LIMA, Peru (AP) — Peruvian police arrested the head of the country's soccer federation Thursday as part of an investigation into allegations that he abused his position to extort local clubs into ceding their television rights.
Agustín Lozano is the second Peruvian soccer boss to be detained since 2018 when his predecessor was investigated for his alleged role in two murders for which he was later absolved.
Lozano was escorted handcuffed into a police vehicle outside his home in the capital, Lima, as several journalists stood by. He promised to clear up any misunderstanding and asked that the public reserve judgements.
Six other people connected to the suspected conspiracy were also arrested.
Prosecutors, in a 140-page court filing seeking Lozano's arrest, said the soccer boss and others tried to wrest lucrative broadcast rights from Peru's first division soccer teams. Clubs that didn't cede control were threatened with being relegated from the top tier of Peru's soccer clubs, according to the document obtained by The Associated Press.
Lozano is also suspected of illegally spending $1.8 million in federation funds to transport 142 people not associated with the soccer organization to Doha in 2022 for a playoff match between Peru and Australia to see which side qualified for the World Cup in Qatar that year, according to the court filing.
A prosecutor overseeing the case told local radio that Lozano had been under investigation for over a year. Although he has not been criminally charged, authorities ordered his arrest because they deemed he is a flight risk and could obstruct their investigation.
Lozano has had run-ins with the law before. In 2023, prosecutors sought his arrest as part of an embezzlement investigation from his days as mayor of the northern city of Chongoyape.
Under Lozano's leadership, Peru's national soccer team is in second to last place among South American men's teams seeking to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
Police escort Agustin Lozano, head of Peru's soccer federation, after arresting him as part of an investigation into fraud, extortion and money laundering in Lima, Peru, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Tejada)
Police escort Agustin Lozano, head of Peru's soccer federation, after arresting him as part of an investigation into fraud, extortion and money laundering in Lima, Peru, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Tejada)
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street's weak end to last year appears to be carrying into 2025, and U.S. stock indexes are slipping on Thursday.
The S&P 500 was down 0.5% in Thursday afternoon trading and on track to extend the four-day losing streak that dimmed the close of its stellar 2024. The main gauge of Wall Street’s health lost a gain of 0.9% from early in the morning and is heading toward its longest losing streak since April.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 223 points, or 0.5%, as of 2:30 p.m. Eastern time, after an early gain of 360 points disappeared. The Nasdaq composite was 0.6% lower.
Tesla helped drag the market lower after disclosing it delivered fewer vehicles in the last three months of 2024 than analysts expected. The electric-vehicle company’s stock slumped 6.7%.
Tesla was one of the big winners of 2024, particularly after Donald Trump’s Election Day victory raised speculation that Elon Musk’s close relationship with the president-elect could help the company. But critics have been warning that prices across the stock market have run too high, too quickly and are at risk of a pullback.
Consider a measure tracked by Bank of America of how heavily Wall Street analysts are recommending stocks, which recently hit its highest level since early 2022, according to strategist Savita Subramanian. She says the measure has been a reliable contrarian indicator in the past, and it’s only a bit shy of triggering a signal to sell for those who are leery when much of Wall Street herds in the same direction.
Elsewhere on Wall Street, H.B. Fuller sank 7.4% after the seller of adhesives, sealants and other specialty chemical products said it’s recently seen a slowdown in sales to a number of its customer categories.
On the winning side of Wall Street were companies tied to the energy industry after prices rose for crude oil and natural gas.
Constellation Energy jumped 6.2% for the biggest gain in the S&P 500 after announcing it won more than $1 billion in combined contracts with the U.S. General Services Administration to supply power and perform energy savings and conservation measures.
Some Big Tech stocks also helped limit the market's losses. Nvidia, whose chips are powering the world’s move into artificial-intelligence technology, rose 2.1% after following up its nearly 240% surge in 2023 with a better than 170% jump last year.
Some investors and analysts are counting on the AI rush to continue, even though critics say it’s made stock prices too expensive. As the calendar flips to a new year, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives says it’s the ”same tech playbook in year 3 of this tech AI driven bull market,” for example.
Some pages of the playbook do seem to be changing. Investors have ratcheted back expectations for how many cuts to interest rates the Federal Reserve may deliver in 2025, for example.
The economy has held up remarkably well despite the high rates brought by the Fed in recent years to stifle inflation. But inflation has recently appeared to become more resistant to slowing the last bit to the Fed's 2% target, and Trump's pushing for tariffs and other policies have raised worries about potentially more upward pressure on prices.
That pushed the Fed to say recently it will likely deliver fewer of the economy-juicing cuts to interest rates in 2025 than it had earlier thought.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury held at 4.57%, where it was late Tuesday, after a report said fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than economists expected. It’s the latest signal that the job market remains solid.
In stock markets abroad, indexes fell 2.2% in Hong Kong and 2.7% in Shanghai after a survey of factory managers showed Chinese activity expanding at a slower pace in December. New orders, employment and business sentiment weakened.
Upbeat talk by Chinese leader Xi Jinping in a New Year’s address did little to raise optimism among investors who are hoping for more aggressive action to support the world’s second-largest economy and boost stock prices.
“We have adopted a full range of policies to make solid gains in pursuing high-quality development. China’s economy has rebounded and is on an upward trajectory,” Xi said in a New Year message, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
Stock indexes were mostly higher in Europe, while Japan's market remained closed.
AP Business Writer Yuri Kageyama contributed.
Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York's Financial District Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York's Financial District Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York's Financial District Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
FILE - The New York Stock Exchange is shown in New York's Financial District on Dec. 31, 2024. American flags flew at half-staff there following the death of former U.S. president Jimmy Carter. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)
FILE - People pass the New York Stock Exchange on Nov. 5, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)
FILE - Currency traders watch monitors at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)
FILE - A sign outside the New York Stock Exchange marks the intersection of Wall and Broad Streets, Dec. 12, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
