Stocks drifted higher on Wall Street in midday trading Thursday, as gains in tech companies and retailers helped boost the market. The S&P 500 rose less than 0.1%. The benchmark index is coming off a three-day winning streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 19 points, or 0.1%, as of 12:32 p.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq composite was up less than 0.1%. Trading volume was lighter than usual as U.S. markets reopened after the Christmas holiday. Chip company Broadcom rose 2.9%, Intel was up 0.7% and Apple gained 0.4%. While tech stocks overall were in the green, some heavyweights were a drag on the market. Semiconductor giant Nvidia, whose enormous valuation gives it an outsize influence on indexes, slipped 0.2%. Meta Platforms fell 0.9%, Amazon was down 0.5%, and Netflix gave up 1.4%. Health care stocks also helped lift the market. CVS Health rose 1.9% and Walgreens Boots Alliance rose 3.3% for the biggest gain among S&P 500 stocks. Several retailers also gained ground. Target rose 2.9%, Best Buy was up 2.1% and Dollar Tree gained 2.2%. U.S.-listed shares in Honda and Nissan rose 4.1% and 15.8%, respectively. The Japanese automakers announced earlier this week that the two companies are in talks to combine. Traders got a labor market update. U.S. applications for unemployment benefits held steady last week , though continuing claims rose to the highest level in three years, the Labor Department reported. Treasury yields rose in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.61% from 4.59% late Tuesday. Major European markets were closed, as well as Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia. Trading was expected to be subdued this week with a thin slate of economic data on the calendar. Still, U.S. markets have historically gotten a boost at year’s end despite lower trading volumes. The last five trading days of each year, plus the first two in the new year, have brought an average gain of 1.3% since 1950. So far this month, the U.S. stock market has lost some of its gains since President-elect Donald Trump’s win on Election Day, which raised hopes for faster economic growth and more lax regulations that would boost corporate profits. Worries have risen that Trump’s preference for tariffs and other policies could lead to higher inflation , a bigger U.S. government debt and difficulties for global trade. Even so, the U.S. market remains on pace to deliver strong returns for 2024. The benchmark S&P 500 is up roughly 26% so far this year and remains near its most recent all-time high it set earlier this month — its latest of 57 record highs this year. Wall Street has several economic reports to look forward to next week, including updates on pending home sales and home prices, a report on U.S. construction spending and snapshots of manufacturing activity. AP Business Writers Elaine Kurtenbach and Matt Ott contributed.Retailers are expecting a record-breaking Black Friday to Cyber Monday shopping period as cash-strapped consumers are expected to shop early in the holiday season for sales promotions and savings. What To Know: Management consultancy firm Bain & Company forecasts U.S. retail sales during the Black Friday to Cyber Monday period will reach $75 billion for the first time ever, growing by about 5% year-over-year. The firm sees about 8% of total holiday sales will come during this period, the highest share since 2019, underscoring the importance of the key shopping period for retailers. "The holiday shopping season has been reshaped in recent years, where consumers are making purchases earlier, driven by a stream of discounts that has allowed shoppers to manage their budgets in different ways," says Vivek Pandya , lead analyst, Adobe Digital Insights. Read Next: Thanksgiving Dinner Gobbles Up 19% More Cash This Year, Many Holiday Hosts ‘Already Regret Their Decision’ Online Shopping: Adobe Digital Insights expects Cyber Week (the 5-day period including Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday) online sales of $40.6 billion, up 7% over last year and adding up to 16.9% of the overall holiday season sales. Adobe sees Cyber Monday as the biggest shopping day of the year, driving a record $13.2 billion in sales, an increase of 6.1% from 2023. In-store Shopping: In-store shopping still remains an important part of Black Friday for many consumers. According to Placer.ai analytics, Black Friday 2023 saw a 300% increase in mall visits compared to the first three weeks of November. Superstores also saw an 81% rise, demonstrating demand across shopping formats. Most Wanted Items: Consumers are expected to gobble up Cyber Week deals on electronics from retailers like Best Buy Co., Inc. BBY on hot items like Beats Studio Pro Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones at more than 60% off its regular price. Read Next: Black Friday Discounts Too Good To Be True? Survey Shows Only 42% Of Sales Are Authentic Placer.ai expects beauty and personal care items to be another hot item with discounts on gift sets from retailers like Ulta Beauty, Inc. ULTA drawing shoppers online and in stores. Sporting goods and outdoor equipment will see record-high discounts averaging 20%, according to Abode Digital Insights, with retailers like Dicks Sporting Goods, Inc. DKS benefiting from the increased spending on experiences and activities. When To Shop: Adobe Digital Insights says Thanksgiving