Dictionary.com Names "Demure" as the 2024 Word of the YearTORONTO — Canada's main stock index gained more than 350 points Thursday in a broad rally led by energy and technology stocks, while U.S. markets also rose, led by a one-per-cent gain on the Dow. The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 354.22 points at 25,390.68. In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 461.88 points at 43,870.35. The S&P 500 index was up 31.60 points at 5,948.71, while the Nasdaq composite was up 6.28 points at 18,972.42. The Nasdaq lagged an otherwise decent day for Wall St., rising just 0.03 per cent as it was dragged down by Google parent Alphabet and some of its tech giant peers. The tech company’s stock fell 4.6 per cent after U.S. regulators asked a judge to break it up by forcing a sale of the Chrome web browser. Amazon shares traded down 2.2 per cent while Meta and Apple both moved lower as well. After a substantial run for major tech stocks this year, that kind of news “shakes people a bit,” said John Zechner, chairman and lead equity manager at J. Zechner Associates. Meanwhile, semiconductor giant Nvidia saw its stock tick up modestly by 0.5 per cent after it reported earnings Wednesday evening. The company yet again beat expectations for profit and revenue, and gave a better revenue forecast for the current quarter than expected. But expectations for Nvidia have been so high amid the optimism over artificial intelligence that even beating forecasts wasn’t enough to send its stock flying the way it has in previous quarters, said Zechner. Nvidia essentially caps earnings season in the U.S., with companies largely beating expectations, said Zechner — though those expectations weren’t exactly lofty for companies outside the tech and AI sphere, he added. The Dow led major U.S. markets as the post-election hopes for economic growth continued to fuel a broadening of market strength, said Zechner. There are a lot of unknowns when it comes to U.S. president-elect Donald Trump, said Zechner, and there’s no guarantee he will do what he’s promised. “There’s a lot of unknowns, but for now the markets seem to be assuming that whatever comes of this, the U.S. will continue to lead global growth,” he said. However, some of Trump’s promises — chief among them widespread tariffs on imports — have sparked bets that inflation may rear its head again. The market has pared back its expectations for interest rate cuts as a result, said Zechner. “Nobody’s talking about a half-point cut, that’s for sure,” he said. The Canadian dollar traded for 71.63 cents US compared with 71.46 cents US on Wednesday. The January crude oil contract was up US$1.35 at US$70.10 per barrel and the January natural gas contract was up nine cents at US$3.48 per mmBTU. The December gold contract was up US$23.20 at US$2,674.90 an ounce and the December copper contract was down three cents at US$4.13 a pound. — With files from The Associated Press This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 21, 2024. Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD) Rosa Saba, The Canadian Press
Darius Tahir | (TNS) KFF Health News President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to run the sprawling government agency that administers Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act marketplace — celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz — recently held broad investments in health care, tech, and food companies that would pose significant conflicts of interest. Oz’s holdings, some shared with family, included a stake in UnitedHealth Group worth as much as $600,000, as well as shares of pharmaceutical firms and tech companies with business in the health care sector, such as Amazon. Collectively, Oz’s investments total tens of millions of dollars, according to financial disclosures he filed during his failed 2022 run for a Pennsylvania U.S. Senate seat. Trump said Tuesday he would nominate Oz as administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The agency’s scope is huge: CMS oversees coverage for more than 160 million Americans, nearly half the population. Medicare alone accounts for approximately $1 trillion in annual spending, with over 67 million enrollees. UnitedHealth Group is one of the largest health care companies in the nation and arguably the most important business partner of CMS, through which it is the leading provider of commercial health plans available to Medicare beneficiaries. UnitedHealth also offers managed-care plans under Medicaid, the joint state-federal program for low-income people, and sells plans on government-run marketplaces set up via the Affordable Care Act. Oz also had smaller stakes in CVS Health, which now includes the insurer Aetna, and in the insurer Cigna. It’s not clear if Oz, a heart surgeon by training, still holds investments in health care companies, or if he would divest his shares or otherwise seek to mitigate conflicts of interest should he be confirmed by the Senate. Reached by phone on Wednesday, he said he was in a Zoom meeting and declined to comment. An assistant did not reply to an email message with detailed questions. “It’s obvious that over the years he’s cultivated an interest in the pharmaceutical industry and the insurance industry,” said Peter Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a