NOUMEA, New Caledonia (AP) — New Caledonia marked the anniversary on Tuesday of France's takeover of the Pacific archipelago with tight security and simmering tensions between the pro-independence Indigenous Kanak people and the white settler communities loyal to Paris.
The 171st anniversary of the French colonization of New Caledonia, which is east of Australia and 10 time zones ahead of Paris, comes four months after protests by Kanaks against French President Emmanuel Macron’ s voting reforms in New Caledonia turned violent, leaving 13 people dead and widespread destruction.
The violence on the archipelago of about 270,000 people widened the gap between communities that have long faced an existential dilemma over New Caledonia's status within France. At least 6,000 police officers have been deployed in and around the capital, Noumea, since unrest started in May. On Tuesday, security forces were on high alert to prevent any violence during the Sept. 24 anniversary, a public holiday known as Citizenship Day.
It marks the day in 1853 when French Admiral Auguste Febvrier-Despointes declared French sovereignty over New Caledonia in the name of Emperor Napoleon III, Napoleon’s nephew and heir. It became an overseas territory after World War II, with French citizenship granted to all Kanaks in 1957.
Underlining how far apart the communities stand on the territory's future, the loyalists in Noumea on Tuesday celebrated New Caledonia's French identity, waving national flags, honking car horns to the sounds of the French national anthem, La Marseillaise, and other patriotic songs, blasting from a radio broadcast, and vehicles carrying police officers and firefighters joining in.
For the Indigenous people, who once suffered from strict segregation policies and widespread discrimination, Sept. 24 is a reminder to continue their struggle for independence. The National Council of Chiefs of the Kanak people was meeting on Mare Island, across from Noumea, and was expected to unilaterally declare sovereignty over the Kanak nation on their customary territories.
In Paris, New Caledonia's pro-independence Kanak lawmaker, Emmanuel Tjibaou, hailed people in his faraway homeland for “peacefully marking this Citizenship Day" and showing that “we stand steadfast in our fight for dignity ... that is non-negotiable," he said in a social media post.
Nicolas Metzdorf, New Caledonia’s loyalist lawmaker, was beaming with pride over the Pacific archipelago's French identity and vowed that his supporters have every intention of keeping the territory a part of France.
On Citizenship Day, New Caledonia “celebrates our attachment to France,” Metzdorf said. “It's a celebration of all citizens, including those who are still excluded from voting,” he said in reference to those residents, who have recently settled in the archipelago but can't vote in local elections in line with the 1998 Noumea Accord that gives New Caledonia more political power and broader autonomy.
In the spring, Macron rushed a bill through Parliament aimed at amending France’s constitution and changing the electoral register in New Caledonia to grant voting rights to residents who have settled there in the last decade, leaving the Indigenous people in fear of further erosion of their rights and erasure of their identity.
The adoption of the controversial bill by both houses of the French Parliament in May led to mass demonstrations that turned violent, prompting Macron to declare a state of emergency and fly thousands of police and army reinforcements to the faraway territory. Thirteen people, mostly Kanaks, and two police officers were killed and nearly 3,000 people have been arrested.
Among those detained in broad police raids were 11 Kanak activists with the pro-independence group known as The Field Action Coordination Unit, which has organized protests against French rule since April. Seven of the detained activists, including Christian Tein, a Kanak leader, were flown 17,000 kilometers (10,500 miles) away from home to seven prisons in mainland France for pretrial detention.
Macron sidelined the controversial voting reform in June after he dissolved Parliament and called early legislative elections.
France held three referendums in New Caledonia on independence between 2018 and 2021 as part of an agreement known as the Noumea Accords that followed a 1988 peace deal that ended violence between rival factions.
A majority of voters chose to remain part of France instead of backing independence. The pro-independence Kanak people rejected the results of the last referendum in 2021, which they boycotted because it was held at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic that severely affected the Kanak community.
Associated Press writer Barbara Surk in Nice, France, contributed to this report.
Indigenous Kanaks wave independent flags during the 171th anniversary of France's takeover of the Pacific Archipelago, in Noumea, New Caledonia, French Pacific islands, Tuesday Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Charlotte Antoine-Perron)
Indigenous Kanaks hold independent flags as they gather near the Field Action Coordination Unit building during the 171th anniversary of France's takeover of the Pacific Archipelago, in Noumea, New Caledonia, French Pacific islands, Tuesday Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Charlotte Antoine-Perron)
A pro-loyalist barricade with French flags is photographed during the anniv 171th anniversary of France's takeover of the Pacific Archipelago, in Noumea, New Caledonia, French Pacific islands, Tuesday Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Charlotte Antoine-Perron)
An indigenous Kanak holds the independent flag during the 171th anniversary of France's takeover of the Pacific Archipelago, in Noumea, New Caledonia, French Pacific islands, Tuesday Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Charlotte Antoine-Perron)
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks edged further into record heights on Wall Street after shaking off a bumpy start to the day. The S&P 500 rose 0.3% Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 0.2%, adding to its own record. The Nasdaq composite gained 0.6%. Treasury yields sank in the bond market following an update on U.S. consumer confidence that was surprisingly weak. Prices for oil, copper and other commodities rallied following a slew of moves by China’s central bank to prop up the world’s second-largest economy. Chinese stocks closed sharply higher.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are drifting around their records Tuesday after Chinese stocks soared following a slew of moves by the Chinese central bank to prop up the world’s second-largest economy.
