NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes edged lower Wednesday after drops for Eli Lilly and chip companies overshadowed a jump for Google’s parent company.
The S&P 500 slipped 0.3% after drifting between small gains and losses several times, though it’s still near its all-time high set earlier this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged down by 91 points, or 0.2%, while the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.6% from its own record set the day before.
Alphabet climbed 2.8% after beating analysts’ forecasts for profit in the latest quarter, thanks largely to the performance of its Google business. It’s the latest of the highly influential group of stocks known as the “Magnificent Seven” to top high expectations for growth. They’ll need to, because critics say their prices have climbed too quickly, even if artificial-intelligence technology is creating a new boom.
Computer chip companies have been some of the biggest winners of the AI rush, but Advanced Micro Devices helped drag down stocks across the industry after reporting profit for the latest quarter that only matched analysts’ expectations. It also gave a forecasted range for revenue for the end of 2024 whose midpoint was a bit below what analysts were estimating. AMD’s stock sank 10.6%.
Nvidia, a chip giant that’s rocketed to become one of Wall Street’s largest most influential stocks, fell 1.4% and was one of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500.
One of the few stocks to hurt the index nearly as much was Eli Lilly, which sank 6.3% amid concerns about two of the drug maker’s blockbuster products: diabetes treatment Mounjaro and weight loss counterpart Zepbound.
Eli Lilly reported weaker results for the latest quarter than analysts expected, as pharmaceutical wholesalers burned through inventories they had built up in previous quarters. Lilly cut its forecast for profit over the full year of 2024.
Also falling was Trump Media & Technology Group, the company behind former Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform. It dropped 22.3% for the worst loss since taking its place on the Nasdaq stock market following a merger with another company in March. The stock is notoriously volatile, and it had been rallying strongly over the last month, up to $40 from roughly $12.
Among the biggest movers on Wall Street, Reddit soared 42% after the company surprised investors and analysts and reported a profit.
Super Micro Computer lost nearly a third of its value, 32.7%, after Ernst & Young resigned as its registered public accounting firm. A prominent investor, Hindenburg Research, published a report in August that accused the company of accounting red flags and other issues, which CEO Charles Liang later said contained false or inaccurate statements.
All told, the S&P 500 fell 19.25 points to 5,813.67. The Dow dipped 91.51 to 42,141.54, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 104.82 to 18,607.93.
In the bond market, yields edged higher following the latest readings on the U.S. economy. Growth for the overall economy slowed during the summer from the spring, according to a preliminary estimate by the U.S. government. But the performance was slightly better than economists expected.
Recent hurricanes that struck the United States could lead to rebuilding that causes stronger growth in the fourth quarter but “the signal through the noise will likely be one of an economy that is still slowing, not reaccelerating,” according to Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management.
A separate report on Wednesday suggested employers outside the government accelerated their hiring this month, when economists were forecasting a slowdown. It could raise optimism for Friday’s more comprehensive jobs report coming from the U.S. government. Economists expect that to show the pace of hiring nearly halved in October.
A slowing economy is no surprise after the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates sharply in hopes of braking enough on the economy to get inflation under control. The question is whether the Fed can help keep the economy out of a recession, now that it’s begun cutting interest rates to keep the job market humming.
A string of stronger-than-expected reports on the economy has raised such hopes, but it’s also forced investors to ratchet back expectations for how deeply the Fed will ultimately cut rates.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.28% from 4.26% late Tuesday and just 3.60% in the middle of last month.
Traders are largely expecting the Fed to cut its federal funds rate by a quarter of a percentage point at its next meeting next week, according to data from CME Group. That would be a step down from its cut of half a percentage point last month, which kicked off the Fed’s rate-easing campaign.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mostly lower in Europe and Asia despite a 1% rise for Japan’s Nikkei 225 as the Bank of Japan began a two-day policy meeting.
AP Writers Matt Ott and Zimo Zhong contributed.
Commuters emerge from a Wall Street subway station in New York's Financial District on Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)
People pass the New York Stock Exchange early Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)
FILE - A passerby moves past an electronic stock board showing Japan's stock prices outside a securities firm in Tokyo, on Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama, File)
PARIS (AP) — Kim Kardashian has arrived at a Paris courthouse to testify against the men accused of robbing her at gunpoint in 2016, an event that reshaped her life and redefined celebrity security in the age of social media.
This will be the first time she has faced the alleged assailants since that night, when she begged for her life as masked men bound her with zip ties and stole over $6 million in jewelry.