watchdog group. “That raises a question of whether he can be trusted to act on behalf of the American people.” (The publisher of KFF Health News, David Rousseau, is on the CSPI board .) Oz used his TikTok page on multiple occasions in November to praise Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., including their efforts to take on the “illness-industrial complex,” and he slammed “so-called experts like the big medical societies” for dishing out what he called bad nutritional advice. Oz’s positions on health policy have been chameleonic; in 2010, he cut an ad urging Californians to sign up for insurance under President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, telling viewers they had a “historic opportunity.” Oz’s 2022 financial disclosures show that the television star invested a substantial part of his wealth in health care and food firms. Were he confirmed to run CMS, his job would involve interacting with giants of the industry that have contributed to his wealth. Given the breadth of his investments, it would be difficult for Oz to recuse himself from matters affecting his assets, if he still holds them. “He could spend his time in a rocking chair” if that happened, Lurie said. In the past, nominees for government positions with similar potential conflicts of interest have chosen to sell the assets or otherwise divest themselves. For instance, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Attorney General Merrick Garland agreed to divest their holdings in relevant, publicly traded companies when they joined the Biden administration. Trump, however, declined in his first term to relinquish control of his own companies and other assets while in office, and he isn’t expected to do so in his second term. He has not publicly indicated concern about his subordinates’ financial holdings. CMS’ main job is to administer Medicare. About half of new enrollees now choose Medicare Advantage, in which commercial insurers provide their health coverage, instead of the traditional, government-run program, according to an analysis from KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News. Proponents of Medicare Advantage say the private plans offer more compelling services than the government and better manage the costs of care. Critics note that Medicare Advantage plans have a long history of costing taxpayers more than the traditional program. UnitedHealth, CVS, and Cigna are all substantial players in the Medicare Advantage market. It’s not always a good relationship with the government. The Department of Justice filed a 2017 complaint against UnitedHealth alleging the company used false information to inflate charges to the government. The case is ongoing. Oz is an enthusiastic proponent of Medicare Advantage. In 2020, he proposed offering Medicare Advantage to all; during his Senate run, he offered a more general pledge to expand those plans. After Trump announced Oz’s nomination for CMS, Jeffrey Singer, a senior fellow at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute, said he was “uncertain about Dr. Oz’s familiarity with health care financing and economics.” Singer said Oz’s Medicare Advantage proposal could require large new taxes — perhaps a 20% payroll tax — to implement. Oz has gotten a mixed reception from elsewhere in Washington. Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, the Democrat who defeated Oz in 2022, signaled he’d potentially support his appointment to CMS. “If Dr. Oz is about protecting and preserving Medicare and Medicaid, I’m voting for the dude,” he said on the social platform X. Oz’s investments in companies doing business with the federal government don’t end with big insurers. He and his family also hold hospital stocks, according to his 2022 disclosure, as well as a stake in Amazon worth as much as nearly $2.4 million. (Candidates for federal office are required to disclose a broad range of values for their holdings, not a specific figure.) Amazon operates an internet pharmacy, and the company announced in June that its subscription service is available to Medicare enrollees. It also owns a primary care service , One Medical, that accepts Medicare and “select” Medicare Advantage plans. Oz was also directly invested in several large pharmaceutical companies and, through investments in venture capital funds, indirectly invested in other biotech and vaccine firms. Big Pharma has been a frequent target of criticism and sometimes conspiracy theories from Trump and his allies. Kennedy, whom Trump has said he’ll nominate to be Health and Human Services secretary, is a longtime anti-vaccine activist. During the Biden administration, Congress gave Medicare authority to negotiate with drug companies over their prices. CMS initially selected 10 drugs. Those drugs collectively accounted for $50.5 billion in spending between June 1, 2022, and May 31, 2023, under Medicare’s Part D prescription drug benefit. At least four of those 10 medications are manufactured by companies in which Oz held stock, worth as much as about $50,000. 