ZURICH (AP) — Swiss 18-year-old cyclist Muriel Furrer died on Friday, one day after sustaining a head injury in a crash at the road world championships.
“Muriel Furrer sadly passed away today at Zurich University Hospital,” race organizers said in a statement.
Furrer was competing in the junior women's event on rain-slicked roads Thursday morning when she crashed in a forest area south of Zurich. She was airlifted by helicopter to the hospital.
At a news conference Friday, a director of the Swiss organizing committee, Olivier Senn, said no official information could yet be given to confirm exactly where the crash happened.
Police and the public prosecutor's office are investigating, Senn said.
“We have lost a promising young athlete with the full life ahead of her which is very hard to take," he said. “We cannot imagine how it must feel for the family and friends.”
Furrer's family had asked that the championships — which run for nine days through Sunday — continue on schedule, International Cycling Union (UCI) sports director Peter van den Abeele said.
A gala event for the UCI scheduled on Saturday evening has been canceled, as were public events to celebrate the races planned Friday in Zurich.
The women's and men's elite races scheduled Saturday and Sunday, respectively, will use the same stretch of road where the fatal crash happened.
“The downhill was looked at again just today,” Senn said. "We have slightly amended the staff on site. We believe we always do the maximum on the safety and security of the riders.”
The UCI paid tribute to the Swiss teenager in a statement: "With the passing of Muriel Furrer, the international cycling community loses a rider with a bright future ahead of her.”
Furrer is the second Swiss cyclist to have died after crashing on home roads in the past two seasons.
Gino Mäder suffered a fatal crash at the Tour de Suisse in June 2023. The 26-year-old rider went off the road and crashed down a ravine during a descent and died from his injuries the next day.
“Obviously it is another tragic death," Senn said. "There is a lot of similarities, similar feelings. Today is about Muriel.”
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FILE - Muriel Furrer from Switzerland, in action during the UCI Cross Country Junior Women, XCO, Mountain Bike World Championship, Aug. 30, 2024, in Pal Arinsal, Andorra. (Maxime Schmid/Keystone via AP, File)
A picture of cyclist Muriel Furrer from Switzerland who died after a crash Thursday, is projected during a minute of silence prior to the medal ceremony of the Men Under 23 Road Race of the Cycling and Para-cycling Road World Championships in Zurich, Switzerland, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
FILE - Muriel Furrer from Switzerland, in action during the UCI Cross Country Junior Women, XCO, Mountain Bike World Championship, Aug. 30, 2024, in Pal Arinsal, Andorra. (Maxime Schmid/Keystone via AP, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes are drifting around their records Friday as hopes hold that the economy can pull off the rare feat of getting painfully high inflation under control without a recession.
The S&P 500 was mostly unchanged in afternoon trading a day after setting an all-time high for the 42nd time this year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 341 points, or 0.8%, and on track to set its own record. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.3% as of 12:01 p.m. Eastern time.
Treasury yields eased in the bond market after a report showed inflation slowed in August by a touch more than economists expected. It echoed similar numbers reported earlier in the month about inflation in August, but Friday’s report has resonance because it’s the measure of inflation that officials at the Federal Reserve prefer to use.
The Fed had long been keeping its main interest rate at a two-decade high in hopes of slowing the economy enough to stifle inflation. Now that inflation has eased substantially from its peak two summers ago, it’s begun cutting rates to ease the brakes off a slowing job market and prevent a recession.
If the Fed can pull off a perfect landing for the economy where it chokes off high inflation without suffocating the economy, all while lowering interest rates, it would be a form of nirvana for financial markets. And it’s a large reason why U.S. stocks have rallied to records.
Of course, that path is not certain. U.S. employers have slowed their hiring, and the inflation report on Friday also showed growth in U.S. consumer spending in August fell short of economists’ expectations. That’s important because consumer spending is the main engine of the economy.
Part of the shortfall may have been because incomes for Americans grew less in August than economists expected. As the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates, starting with its bigger-than-usual cut last week, Americans will see lower interest payments on their savings accounts and other similar investments.
The boost that lower interest rates can give through cheaper loans to buy homes, cars and things on credit cards, meanwhile, can take longer to come to fruition, “so consumption spending will likely get squeezed,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management.
More encouraging data arrived later in the morning, when a report said sentiment among U.S. consumers is stronger than economists expected.
On Wall Street, Bristol-Myers Squibb rose 3.2% after receiving U.S. federal approval for its new approach to treat schizophrenia in adults.
Costco Wholesale fell 1.9% after delivering weaker revenue in the latest quarter than analysts expected. That was even though its profit topped expectations.
Another company that depends on people spending money, ski-resort operator Vail Resorts, sank 4.8% after reporting a larger loss for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Scant snowfalls at its Australian resorts hurt its results, and it gave a forecast for profit in its upcoming fiscal year that fell short of forecasts.
Trump Media & Technology Group swung from an early loss to jump 7.5% following the first disclosure of a major investor selling its shares now that a restriction for insiders has lifted.
A Florida firm owned by former contestants on “The Apprentice” has dumped nearly all of its 5.5% ownership stake in TMTG, which owns former president Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform, according to a filing made with U.S. regulators on Thursday.
Trump has said he does not plan to sell any of his shares, and he owns more than half of the company, but the stock has been shaky amid speculation about whether he may.
Markets overseas again made big moves, as stocks in Shanghai rallied 2.9% to close their best week since 2008. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 3.6% to cap its best week since 1998.
They soared following a barrage of announcements through the week from China’s central bank and government in hopes of propping up the world’s second-largest economy. Investors aren’t convinced all the stimulus will ultimately succeed, but they say they’re impressed by the size of it all following earlier piecemeal efforts.
Besides Chinese stocks, prices for copper, stocks of some luxury retailers and other companies seen as benefiting from a stronger Chinese economy also rose over the week.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury eased to 3.76% from 3.80% late Thursday.
The two-year Treasury yield, which moves more closely with expectations for what the Fed will do with short-term interest rates, fell to 3.57% from 3.63%.
Traders are betting on a roughly coin flip's chance the Fed will cut the federal funds rate by another half of a percentage point at its next meeting in November, according to data from CME Group. It usually moves rates by just a quarter of a percentage point.
AP Writers Matt Ott and Zimo Zhong contributed.
The New York Stock Exchange, center, is shown on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)
FILE - The New York Stock Exchange, at rear, is shown on Sept. 24, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)
FILE - People walk in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)
FILE - A person looks at an electronic stock board showing Japan's stock prices, at a securities firm Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)
