SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras (AP) — Tropical Storm Sara formed Thursday in the Caribbean Sea and began lashing the sparsely-populated Caribbean coast of Honduras with heavy rain.
Sara was expected to cause life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides across portions of Central America, including Honduras, forecasters said.
The storm is about 65 miles (105 kilometers) north-northwest of the east coast border between Honduras and Nicaragua, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Sustained winds were maxing out at nearly 40 mph (65 kph), with stronger gusts, as the storm moved west at about 10 mph (17 kph), the agency said.
The storm was expected to stall and meander near the coast of Honduras through the weekend, according to the agency.
By Sunday Sara could strengthen slightly and approach the coast of Belize. Heavy rain also is forecast for Belize, El Salvador, eastern Guatemala and western Nicaragua.
Mexican authorities warned it could cause “intense rains” over the resort-studded Yucatan peninsula.
It was too soon to determine Thursday morning what conditions the system could bring next week to portions of the eastern Gulf of Mexico, including Florida, the Florida Keys, and Cuba, the hurricane center said.
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This GOES-East GeoGolor satellite image taken Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024, at 1:03 p.m. EST and provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), shows Tropical Storm Sara. (CIRA/NOAA via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks slipped Thursday as the market’s big burst following Donald Trump’s election continued to cool.
The S&P 500 fell 0.6%, though it’s still near its all-time high set on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 207 points, or 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 0.6%.
Cisco Systems’ 2.1% drop weighed on the market, even though the tech giant reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Investors may have been looking for it to raise its financial forecasts more, analysts suggested.
The stock market broadly has been rising faster than corporate profits, which raises the volume on criticism from skeptics that it’s gotten too expensive. The S&P 500 is still up nearly 25% for the year so far, on top of last year’s leap of 24.2%.
Some of the stocks that got the biggest bump from Trump’s election also lost momentum. Tesla fell 5.8% for just its second loss since Election Day. It’s run by Elon Musk, who has become a close Trump ally.
Smaller stocks also fell harder than the rest of the market, and the Russell 2000 index of small stocks lost 1.4%. It’s a turnaround from the election’s immediate aftermath, when the thought was that an “America First” president would benefit domestically focused companies more than big multinationals that could be hurt by tariffs and trade wars.
Even though Republicans have swept control of the White House, Senate and House of Representatives, which could give them more leeway to push through their policies, “promises made on the campaign trail may not be implemented immediately, with final legislation likely to be a pared-down version of the original proposals,” according to Solita Marcelli, chief investment officer, Americas, at UBS Global Wealth Management.
Stocks also felt the effects of swinging yields in the bond market following the latest hotter-than-expected economic reports and comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. The Fed just cut its main interest rate earlier this month for the second time this year to ease the pressure on the economy, and investors are eager for more.
But short-term yields climbed after Powell said, “The economy is not sending any signals that we need to be in a hurry to lower rates. The strength we are currently seeing in the economy gives us the ability to approach our decisions carefully.”
The two-year Treasury yield, which closely tracks expectations for Fed action, rose to 4.35% from 4.28% late Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, it had wavered after a report showed prices paid at the U.S. wholesale level were 2.4% higher in October from a year earlier. That was an acceleration from September’s 1.9% wholesale inflation rate and a worse jump than economists expected.
A separate report, meanwhile, suggested the U.S. job market remains solid. Fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week in the latest signal that layoffs aren’t taking off.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury also swiveled up and down before sitting at 4.45%, where it was late Wednesday.
On Wall Street , Super Micro Computer tumbled 11.4 % for one of the worst losses in the S&P 500 after telling U.S. regulators it needs more time to file its financial statements for the latest quarter, which ended in September.
The server maker’s stock has been one of the biggest winners of the artificial-intelligence boom, but it’s struggled recently, particularly after Ernst & Young resigned as its public accounting firm. A special committee of the company’s board has since said that a three-month investigation found “no evidence of fraud or misconduct on the part of management or the Board of Directors.”
Helping to keep Wall Street’s losses in check was The Walt Disney Co., which rose 6.2% after the entertainment giant reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Robert Iger credited improved profits at its streaming businesses and strong box-office results for its movies, including “Inside Out 2” and “Deadpool & Wolverine,” among other things.
Tapestry shares climbed 12.8% after the luxury fashion company said it’s terminating its merger with Capri, another luxury brand owner. The companies agreed to an $8.5 billion deal last year to unite the makers of Coach and Michael Kors handbags, but the tie-up faced numerous challenges, including a lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission to block the deal on antitrust grounds.
Capri shares rose 4.4%.
ASML, a major supplier to the global chip industry, also gave some encouraging signals for technology stocks. The Dutch company said it expects global semiconductor sales to top $1 trillion by 2030, with the help of demand related to artificial-intelligence technology, and it stood by its long-term financial forecasts. ASML shares that trade in the United States rose 2.9%.
All told, the S&P 500 fell 36.21 points to 5,949.17. The Dow dropped 207.33 to 43,750.86, and the Nasdaq composite sank 123.07 to 19,107.65.
In stock markets abroad, European indexes rose, including a 1.4% jump for Germany’s DAX. Asian markets were mixed, meanwhile. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 2%, but South Korea’s Kospi added 0.1%.
AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
People pass the New York Stock Exchange, right, on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)
FILE - A sign marking the intersection of Broadway and Wall Street is shown in New York's Financial District on Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)
Currency traders work at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
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, Thursday, Nov. 14, 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, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
