LOS ANGELES (AP) — Snoop Dogg and Simone Biles turned their Olympic bond from this summer’s Paris Games into a new challenge: The superstar tandem will team up on NBC’s “The Voice.”
Biles will join Snoop for an episode on the reality competition television series, airing Monday. As a coach on the show, the rap star enlisted Biles as a mentor in the playoff round to help advise five vocalists who are vying for a spot in the live shows.
For Snoop and Biles, their pairing was a superb match for the sports and music icons — who carried their effortless chemistry from the Olympics to the TV set of “The Voice.”
“We were able to riff off each other and give the artists the best insight going into the next round,” Biles told The Associated Press in a recent interview with Snoop after both finished filming the episode in Los Angeles.
“It was pretty easy, simple,” added Biles, the most decorated gymnast of all-time who won four medals — three of them gold — at the recent Olympics. “We’re both very mellow. But if we need to bring that energy up, then we can. For us, it was about instilling confidence going into the next week.”
Biles might be famous for her athletic prowess, but she was able to relate to the music contestants — from one competitor to another.
“These are the learning steps: Learn, process, go back in and work,” she said. “They all have the vocal talent. It’s about harnessing that, knowing when to bring it out and which songs to sing and which genre you fit in. And what you want your legacy to be. This is truly a special show as well as the judging. They don’t get to see the physical appearance first. It’s all off of ears, listening and putting their craft together as well.”
Despite having different career paths, Snoop and Biles share a mutual respect for each other’s ability to shine on the biggest stages.
“We have such diverse careers. But the things that we dealt with, they’re dealing with now,” said Snoop, the ultra-smooth entertainer who took on a starring role as a special correspondent in NBC’s record-breaking coverage. He’s a coach on “The Voice” along with Michael Bublé, Reba McEntire and Gwen Stefani, with each attempting to discover and coach the next singing phenomenon.
Snoop said they felt the need to instill wisdom and confidence in each participant.
“We have the best experience and knowledge to give to these performers,” he said. “She’s a performer. I’m a performer. We’ve performed under extreme conditions. We always do our best. But sometimes things happen behind closed doors that you don’t know about. So, we’re able to speak to those things and give them real reassurance.”
During the Olympics, Biles and Snoop had a few viral moments. Both caught up with each other to cheer on Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone during her 400-meter hurdles race; he gifted Biles’ father, Ronald Biles, with a Death Row Records gold necklace for his 75th birthday; and he was spotted dancing in the crowd during the women's gymnastics qualifying round as Biles and her teammate Jordan Chiles joined in.
While on set, Biles was often all smiles while watching Snoop in his charismatic element.
“I knew Snoop would stay true and authentic to himself here on ‘The Voice.’” she said. “It’s nice that you don’t have to fit a mold. There’s a space for everyone.”
Snoop said it made sense for both to work together on the episode.
“This is family. It feels good,” Snoop said. “(Biles) can do anything she wants to do. She picks and chooses what she wants to do. We’re at that point of our careers right now. It has to feel good. It can’t be forced or I’m not doing it. Period, point, blank.”
Snoop Dogg and his wife Shante Broadus pose together at the premiere of the film "Gladiator II" on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024, at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
Snoop Dogg, right, and his wife Shante Broadus arrive at the premiere of the film "Gladiator II" on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024, at TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are rising Thursday after more companies said they’re making fatter profits than expected. Market superstar Nvidia also topped forecasts, but Wall Street’s ambivalence about whether the heavyweight's report was impressive enough is keeping indexes in check.
The S&P 500 was 0.6% higher, as of 1:02 p.m. Eastern time, following many flips between modest gains and losses through the morning. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 543 points, or 1.3%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.1%. The moves were part of a busy day for financial markets, as bitcoin briefly broke above $98,000 and crude oil prices continued to rise.
Nvidia was a big reason for the stock market's meandering after yet again beating analysts’ estimates for profit and revenue. It also gave a forecast for revenue in the current quarter that topped most analysts’ expectations thanks to voracious demand for its chips used in artificial-intelligence technology.
