4 astronauts return to Earth after being delayed by Boeing's capsule trouble and Hurricane Milton

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Four astronauts returned to Earth on Friday after a nearly eight-month space station stay extended by Boeing's capsule trouble and Hurricane Milton.

A SpaceX capsule carrying the crew parachuted before dawn into the Gulf of Mexico just off the Florida coast after undocking from the International Space Station mid-week.

The three Americans and one Russian should have been back two months ago. But their homecoming was stalled by problems with Boeing’s new Starliner astronaut capsule, which came back empty in September because of safety concerns. Then Hurricane Milton interfered, followed by another two weeks of high wind and rough seas.

SpaceX launched the four — NASA's Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps, and Russia's Alexander Grebenkin — in March. Barratt, the only space veteran going into the mission, acknowledged the support teams back home that had “to replan, retool and kind of redo everything right along with us ... and helped us to roll with all those punches.”

Their replacements are the two Starliner test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, whose own mission went from eight days to eight months, and two astronauts launched by SpaceX four weeks ago. Those four will remain up there until February.

The space station is now back to its normal crew size of seven — four Americans and three Russians — after months of overflow.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

This photo provided by NASA shows a member of the support team as they work around the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft shortly after it landed, in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (NASA/Joel Kowsky via AP)

This photo provided by NASA shows Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin being helped out of the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft onboard the SpaceX recovery ship MEGAN after he, NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps landed, in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (NASA/Joel Kowsky via AP)

This photo provided by NASA shows NASA astronaut Michael Barratt being helped out of the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft onboard the SpaceX recovery ship MEGAN after he, NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Jeanette Epps, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin landed, in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (NASA/Joel Kowsky via AP)

This photo provided by NASA shows NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps being helped out of the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft onboard the SpaceX recovery ship MEGAN after she, NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin landed, in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (NASA/Joel Kowsky via AP)

This photo provided by NASA shows NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick being helped out of the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft onboard the SpaceX recovery ship MEGAN after he, NASA astronauts Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin landed, in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (NASA/Joel Kowsky via AP)

This photo provided by NASA shows Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, left, NASA astronauts Michael Barratt, second from left, Matthew Dominick, second from right, and Jeanette Epps, right, inside the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft onboard the SpaceX recovery ship MEGAN shortly after having landed in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (NASA/Joel Kowsky via AP)

This photo provided by NASA shows support teams work around the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft shortly after it landed, in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (NASA/Joel Kowsky via AP)

The SpaceX crew of the Dragon spacecraft, from left, cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, pilot Michael Barratt, commander Matthew Dominick and mission specialist Jeanette Epps gather for a photo after arriving at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)

HONG KONG (AP) — European markets opened lower on Friday while Asian stocks mostly advanced. Japan's benchmark declined as investors awaited the outcome of an election on Sunday.

Germany’s DAX dropped 0.1% at 19,417.91. In Paris, the CAC 40 lost 0.4% to 7,473.20. Britain’s FTSE 100 edged 0.1% lower to 8,258.16. The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average both went up by 0.1%.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who took office just weeks ago, called the snap general election to drum up support as the ruling Liberal Democrats grapple with a political funding scandal. For once, the LDP could be facing a major setback that could bring some changes to the economic outlook, analysts said.

“Polls suggest that Japan's ruling party, the LDP, could lose its Lower House majority on Sunday for the first time since its brief stint out of power ended in 2012,” Mark Williams of Capital Economics said in a commentary.

If the ruling party fails to secure enough support for a ruling coalition with the Komeito, its longtime partner, “things would look different,” he said.

The recent political shifts have added to uncertainty for markets, complicating the Bank of Japan's efforts to shift away from long-standing near-zero interest rates.

Core inflation in Japan’s capital was 1.8% in October, lower than the central bank’s 2% target for the first time in five months, the government reported. That reinforced expectations that the central bank will keep its key interest rate unchanged at a policy meeting next week.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index lost 0.6% to 37,913.92, while the Japanese yen fell against the U.S. dollar. On Friday, the dollar was trading at 151.99 yen, up from 151.89 yen.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.5% to 20,590.15, and the Shanghai Composite gained 0.6% to 3,299.70.

China’s central bank kept its medium-term lending rate unchanged at 2%. It also issued 700 billion yuan ($98.3 billion) in one-year medium-term lending facility loans to financial institutions, according to the bank’s statement.

Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea’s Kospi edged up 0.1% to 2,583.27 and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 climbed less than 0.1% to 8,211.30. Taiwan’s Taiex increased 0.7%.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 rose 0.2%, breaking its first three-day losing streak since early September. It bounced between losses and gains through the day, and it was roughly evenly split between stocks rising and falling.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3% and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.8%.

Tesla led the market with a jump of 21.9% after the electric-vehicle maker reported better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. An optimistic CEO Elon Musk also predicted 20%-30% sales growth next year, though revenue for the latest quarter fell short of analysts’ forecasts. It was the best day for Tesla’s stock since 2013.

Boeing sank 1.2% after its machinists voted to continue their strike, which has crippled aircraft production. More than 60% of union members who voted on the proposed contract rejected it, keeping them on the picket lines six weeks into their strike.

Stocks have broadly retreated this week after the S&P 500 and Dow both set records at the end of last week. They’ve been hurt by rising Treasury yields in the bond market, which can make investors less willing to pay high prices for stocks. Critics had already been saying beforehand that stocks looked too expensive given how much faster their prices have risen than corporate profits.

A report on unemployment claims Thursday offered a mixed picture on the job market. It said fewer workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, which can be a signal of relatively low layoffs. But it also said the total number of those collecting benefits rose to its highest level in almost three years.

In other dealings early Friday, benchmark U.S. crude picked up 7 cents to $70.26 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, gained 6 cents to $74.09 a barrel.

The euro fell to $1.0825 from $1.0828.

FILE - The Fearless Girl statue, with a flower draped on the shoulder, stands outside the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)

A currency trader passes by a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders watch monitors at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A currency trader reads documents at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)