Kardashian’s appearance is expected to be the emotional centerpiece of a trial that has captivated France, where the suspects — mostly in their 60s and 70s — are nicknamed “the grandpa robbers.”
Authorities say the group tracked her via her Instagram posts. Two defendants have admitted being at the scene.
Her lawyers say she is ready to confront those who attacked her, with dignity.
Earlier, Kardashian 's childhood friend and then stylist told the court that she heard the celebrity beg for her life during the robbery that transformed the way the world viewed fame in the digital age.
Simone Harouche, who was sharing their two-floor hotel suite during Fashion Week, said she heard a terrified Kardashian yelling: “‘I have babies and I need to live.’ That is what she kept on saying, ‘Take everything. I need to live.’”
“I was scared that she was raped or violated. I thought the worst,” Harouche said. Kardashian was “screaming with terror in her voice.”
One of the most recognizable figures on the planet, Kardashian is set to face 10 men accused of orchestrating the heist — a crime that shook the fashion world and redefined the risks of being visible, female and famous in the Instagram era.
Harouche told the court the trauma “forever” changed her friend, whom she’s known since age 12, robbing her of a basic human right: freedom.
“She now has a completely different lifestyle,” she said. “In terms of security, she can’t go alone, she doesn’t go alone to places anymore. To lose your sense of freedom ... it’s horrible.”
Kardashian’s testimony is expected to recount how the attackers demanded her ring and left her fearing she would never see her children again.
David De Pas, the lead judge, asked Harouche whether Kardashian had made herself a target by posting images of herself with “jewels of great value.”
“No,” Harouche replied. “Just because a woman wears jewelry, that doesn’t make her a target. That’s like saying that because a woman wears a short skirt that she deserves to be raped.”
Twelve suspects were originally charged. One has died. Another was excused due to illness. Most are in their 60s and 70s — nicknamed les papys braqueurs, or “the grandpa robbers” — and authorities describe them as a seasoned and coordinated criminal gang.
Two defendants have admitted being at the scene. The others deny involvement, and one claims he didn’t know who Kardashian was. But police say the group tracked her via social media, where she had posted images of her jewelry, her hotel, and her schedule — exposing her vulnerability.
The heist turned Kardashian into a cautionary tale of hyper-visibility. At the time, she was at the height of her influence — a style icon, social media pioneer and one of the most photographed women in the world.
Fashion legend Karl Lagerfeld criticized her after the robbery, telling The Associated Press she was “too public” with her wealth. Yet, as details emerged in the days after the heist, public sentiment shifted. The image of Kardashian — alone, bound, and pleading for her life — reframed her in the public eye.
In the aftermath, Kardashian pulled back from the spotlight. She developed severe anxiety and later described symptoms of agoraphobia.
“I hated to go out,” she said in a 2021 interview. “I didn’t want anybody to know where I was … I just had such anxiety.”
Later, she acknowledged that constant sharing had made her vulnerable: “People were watching,” she said. “They knew what I had. They knew where I was.”
Harouche, who hid in a downstairs bathroom during the robbery, said she also suffered trauma. She sought counseling for post-traumatic stress and left the celebrity styling world to become an interior designer.
“That experience was very stressful for me. It made me fearful of being around celebrities," she said.
Harouche said she went to bed before the robbery. Kardashian entertained friends upstairs. Screams jolted Harouche from her sleep.
From inside the locked bathroom, she texted Kardashian’s sister Kourtney and Kardashian’s bodyguard that “something is very wrong,” Harouche testified.
Later, after the robbers had gone, she said she heard Kardashian hopping down the stairs with her ankles still bound to find her.
“She was beside herself,” Harouche said. “She just was screaming.”
Kim Kardashian waves as she arrives to testify regarding a robbery of millions of dollars in jewels from her Paris hotel room in 2016, in Paris, Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
FILE - Kim Kardashian attends The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute benefit gala on May 5, 2025, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
Abderrahmane Ouatiki, center, who was working as a hotel receptionist, is flanked by his lawyers Mohand Ouidja, left, and Henri De Beauregard during the trial of the 2016 armed robbery of Kim Kardashian, at the palace of justice, Tuesday, May 13, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
Abderrahmane Ouatiki, center right, who was working as a hotel receptionist, is accompanied by his lawyer Mohand Ouidja, center left, as they arrive for the trial of the 2016 armed robbery of Kim Kardashian, at the palace of justice, Tuesday, May 13, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
FILE - Kim Kardashian arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on March 2, 2025, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
