Huge Australian king penguin chick Pesto grows into social media star

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Huge Australian king penguin chick Pesto grows into social media star

2024-09-20 16:25 Last Updated At：16:40

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A huge king penguin chick named Pesto, who weighs as much as both his parents combined, has become a social media celebrity and a star attraction at an Australian aquarium.

Weighing 22 kilograms (49 pounds) at 9 months old, Pesto is the heaviest penguin chick the Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium has ever had, its education supervisor Jacinta Early said on Friday.

By contrast, his doting parents, Hudson and Tango weigh 11 kilograms (24 pounds) each.

Pesto’s global fame has grown with his size. More than 1.9 billion people around the world had viewed him through social media, an aquarium statement said.

He ate more than his own substantial body weight in fish in the past week: 24 kilograms (53 pounds), Early said.

The veterinary advice is that that quantity of food is healthy for a chick approaching adulthood.

His growth will plateau as he enters his fledging period. He has started to lose his brown feathers and will replace them with the black and white plumage of a young adult.

His keepers expect him to trim down to around 15 kilograms (33 pounds) in the process.

“He’s going to start losing that really adorable baby fluff. It might take him one to two months to really get rid of it. Then he’ll be nice and sleek and streamlined,” Early said.

But she expects Pesto will remain recognizable as the sought-after TikTok celebrity he has become for another two weeks.

For now, he's a star attraction.

“Such a small head for such a big body,” one admirer remarked on Friday as a crowd gathered against the glass of the penguin enclosure at feeding time.

Hatching on Jan. 31, Pesto was the only king penguin chick to hatch at the aquarium this year and the first since 2022, a year when there were six. The reason why there was none last year isn’t clear.

Adult king penguins weigh between 9.5 kilograms (21 pounds) and 18 kilograms (40 pounds), according to the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, a global environmental group.

They are the world’s econd largest penguin species, after the emperor penguin.

Asian stocks follow Wall Street's rate-cut rally higher, as BOJ stands pat

2024-09-20 16:30 Last Updated At：16:40

HONG KONG (AP) — Asian stocks surged on Friday with Japan’s Nikkei leading regional gains after Wall Street romped to records following the Federal Reserve’s big cut to interest rates.

U.S. futures and oil prices were lower.

The Bank of Japan ended a two-day monetary policy meeting and announced it would keep its benchmark rate unchanged at 0.25%.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index soared 1.5% to close at 37,723.91 after the nation's key inflation data in August accelerated for a fourth consecutive month. The core consumer price index rose 2.8% year-on-year in August, exceeding the central bank’s 2% target and leaving room for further rate hikes.

Markets are closely watching for hints on the pace of future rate hikes from BOJ Gov. Kazuo Ueda.

“For the BOJ, given current economic conditions and recent central bank rhetoric, further policy adjustments are not expected until later this year or early 2025,” Anderson Alves of ActivTrades said in a commentary.

The U.S. dollar fell to 142.47 Japanese yen from 142.62 yen. The euro rose to $1.1178 from $1.1161.

China refrained from further monetary stimulus as the central bank left key lending rates unchanged on Friday. The one-year loan prime rate (LPR), the benchmark for most corporate and household loans, stays at 3.45%, and the five-year rate, a reference for property mortgages, was held at 3.85%.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong added 1.1% to 18,211.06 while the Shanghai Composite index fell 0.2% at 2,730.00.

Elsewhere, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.2% at 8,209.50. South Korea's Kospi was up 0.5% to 2,593.12.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 jumped 1.7% to 5,713.64 for one of its best days of the year and topped its last all-time high set in July. The Dow Jones Industrial Average leaped 1.3% to 42,025.19, and the Nasdaq composite led the market with a 2.5% spurt to 18,013.98.

Wall Street’s gains followed rallies for markets across Europe and Asia after the Federal Reserve delivered its first cut to interest rates in more than four years on Wednesday.

That closed the door on a run where the Fed kept its main interest rate at a two-decade high in hopes of slowing the U.S. economy enough to stamp out high inflation. Now that inflation has fallen from its peak two summers ago, Chair Jerome Powell said the Fed can focus more on keeping the job market solid and the economy out of a recession.

Wall Street’s initial reaction to Wednesday’s cut was a yawn. Markets had already run up for months on expectations for lower rates. Stocks edged lower after swinging a few times.

“Yet we come in today and have a reversal of the reversal,” said Jonathan Krinsky, chief market technician at BTIG. He said he did not anticipate such a big jump for stocks on Thursday.

The Fed is still under pressure because the job market and hiring have begun to slow under the weight of higher interest rates. Some critics say the central bank waited too long to cut rates and may have damaged the economy.

Some investment banks raised their forecasts for how much the Federal Reserve will ultimately cut interest rates, anticipating even deeper reductions than Fed officials.

The U.S. presidential election adds to uncertainties. One fear is that both the Democrats and Republicans could push for policies that add to the U.S. government’s debt, which could keep upward pressure on interest rates regardless of the Fed’s moves.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury held steady at 3.71%, where it was late Wednesday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for Fed action, fell to 3.58% from 3.63%.

In other dealings, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 7 cents to $71.09 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, declined 9 cents to $74.79 per barrel.