PARIS (AP) — French rescue vessels and a passenger ferry pulled the bodies of three migrants from the English Channel on Wednesday, pushing the count so far this year of dead and missing in the busy waterway’s French side to above 50.
French maritime authorities said 45 other people were rescued after their failed attempt to cross the treacherous waterway between France and England aboard a heavily overloaded inflatable boat that foundered off the northern French port of Calais.
The maritime prefecture that oversees French waters in the Channel said this year is proving to be the deadliest for migrants' crossing attempts aboard small boats since they started surging in 2018.
Before the latest incident, the prefecture had counted 49 migrants dead or missing at sea so far in 2024. It said Wednesday's deaths pushed its total to 52. That compares to 16 dead or missing last year, five deaths in 2022, and 35 dead or missing in 2021, which had been the deadliest year for attempted crossings until 2024, the prefecture said.
Wednesday's rescue off Calais was launched after a life vest was found at sea, and it prompted a temporary halt to some of the commercial ferry services that ply routes between ports in northern France and the southern coast of the U.K., the prefecture said.
A passenger ferry spotted and recovered one of the three dead from the water, it said. It said the man was unconscious when brought aboard and was evacuated on a French navy helicopter to a hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.
Two French rescue vessels dispatched to the area picked up another 47 people from the waters. Of those, two were unresponsive, the prefecture said. Attempts were made to revive them but their deaths were confirmed back on land in Calais, the prefecture said.
The overloading of flimsy boats used in crossing attempts sometimes causes them to collapse, rip open and sink. Inflatables that are built to carry no more than 20 people often attempt the voyage with three times that many aboard, and sometimes more, the prefecture said.
A baby died and 65 people had to be rescued in another failed crossing attempt on an overloaded boat that sank last week.
Four migrants, including a 2-year-old child, also died earlier this month in two separate incidents in similar crossing attempts.
Last month, at least 20 migrants died in several shipwrecks in the Channel.
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FILE - A group of Kurdish migrants from Iran and Iraq who failed in their attempt to reach the United Kingdom by boat after being discovered by the police refuse to return to shore on the beach of Ambleteuse, northern France, on Sunday, May 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are slipping Wednesday as some more steam comes out of Wall Street’s huge, record-breaking rally.
The S&P 500 was 0.4% lower in morning trading. It’s coming off two small losses since setting an all-time high on Friday and on track for its first three-day losing streak since early September. But the pullback is only modest, and it follows a superb run where the index rallied for six straight weeks, its longest such streak of the year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 202 points, or 0.5%, as of 10:15 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.8% lower.
McDonald’s helped pull the market lower and dropped 5.3% after federal health officials linked its Quarter Pounder burgers with an E. coli outbreak that’s affected at least 49 people in 10 states. Investigators are still trying to find what specific ingredient is contaminated, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said McDonald’s stopped using fresh slivered onions and quarter pound beef patties in several states while the investigation is ongoing.
Coca-Cola fell 2.2% even though it reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. A lot of focus was on how much product the company shipped during the quarter, and that fell short of estimates.
Boston Scientific also weakened despite delivering better-than-expected quarterly results. It fell 4.9% after saying it's temporarily pausing its trial of a treatment for persistent atrial fibrillation to assess “a few unanticipated observations.” The medical technology company said it intends to resume enrollment in the near term.
Helping to keep the losses for indexes in check was Texas Instruments, which rose 3.8%. The semiconductor company reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. While revenue from industrial users declined from the prior quarter, CEO Haviv Ilan said all other end markets grew.
Northern Trust climbed 7.2% after likewise topping analysts’ estimates for profit and revenue in the latest quarter.
Boeing, meanwhile, swung between gains and losses and was most recently down 1% in what could be one of the most consequential days in years for the troubled aerospace manufacturer.
The company reported a loss of more than $6 billion for the latest quarter, as it waits to see the results of a vote by machinists that could end a strike that's crippled its aircraft production for more than a month. Boeing stock has lost nearly 40% this year.
U.S. stocks have generally been slowing their record-breaking momentum this week under increasing pressure from rising Treasury yields.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose again Wednesday to 4.24% from 4.21% late Tuesday and from just 4.08% Friday. Higher yields for Treasurys can make investors less willing to pay high prices for stocks, which critics say already look too expensive after they rose faster than corporate profits.
Treasury yields have been climbing after a raft of reports have shown the U.S. economy remains stronger than expected. That’s good news for Wall Street, because it bolsters hopes that the economy can escape from the worst inflation in generations without the painful recession that many had worried was inevitable.
Traders are now largely expecting the Fed to cut its main interest rate by half a percentage point more through the end of the year, according to data from CME Group. A month ago, some of those same traders were betting on the federal funds rate ending the year as much as half a percentage point lower than that.
In stock markets abroad, Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.8% despite a surge of 45% for Tokyo Metro Co.’s stock in its trading debut. It was Japan’s largest IPO since SoftBank Corp. went public in 2018.
Chinese markets rose for a second day after the central bank cut its one-year and five-year Loan Prime Rates on Monday. Indexes rose 1.3% in Hong Kong’s and 0.5% in Shanghai, while European markets were mixed.
AP Writers Matt Ott and Zimo Zhong contributed.
A train arrives at the Wall Street subway station in New York's Financial District on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)
A banner for LATAM Airlines hangs from the front of the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)
A banner for LATAM Airlines hangs from the front of the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)
A currency trader works near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, center, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, right, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Currency traders work at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
