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Stocks closed higher on Wall Street as the market posted its fifth straight gain and the Dow Jones Industrial Average notched another record high. The S&P 500 rose 20.63 points, or 0.3%, to 5,969.34. The benchmark index’s 1.7% gain for the week erased most of its loss from last week and is within about 0.5% of its all-time high set last week. The Dow rose 426.16 points, or 1%, to 44,296.51 as it nudged past its most recent high set last week. The Nasdaq composite rose 42.65 points, or 0.2%, closing at 2,406.67. Markets were volatile the past few weeks, losing ground in the runup to elections in November, then surging following Donald Trump’s presidential victory, before falling again. Several retailers jumped after giving Wall Street encouraging financial updates. Gap soared 12.8% after handily beating analysts’ third-quarter earnings and revenue expectations, while raising its own revenue forecast for the year. Discount retailer Ross Stores rose 2.2% after raising its earnings forecast for the year. EchoStar fell 2.8% after DirecTV called off its purchase of that company’s Dish Network unit. Smaller company stocks had some of the biggest gains. The Russell 2000 index rose 1.8%. A majority of stocks in the S&P 500 gained ground, but those gains were kept in check by slumps for several big technology companies. Nvidia fell 3.2%. Its pricey valuation makes it among the heaviest influences on whether the broader market gains or loses ground. The company grew to a nearly $3.6 trillion behemoth because of demand for its chips used in artificial-intelligence technology. Intuit, which makes TurboTax and other accounting software, fell 5.7%. Its quarterly earnings forecast fell short of analysts’ expectations. Facebook owner Meta Platforms fell 0.7% after the Supreme Court allowed a multibillion-dollar class-action investors’ lawsuit to proceed against the company. It stems from the privacy scandal involving the Cambridge Analytica political consulting firm. European markets closed mostly higher and Asian markets ended mixed. Crude oil prices rose. Treasury yields held relatively steady in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.41% from 4.42% late Thursday. In the crypto market, bitcoin hovered around $99,000, according to CoinDesk. It more than doubled this year and first surpassed the $99,000 level Thursday. Retailers remained a big focus for investors this week amid close scrutiny on consumer spending habits headed into the holiday shopping season. Walmart, the largest U.S. retailer, reported a quarter of strong sales and gave an encouraging financial forecast. Target, though, reported weaker earnings than analysts’ expected. Get local news delivered to your inbox!Bankwell financial director Blake Drexler acquires $460 in stockNone
Data from Benzinga Pro shows High Tide Inc. HITI shares experienced a significant surge, gaining over 21% in the last two trading sessions, closing at $3.47 on Monday, December 2. This positive performance was reflected in a trading volume of 2,396,045 shares and a market capitalization of $279,947,340. The stock reached a daily high of $3.57 and a low of $3.21. Get Benzinga’s exclusive analysis and the top news about the cannabis industry and markets daily in your inbox for free. Subscribe to our newsletter here . You can't afford to miss out if you’re serious about the business. Read Also: Cannabis Giant High Tide Taps Into $113 Billion Global E-Commerce Market With New Product Categories Cabana Club This substantial increase in stock price indicates strong investor confidence in the company’s prospects. While specific catalysts for this surge haven’t been explicitly identified, it could be attributed to a variety of factors, including positive reports , strategic partnerships, or overall market sentiment . High Tide Inc. is expanding its innovative Cabana Club membership program to the U.S., EU and UK through dedicated websites. "Innovation and market disruption are at the core of High Tide's DNA, and today marks another milestone in our journey,” said Raj Grover, the company’s founder and CEO. High Tide also said it’s adding international snacks and confectionery to its e-commerce platform, alongside hemp-derived CBD and cannabis accessories. With the move the company is tapping into the global e-commerce market for snacks and confectionery, which is, according to Statista, expected to reach over $113 billion in revenue in 2024, with an anticipated annual growth rate of 14%, resulting in a projected market volume of roughly $218 billion by 2029. Read Next: High Tide Cannabis Co. Ranks Among Top Growing Businesses In Canada In 2024 © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.XRX Investors Have Opportunity to Lead Xerox Holdings Corporation Securities Fraud LawsuitFrom wealth and success to murder suspect, the life of Luigi Mangione took a hard turn
