:09 PM Share by Email Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Print Share via Text Message People pass the New York Stock Exchange in New York's Financial District on Wednesday Dec.11, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan) NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes drifted lower following some potentially discouraging data on the economy. The S&P 500 fell 0.5% Thursday, its third loss in the last four days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite dropped 0.7% from its record set the day before. A report earlier in the morning said more U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than forecast. A separate update showed that inflation at the wholesale level was hotter last month than economists expected. Adobe sank after issuing weaker-than-expected financial forecasts. Treasury yields rose in the bond market. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below. NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes are drifting lower Thursday following some potentially discouraging data on the economy . The S&P 500 slipped 0.3%, potentially on track for its third loss in the last four days. That would count as a stumble amid a big rally that’s carried the index toward the close of one of its best years of the millennium . The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 154 points, or 0.4%, as of 1:45 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.3% from its record set the day before. A report earlier in the morning said more U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than expected. A separate update, meanwhile, showed that inflation at the wholesale level, before it reaches U.S. consumers, was hotter last month than economists expected. Neither report points to imminent disaster, but they tug at one of the hopes that’s driven the S&P 500 to 57 all-time highs so far this year : Inflation is slowing enough to convince the Federal Reserve to keep cutting interest rates, while the economy is remaining solid enough to stay out of a recession. Of the two reports, the weaker update on the job market may be the bigger deal for the market, according to Chris Larkin, managing director, trading and investing, at E-Trade from Morgan Stanley. A surge in egg prices may have been behind the worse-than-expected inflation numbers. “One week doesn’t negate what has been a relatively steady stream of solid labor market data, but the Fed is primed to be sensitive to any signs of a softening jobs picture,” he said. Traders see it as a near-certainty that the Fed will cut its main interest rate at its meeting next week. If they’re correct, it would be a third straight cut by the Fed after it began lowering rates in September from a two-decade high. It’s hoping to support a slowing job market after getting inflation nearly all the way down to its 2% target. Lower rates would give a boost to the economy and to prices for investments, but they could also provide more fuel for inflation. A cut next week would have the Fed following other central banks, which eased rates on Thursday. The European Central Bank cut rates by a quarter of a percentage point, as many investors expected, and the Swiss National Bank cut its policy rate by a steeper half of a percentage point. Following its decision, Switzerland’s central bank pointed to uncertainty about how U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s victory will affect economic policies, as well as about where politics in Europe is heading. Trump has talked up tariffs and other policies that could upend global trade. He rang the bell marking the start of trading at the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday to chants of “USA.” On Wall Street, Adobe fell 13.5% despite reporting stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The company gave forecasts for profit and revenue in its upcoming fiscal year that fell a bit shy of analysts’. Warner Bros. Discovery soared 15.6% after unveiling a new corporate structure that separates its streaming business and film studios from its traditional television business. CEO David Zaslav said the move "enhances our flexibility with potential future strategic opportunities,” raising speculation about a spinoff or sale. Kroger rose 2.5% after saying it would get back to buying back its own stock now that its attempt to merge with Albertsons is off . Kroger’s board approved a program to repurchase up to $7.5 billion of its stock, replacing an existing $1 billion authorization. In stock markets abroad, European indexes held relatively steady following the European Central Bank’s cut to rates. Asian markets were stronger. Indexes rose 1.2% in Hong Kong and 0.8% in Shanghai as leaders met in Beijing to set economic plans and targets for the coming year. South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.6% for its third straight gain of at least 1%, as it pulls back following last week’s political turmoil where its president briefly declared martial law. In the bond market, the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield rose to 4.31% from 4.27% late Wednesday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed, rose to 4.18% from 4.16%. ___ AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed. Stan Choe, The Associated 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 More National Business Creditors approve proposed $32.5B deal with tobacco giants today: lawyer Dec 12, 2024 3:26 PM Vancouver Island First Nation whose ancestors met explorer Capt. Cook sue province Dec 12, 2024 3:16 PM Manitoba premier eyes list of possible retaliatory measures for U.S. tariffs Dec 12, 2024 3:10 PM Featured Flyer