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In his TikTok videos from earlier in November, Oz echoed attacks on the food industry by Kennedy and other figures in his “Make America Healthy Again” movement. They blame processed foods and underregulation of the industry for the poor health of many Americans, concerns shared by many Democrats and more mainstream experts. But in 2022, Oz owned stakes worth as much as $80,000 in Domino’s Pizza, Pepsi, and US Foods, as well as more substantial investments in other parts of the food chain, including cattle; Oz reported investments worth as much as $5.5 million in a farm and livestock, as well as a stake in a dairy-free milk startup. He was also indirectly invested in the restaurant chain Epic Burger. One of his largest investments was in the Pennsylvania-based convenience store chain Wawa, which sells fast food and all manner of ultra-processed snacks. Oz and his wife reported a stake in the company, beloved by many Pennsylvanians, worth as much as $30 million. ©2024 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.Lisa Kudrow dishes on reason why ‘Friends’ is still popular Lisa Kudrow has a theory for why young fans still love ‘Friends’ Lisa Kudrow thinks there is a particular reason why Friends remains one of the most popular shows even among younger generations today. The 61-year-old actress shared that she isn’t surprised to see fans attached to the 90s sitcom in an interview and explained why. “I’m not amazed because it’s good and it’s familiar,” Kudrow, who played the fan-favourite character of Phoebe Buffay told Page Six , on Friday, December 7th. The Come Back star continued to explain that she believes Friends holds a “subconscious nostalgia” for younger fans who grew up with cell phones and social media. “For something they don’t have, which is in-person connections and relations. And that’s always been at the heart of every successful show.” She added, “That’s why people get attached to them and then if it’s funny, there [are] good performances, good jokes, that’s a bonus and Friends had all that.” The Emmy winning artist shared that many people around her questioned if the sitcom would ever succeed and asked her if “a bunch of young people sitting on a couch talking” was even a show. “That’s not my problem,” Kudrow quipped. “I’m just in it, but yes it was a show.” The final episode of fan's beloved show, which aired in May 2004, had over 52 million viewers, making it the fifth most-watched series finale in US history. The Friends alum is set to appear on the screen with her upcoming movie No Good Deed which comes out on December 12th. 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FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Wade Taylor IV scored 19 points, Zhuric Phelps hit a go-ahead 3-pointer during an 11-0 run and finished with 12 points, and 22nd-ranked Texas A&M beat Texas Tech 72-67 on Sunday in the first meeting of the former conference rivals since 2012. Phelps' 3 with 7 1/2 minutes left made it 54-52 and put the Aggies (8-2) ahead to stay. His step-back jumper after hard contact with Tech's Kevin Overton capped the game-turning spurt. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings. Get any of our free email newsletters — news headlines, obituaries, sports, and more.From the elements to the outcome, everything was different this time for the Pittsburgh Steelers against the Cleveland Browns. Only 17 days after they blew a late lead to lose in a second-half snowstorm in Cleveland, the Steelers’ defense shined in sparking a 27-14 win over their AFC North rival on a sunny Sunday afternoon at Acrisure Stadium. With the victory, the Steelers (10-3) clinched their second consecutive season with double-digit wins. They also extended their regular-season home winning streak against the Browns (3-10) to 21 games — a stretch that dates to 2003 — and took a two-game lead in division standings. And, perhaps most important, the Steelers avenged a 24-19 loss to the Browns on Nov. 21 and thereby mathematically eliminated them from playoff contention. “We felt like we could have won that game. ... Unfortunately, we didn’t. This time, we were able to,” Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson said. “Anytime you’re playing a division rival .... it’s always challenging because they know you and you know them. But it also makes it fun, especially when you’re in the win column.” The Steelers went 3-1 in their four-game gauntlet against AFC North opponents — who are the subjects of HBO’s “Hard Knocks” behind-the-scenes documentary series, with wins over Baltimore and Cincinnati and the split with Cleveland. The Steelers visit the NFC East-leading Philadelphia Eagles (11-2) next Sunday. The Steelers then play at the Ravens the following Saturday before returning home against the Kansas City Chiefs on Christmas Day and hosting the Bengals in the season finale. Steelers strong safety DeShon Elliott found satisfaction in avenging the lone loss in divisional play, especially with the defense delivering three sacks and two interceptions. “I would say yes, because when you are better than a team and you know you’re better than a team and you go in there and you lay a big ol’ goose egg on a Thursday night game, it really sucks,” Elliott said. “But, at the same time, it was not a get-back game. It was for us to fix those things that we know we’re good at and things that shouldn’t happen in the first place, so it felt good. Not just that but also it’s a divisional game. ... These next four weeks are going to be important.”