Chinese parliament chief visits Athens
Houston's Al-Shaair apologizes for hit on Jacksonville's Lawrence that led to concussion HOUSTON (AP) — Houston’s Azeez Al-Shaair took to X to apologize to Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence after his violent blow to the quarterback’s facemask led to him being carted off the field with a concussion. Back in the starting lineup after missing two games with a sprained left shoulder, Lawrence scrambled left on a second-and-7 play in the second quarter of Houston’s 23-20 win on Sunday. He initiated a slide before Al-Shaair raised his forearm and unleashed on the defenseless quarterback. In the long post, Al-Shaair says "To Trevor I genuinely apologize to you for what ended up happening.” Jets are sticking with struggling Aaron Rodgers as their starting quarterback Aaron Rodgers will remain the New York Jets’ starting quarterback despite speculation the team could bench him in what has been a disappointing season. Interim coach Jeff Ulbrich said during a video call that he still believes Rodgers, who turned 41 on Monday, gives the Jets their best chance to win. Rodgers was 21 of 39 for 185 yards and touchdown passes to Davante Adams and Isaiah Davis but also had an interception returned 92 yards for a touchdown by Leonard Williams in the Jets’ 26-21 loss to Seattle on Sunday. Hall of Famer Randy Moss reveals he's 'battling something' internal and asks for prayers Hall of Fame wide receiver Randy Moss revealed he’s dealing with a health issue and asked fans to pray for him and his family. The 47-year-old ESPN football analyst made the announcement on Instagram from the set of the network’s “Sunday NFL Countdown” show. He directed his message to men and urged them to get checkups and bloodwork done, without specifying for any particular illness. Moss explained why he’s been wearing tinted sunglasses, saying, “I’m battling something, man, and it’s something internal, your boy is going to get through it.” College playoff bracket offers last dress rehearsal and one more chance to see where the SEC stands The next set of College Football Playoff rankings will be released Tuesday night under heavy scrutiny before the final bracket is set on Sunday. It will be one last chance to see just how much the selection committee loves the Southeastern Conference. The best gauge will be whether Miami, which suffered its second loss over the weekend, is placed behind any or all three SEC teams with three losses — Alabama, Mississippi and South Carolina, all of which are coming off wins. Whatever happens, the SEC is likely to have at least five teams in the 12-team field when the final bracket comes out. Mollie Marcoux Samaan stepping down as LPGA commissioner after 3 1/2 years of record prize money Mollie Marcoux Samaan is leaving after more than three years as LPGA commissioner. In a surprise announcement Monday, Marcoux Samaan says she will step down in January, just three weeks before the LPGA starts its 75th season. Liz Moore is the chief legal and technology officer. She'll be serving as interim commissioner until a search committee can find a permanent replacement. Marcoux Samaan was the athletic director at Princeton when she took over the LPGA in May 2021. Prize money has soared during her tenure. She also has faced criticism for the LPGA not gaining in popularity during a rise in women's sports. Kansas holds off Auburn for No. 1 in AP Top 25 as SEC grabs 3 of top 4 spots; UConn slides to No. 25 Kansas continues to hold the No. 1 ranking in The Associated Press Top 25 men’s college basketball poll. Auburn is pushing the Jayhawks in the latest poll after winning the Maui Invitational and checked in at No. 2. Two-time reigning national champion UConn nearly fell out entirely after an 0-3 week at Maui, falling from No. 2 to 25th. The Southeastern Conference had three of the top four teams with No. 3 Tennessee and No. 4 Kentucky behind the Tigers. The poll featured six new teams, headlined by No. 13 Oregon, No. 16 Memphis and No. 18 Pittsburgh. TCU, Duke climb into top 10, Notre Dame drops in women's AP Top 25; UCLA and UConn remain 1-2 TCU has its best ranking ever in The Associated Press Top 25 women’s basketball poll after a convincing win over Notre Dame. The Horned Frogs jumped eight spots to No. 9, the first time the school has ever been in the top 10. The Fighting Irish, who were third last week, fell seven spots to 10th after losses to TCU and Utah. UCLA remained No. 1, followed by UConn, South Carolina, Texas and LSU. USC, Maryland and Duke are next. USC QB Miller Moss enters transfer portal after losing starting job to Jayden Maiava