Its stock initially sank in afterhours trading late on Wednesday following the release of the results. Some investors said that might have been because the market was looking for Nvidia's revenue forecast to surpass expectations by even more. But its stock then recovered in premarket trading Thursday, and Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said it was another “flawless” profit report provided by Nvidia and CEO Jensen Huang, whom Ives calls “the Godfather of AI.”
How Nvidia’s stock performs has tremendous impact because it’s quickly grown into Wall Street’s most valuable company at nearly $3.6 trillion. That means a 1% move for it packs more weight on the S&P 500 than the same move for any other stock.
Nvidia's stock on Thursday quickly went from an early jump of 4.8% to a loss of 3.6% before settling at a drop of 1.3%. It was one of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500.
The frenzy around AI is sweeping up other stocks, and Snowflake jumped 34.2% after reporting stronger results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The company, whose platform helps customers get a better view of all their silos of data and use AI, also reported stronger revenue growth than expected.
BJ’S Wholesale Club rose 9.6% after likewise delivering a bigger profit than expected. That may help calm worries about how resilient U.S. shoppers can remain, given high prices across the economy and still-high interest rates. A day earlier, Target tumbled after reporting sluggish sales in the latest quarter and giving a dour forecast for the holiday shopping season. It followed Walmart, which gave a much more encouraging outlook.
Roughly 90% of the stocks in the S&P 500 were also rising, and the gains were even bigger among smaller companies. The Russell 2000 index of smaller stocks climbed a market-leading 1.8%.
But Google’s parent company, Alphabet, was helping to drag on indexes. It fell 5.7% after U.S. regulators asked a judge to break up the tech giant by forcing it to sell its industry-leading Chrome web browser.
In a 23-page document filed late Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice called for sweeping punishments that would include restrictions preventing Android from favoring its own search engine. Regulators stopped short of demanding Google sell Android but left the door open to it if the company’s oversight committee continues to see evidence of misconduct.
Drops for other Big Tech stocks also weighed on the market, including slides of 1.7% for Amazon and 0.7% for Meta Platforms.
In stock markets abroad, shares of India’s Adani Enterprises plunged 22.6% Thursday after the U.S. charged founder Gautam Adani, 62, in a federal indictment with securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud. The businessman and one of the world’s richest people is accused of duping investors by concealing that his company’s huge solar energy project on the subcontinent was being facilitated by an alleged bribery scheme.
Indexes elsewhere in Asia and Europe were mixed.
In the crypto market, bitcoin is trading around $97,800 after eclipsing $98,000 for the first time. It’s more than doubled so far this year, and its climb has accelerated since Election Day. President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to make the country “the crypto capital of the planet” and create a “strategic reserve” of bitcoin.
Bitcoin and related investments, of course, have a notorious history of big price swings in both directions. MicroStrategy, a company that's been raising cash expressly to buy bitcoin, saw an early gain of 14.6% for its stock on Thursday quickly disappear. It was most recently down 1.6%.
In the oil market, a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude rose 1.2% to bring its gain for the week to 3.8%. Brent crude, the international standard, climbed 1.2%. Oil has been rising amid escalations in the Russia-Ukraine war.
In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady following some mixed reports on the U.S. economy. The yield on the 10-year Treasury remained at 4.41% from late Wednesday.
One report said fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week in the latest signal that the job market remains solid. Another report, though, said manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic region unexpectedly shrank. Sales of previously occupied homes, meanwhile, strengthened last month by more than expected.
AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Yuri Kageyama contributed.
FILE - People walk under a sidewalk shed near the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)
The facade of the New York Stock Exchange is illuminated on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)
People walk by monitors showing Japan's Nikkei 225 index and Japan's foreign exchange rate against the U.S. dollar at a securities firm in Tokyo, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
Travelers walk by monitors showing Japan's Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm in Tokyo, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
A woman covering herself from the rain walks by monitors showing Japan's Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm in Tokyo, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
People walk by monitors showing Japan's Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm in Tokyo, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
A woman walks by a monitor showing Japan's foreign exchange rate against the U.S. dollar at a securities firm in Tokyo, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
