Morant scores 28 as the Grizzlies beat Hornets 124-100; Memphis' Wells breaks wrist in hard fall

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Morant scores 28 as the Grizzlies beat Hornets 124-100; Memphis' Wells breaks wrist in hard fall

2025-04-09 11:43 Last Updated At：11:51

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Ja Morant had 28 points, five rebounds and eight assists as the Memphis Grizzlies beat the Charlotte Hornets 124-100 on Tuesday night.

Memphis guard Jaylen Wells broke his right wrist on a hard fall on his arm and head and was taken from the court on a stretcher and transported to a hospital after he made a fast-break dunk and had a midair collision with Charlotte’s K.J. Simpson. Wells, who was starting his 74th game, was inadvertently undercut by Simpson from behind. Wells was down for eight minutes before being lifted onto the stretcher with his head strapped in to restrict motion. Officials called a Flagrant 2 foul on Simpson, who was automatically ejected.

Desmond Bane scored 19 points, Zach Edey had 17 points and 19 rebounds and Jaren Jackson Jr. 14 points for Memphis (47-32), which kept pace in the Western Conference race. Teams from third to eighth place were separated by two games in the standings heading into Tuesday.

Miles Bridges scored 14 points for Charlotte (19-60).

Grizzlies: After missing Saturday’s win at Detroit due to food poisoning, Morant made the most of his “homecoming” visit to Charlotte, which is 107 miles north of his native Dalzell, South Carolina. He had a crowd-pleasing alley-oop dunk late in the first quarter and many cheered his baskets throughout the game.

Hornets: Charlotte’s 16-year veteran Taj Gibson played in his 999th career regular-season game. Gibson is in his first season with the Hornets after previously playing for Chicago, Oklahoma City, Minnesota, New York, Washington and Detroit.

Bane scored five of the game’s first seven points as Memphis raced to a 7-0 lead. Charlotte never led in the game.

Charlotte converted 15 of 32 3-pointers, with Ball going 5 fof 10. Jeffries was 3 for 5, Jusuf Nurkic hit two, Smith went 2 for 4 and Bridges 2 for 5.

The Grizzlies host Minnesota on Thursday. The Hornets visit Toronto on Wednesday.

Wall Street rallies and recovers most of Monday's slide as the dollar and US bond market steady

2025-04-22 23:08 Last Updated At：23:11

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are rallying Tuesday after companies reported fatter profits than expected, and other U.S. investments are also steadying a day after falling sharply on worries about President Donald Trump’s trade war and his attacks on the head of the Federal Reserve.

The S&P 500 was 2% higher in morning trading and on track to recover most of Monday’s drop. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 765 points, or 2%, as of 10:45 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 2.2% higher.

The value of the U.S. dollar also stabilized after sliding against the euro and other competitors, while Treasury yields held steadier. Sharp, unusual moves in those markets have recently raised worries that Trump’s policies are making investors more skeptical that U.S. investments still deserve their reputations as the world’s safest.

The only prediction many Wall Street strategists are willing to make is that financial markets will continue to jerk up and down as hopes rise and fall that Trump may negotiate deals with other countries to lower his tariffs. Otherwise, many investors expect the economy to fall into a recession.

The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday slashed its forecast for global economic growth this year to 2.8%, down from 3.3%. But Vice President JD Vance also said he made progress with India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, on trade talks Monday.

Some signs of nervousness remain in financial markets. Gold continued to rise, for example, as it holds onto its reputation as a safer investment when fear is dominating markets.

A suite of better-than-expected profit reports from big U.S. companies, meanwhile, drove U.S. stocks higher.

Equifax jumped 11.8% after reporting better profit for the first three months of 2025 than analysts expected. It also said it would send more cash to its shareholders by increasing its dividend and buying up to $3 billion of its stock over the next four years.

3M climbed 7.6% after the maker of Scotch tape and Command strips said it made more in profit from each $1 of revenue during the start of the year than it expected. The company also stood by its forecast for profit for the full year, though it said tariffs may drag down its earnings per share by up to 40 cents per share.

Homebuilder PulteGroup rose 6.2% after it likewise delivered a stronger profit for the start of 2025 than analysts expected.

It’s been benefiting from the sharp moves in the bond market. The unusual drops for Treasury yields recently are translating into lower rates for mortgages for potential customers. The drops for stock prices that are happening at the same time, though, are likely also scaring potential buyers.

CEO Ryan Marshall said buyers “remain caught between a strong desire for homeownership and the affordability challenges of high selling prices and monthly payments that are stretched.”

Tesla rose 4.1% ahead of its earnings report, which is scheduled to arrive after trading ends for the day. That trimmed its loss for the year so far below 42%.

Elon Musk’s electric car company has already reported its first-quarter car sales dropped by 13% from the year before. It's been hurt by vandalism, widespread protests and calls for a consumer boycott amid a backlash to Musk’s high-profile role in the White House overseeing a cost-cutting purge of U.S. government agencies.

Stocks also showed how Trump’s tariffs could create winners and losers in a remade global economy.

First Solar jumped 13.5% after the U.S. Department of Commerce finalized harsher-than-expected solar tariffs on some southeast Asian communities.

Defense contractors had some of the market's sharpest losses after RTX said U.S. tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports, along with other products, could mean an $850 million hit to its profit this year. RTX, which builds airplane engines and military equipment, fell 8.4% even though it reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter.

Kimberly-Clark lost 2.2% even though the maker of Huggies and Kleenex likewise reported a better-than-expected profit.

CEO Mike Hsu said that “the current environment will now mean greater costs across our global supply chain” versus what it expected at the start of the year, and the company lowered its forecast for an underlying measure of profit this year.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.39% from 4.42% late Monday.

AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.