LOS ANGELES (AP) — Southern California quarterback Miller Moss is entering the transfer portal after losing the Trojans’ starting job last month. Moss started the Trojans’ bowl victory last season and their first nine games this season before coach Lincoln Riley replaced him with Jayden Maiava in early November. Moss signed with USC before Riley arrived at the school. Moss also stayed after Caleb Williams transferred from Oklahoma to rejoin Riley, and he served as Williams’ backup for two seasons before getting his chance to play with six touchdown passes in last year’s Holiday Bowl. Michael Andretti's Formula 1 dream comes to bittersweet fruition without his involvement Michael Andretti has been sidelined from his namesake motorsports organization and won’t have any role with the Formula 1 program he spent the last four years desperately trying to launch. His effort to get a program partnered with General Motors into F1 was approved last week, a month after he stepped aside from his teams. F1’s decision to expand its grid for Cadillac F1 came amidst a federal antitrust investigation into why Liberty Media refused to admit Andretti Global and after Andretti partners Dan Towriss and Mark Walter claimed controlling interest of the fledgling effort. Ryan Poles to remain Bears general manager and lead search for new head coach LAKE FOREST, Ill. (AP) — Chicago Bears president Kevin Warren said Ryan Poles will remain the general manager and serve as the point person in the search for a head coach to replace the fired Matt Eberflus. He says Poles will have the “final say” if the two have differing opinions on who should get the job. Chicago had never fired a coach during a season. But a six-game losing streak marked by questionable coaching decisions spurred the founding NFL franchise to change course. The Bears let Eberflus go Friday and replaced him on an interim basis with offensive coordinator Thomas Brown.
AI-Driven Rally Pushes Tech Stocks To Records, Broadcom Enters Trillion-Dollar Club, Inflation Data Flashes Warning Signal: This Week In The MarketsCompetition among generative AI companies is heating up. On Friday, Amazon announced it would invest another $4 billion in the generative AI company, Anthropic. In little more than a year, the tech giant has now dumped at least $8 billion into the brand. Anthropic is a competitor of OpenAI, which raised $6.6 billion from investors last month. It also rivals Google and Elon Musk’s xAI. In a blog post announcing the deal, Matt Garman, chief executive of Amazon’s cloud computing division, AWS, said, “We’ve been impressed by Anthropic’s pace of innovation and commitment to responsible development of generative AI, and look forward to deepening our collaboration.” Garman added that the companies will “keep pushing the boundaries of what customers can achieve with generative AI technologies.” Amazon also said that AWS will be named “primary training partner.” That boundary-pushing could look like more innovations coming to Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Anthropic’s new AI model. The chatbot was first released in 2023, as a competitor to ChatGPT. Last month, the company announced it gave Claude the ability to control a user’s computer and access the internet—a big leap for AI, which other companies are likely to imitate. | Anthropic was founded by former OpenAI employees (and siblings) Dario Amodei and Daniela Amodei, and was, at first, an AI safety lab. Though initially it positioned itself as a small, safety-focused brand, starting with less than 200 employees, as of September, Anthropic is said to employ 1,035 people. Still, the major innovation , which will allow for tasks to be more easily automated, raises concerns about the risks that may come with giving robots the power to control computers on their own. Likewise, in a video post on X, the company admitted that the “experimental” new technology can be “error-prone.” However, Anthropic is still extremely focused on “honest” AI. It started out doing advanced AI safety research that ultimately required the company to build its own AI model. “Imagine if everyone of good conscience said, ‘I don’t want to be involved in building AI systems at all,'” chief executive, Dario Amodei told the New York Times a year ago. “Then the only people who would be involved would be the people who ignored that dictum—who are just, like, ‘I’m just going to do whatever I want.’ That wouldn’t be good.” WIth safety as its constant focus, the AI model is trained on Constitutional AI, which is essentially a set of principles that mean it’s less likely to misbehave or say harmful things. “AI models will have value systems, whether intentional or unintentional,” Anthropic said in a May 2023 blog post. “Constitutional AI responds to shortcomings by using AI feedback to evaluate outputs,”—which, presumably, teaches the model to respond in the most respectful way possible. Other leading competitors that aren’t trained on values may be easier to manipulate. As part of the investment, Anthropic plans to train and deploy its foundational models on Amazon’s own Trainium and Inferentia chips, as opposed to the more common Nvidia chips. The new chips, which Amazon says offer “high performance” at the “lowest cost” are part of Amazon’s strategy to strengthen its position in the market. The company also said, in its announcement, that Claude will power Amazon’s new and improved Alexa voice assistant (which, when tested, was said to perform better using Claude than the previous in-house model). The feature is scheduled for release in 2025. The announcement also stated that AWS will be named “primary training partner.” Given that it ostensibly began as a research firm, Anthropic is already known for its research-driven practices, like developing advanced strategies to help mitigate election-related risks and measuring the persuasiveness of its models. Amazon doubling its investment may not only keep the AI game competitive, but also help keep safety at the forefront of AI developments. The application deadline for Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Awards is Friday, December 6, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply today.
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MIAMI — The Miami Heat on Friday set up a small trade that could have a wide-ranging impact across their roster and payroll. Reaching an agreement with the Indiana Pacers, the Heat will send out center Thomas Bryant once he is eligible to be traded Sunday. While the Heat will receive the right to swap 2031 second-round draft slots with the Pacers, the move was made to alleviate the Heat’s current position hard against the NBA’s punitive luxury tax and to also better align the roster. Bryant, 27, signed a one-year contract at the veteran minimum of $2.1 million in July at the outset of free agency to return for a second season. At the time, he waived his right to veto a trade this season. Sunday is the first day players signed in the offseason can be dealt. Beyond the savings against the luxury tax, the deal allows the Heat to better deploy their resources. Even with the Bryant deal, the Heat still have starter Bam Adebayo and reserves Kevin Love, Kel’el Ware and even Nikola Jovic to cast at center. With the open roster spot, the Heat next would be in position to convert one of their players on a two-way deal to a standard contract. Point guard Dru Smith, who currently is playing on a two-way deal, in recent games has emerged as a reliable rotation contributor. Players on two-way deals can be on the active roster for no more than 50 games over the 82-game regular season and are not playoff eligible. Should the Heat convert one of their current two-way players, it then would open such a slot for another two-way signing. Among options in that regard is summer and preseason prospect Isaiah Stevens, the point guard who is leading the G League in assists while playing for the team’s affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce. The open roster spot also could help facilitate a larger trade in which the Heat take back more players than are sent out, perhaps adding additional intrigue to the recent swirl of Jimmy Butler trade speculation. In the short term, the Heat likely are to go the maximum two weeks allowed to be at fewer than 14 players on standard contracts, saving the team further against the luxury tax. With the trade, the Heat also will create a $2.1 million trade exception. Initially signed in 2023 free agency, Bryant never quite gained traction with the Heat, held out of 10 consecutive games during a recent stretch. He now gets to play not far from his college campus, having been drafted out of Indiana University by the Utah Jazz in the second round of the 2017 NBA draft. The Pacers were in the market for an additional big man after losing big men Isaiah Jackson and James Wiseman to season-ending Achilles injuries. ©2024 South Florida Sun Sentinel. Visit at sun-sentinel.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.Luigi Mangione's Family’s Message to Him After His Arrest for Murder
From wealth and success to murder suspect, the life of Luigi Mangione took a hard turnRevolutionise Hiring Process With Cutting-Edge Staffing Solutionsmixmotive/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Art Cashin, a familiar face to those who work on the New York Stock Exchange floor and those who watch financial news programs on television, has died at 83. Cashin was well known -- and respected -- by many connected to Wall Street for