The S&P 500 was 0.1% higher in late trading and on track to set an all-time high for the 41st time this year. The movements were tentative, and the index wavered up and down following a surprisingly weak report released in the morning on confidence among U.S. consumers.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was edging down by 6 points, or less than 0.1%, from its own record set the day before. The Nasdaq composite was 0.4% higher, with an hour remaining in trading.
Financial markets have been mostly ebullient after the Federal Reserve made a drastic turn last week in how it sets interest rates. It’s now lowering rates to make things easier for the U.S. economy after keeping them high for years in hopes of extinguishing high inflation.
One of the risks still hanging over the market is the struggling Chinese economy and how much its flagging growth may affect the rest of the world. After earlier delivering some modest and piecemeal moves, the chief of China’s central bank on Tuesday announced a broad set of changes to bolster its economy, including a reduction in the amount of reserves banks are required to keep.
Analysts called the coordinated moves encouraging, and they helped stocks soar in China. Indexes jumped 4.2% in Shanghai and 4.1% in Hong Kong. But questions still remain about how much they will boost the economy, which has been struggling since Chinese authorities cracked down on excessive borrowing by property developers.
Prices climbed for crude oil and other commodities that a healthy Chinese economy would devour. Copper was up nearly 4%.
Another risk hanging over Wall Street is the slowing U.S. job market. Now that inflation has eased substantially from its peak two summers ago, the main worry occupying investors is that a slowdown in hiring by U.S. companies may worsen.
Moves to interest rates can take a notoriously long time to make their way fully through the economy, and the Federal Reserve kept its main interest rate at a two-decade high for more than a year before last week. It did cut by an unusually large amount in hopes of providing relief to the job market and economy.
A report released Tuesday showed U.S. households are feeling more worried about the job market. Their overall confidence level sank in September, according to the Conference Board, instead of rising like economists expected. That’s a big deal because spending by U.S. consumers is the heart of the U.S. economy.
AutoZone’s stock fell 0.9% after the seller of auto replacement parts and accessories said a key measure of its sales performance among its U.S. stores barely grew during the latest quarter. It was part of an underwhelming report where its profit and revenue both fell short of analysts’ expectations.
AutoZone said it’s continuing to see customers at its U.S. stores delay purchases of non-essentials.
Another company that depends on the appetite of U.S. shoppers for non-essentials, Thor Industries, rose 6.9% following a mixed profit report. The maker of recreational vehicles reported better profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, but it also gave a forecast for its upcoming fiscal year that sees the RV market continuing to be challenged.
“The talk of a softer market is beginning to sound like a broken record, but we remained focused on managing through it with increasing efficiency,” CEO Bob Martin said.
One of Wall Street’s bigger winners was Smartsheet, which helps companies manage projects and automate workflows. It rose 6.4% after Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners agreed to buy it in an all-cash deal valued at $8.4 billion.
In the bond market, Treasury yields slipped after the weaker-than-expected report on consumer confidence erased earlier gains. The 10-year yield fell to 3.73%, from 3.75% late Monday. The two-year yield, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed’s upcoming moves, fell to 3.55% from 3.59% late Monday.
Yields sank as traders upped their forecasts for how much the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by at its next meeting in November. They’re now betting on a 58% probability of another bigger-than-usual cut of half a percentage point. That’s up from a 53% probability the day before, according to data from CME Group.
Wall Street loves lower interest rates because they can give the economy a boost by making it less expensive to borrow money to buy a car, house or things on credit cards. They also tend to give a boost to prices for all kinds of investments.
Nvidia's jump of 4.3% was the strongest force lifting the S&P 500 index Tuesday. The chip company's stock had sunk 27% during the summer on worries that its price had shot too high in the frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology. But lower rates dampen that criticism by a bit, and Nvidia has been rallying back since early August. .
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia. France’s CAC 40 jumped 1.3%, South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.1% and Japan’s Nikkei 225 added 0.6%.
AP Business Writers Elaine Kurtenbach and Matt Ott contributed.
The New York Stock Exchange is shown on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)
The flag of Argentina flies on the front of the New York Stock Exchange where Argentine President Javier Milei will ring the opening bell on Monday, Sept. 23, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)
People walk in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
The Tokyo Stock Exchange building is seen Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
The Tokyo Stock Exchange building is seen Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing New York Dow, Japan's Nikkei indexes and U.S. dollar/Japanese yen exchange rate at a securities firm Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A person walks near an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A person looks at an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