Day will be the best day to shop for toys, appliances, furniture and sporting goods, while Black Friday will offer the deepest discounts for TVs. The Saturday after Thanksgiving will have the best deals for computers and Cyber Monday will be the best day to shop for electronics and apparel, the two biggest categories in e-commerce by revenue share. Read More: • Starbucks’ Employee Systems Down After Software Provider Suffers Ransomware Attack Photo: gonghuimin468 from Pixabay © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Former UCF QB McKenzie Milton joining Scott Frost’s coaching staffDisgraced ex-lawmaker Anthony Weiner officially files to run for NY City Council years after sexting scandalThe Spring Framework allows developers to inject dependencies into their applications in one of three different ways: Field injection. Setter injection. Constructor injection. Developers typically use field injection only on small projects and prototypes, due to its inability to support immutable variables and the incompatibilities it creates with many testing frameworks. Constructor injection vs. setter injection That leaves software architects and Spring developers wondering which dependency injection approach their inversion of control container should take: setter or constructor? Here's the short answer: Always use constructor injection in your Spring and Spring Boot applications unless a seriously compelling reason forces your hand and setter injection is a must. The longer answer? Watch this video on the difference between setter and constructor injection in Spring. Cameron McKenzie has been a Java EE software engineer for 20 years. His current specialties include Agile development; DevOps; Spring; and container-based technologies such as Docker, Swarm and Kubernetes.
HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) — Denijay Harris' 24 points helped Southern Miss defeat Milwaukee 66-65 on Saturday. Read this article for free: Already have an account? To continue reading, please subscribe: * HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) — Denijay Harris' 24 points helped Southern Miss defeat Milwaukee 66-65 on Saturday. Read unlimited articles for free today: Already have an account? HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) — Denijay Harris’ 24 points helped Southern Miss defeat Milwaukee 66-65 on Saturday. Harris hit a 3-pointer and Neftali Alvarez made a layup with 2 seconds left as the Golden Eagles (3-4) rallied from a 65-61 deficit in the final minute. Jett Montgomery scored 13 points while shooting 5 for 8, including 3 for 6 from beyond the arc. Cobie Montgomery finished 3 of 6 from 3-point range to finish with 10 points. Themus Fulks led the way for the Panthers (5-4) with 17 points. Milwaukee also got 13 points and seven rebounds from Kentrell Pullian. AJ McKee also had 10 points and eight rebounds. ___ The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar. Advertisement
Academy Award nominee Maria Bakalova (“Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”) chatted about starring in “The Apprentice” and the Bulgarian film “Triumph.” Eleanor Roosevelt once said: “With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.” This quote applies to Maria Bakalova. The synopsis is: A young Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan), eager to make his name as a hungry second son of a wealthy family in 1970s New York, comes under the spell of Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), the cutthroat attorney who would help create the Donald Trump we know today. Cohn sees in Trump the perfect protégé—someone with raw ambition, a hunger for success, and a willingness to do whatever it takes to win. Bakalova portrays Ivana Trump, his first wife “It was very demanding as a shoot, because we didn’t have a lot of time,” she admitted about “The Apprentice.” “To be completely honest, there is never enough time to shoot a movie; you always wish you have more time. It was all shot in Toronto during the winter.” “It was cold, even though we were playing different seasons,” she said. “We were shooting in different times, and it was challenging in the physical level of it, and it was also challenging in the memory level of it. “We had to know what was happening in different years and in different times because it takes place over a ten-year period, pretty much,” she acknowledged. “At the end of the day, when you have a great team of such dedicated people (all of them in their craft), it feels like a celebration,” she exclaimed. “It feels like making movies and making magic. It was wonderful, at the end of the day, I wish we would do it again,” Bakalova added. On playing Ivana Trump, Bakalova said, “I liked everything about her. Ivana became a role model to me, to a degree. The fact that she always kept getting back on her feet — no matter what was happening in her life — was quite inspiring.” Bakalova continued, “Ivana knew that there was always a way of coming back and coming back stronger, and I love to be able to play somebody that has been so outspoken, so bold and so daring to be opinionated, especially in the ‘70s and the ‘80s.” “Ivana was outspoken back in the ‘70s and the ‘80s,” Bakalova said. “Ivana wanted to be seen as an equal and she wanted to be a partner in this. She didn’t want to just be in the shadow even though she decided to take a step back and allow him to shine more than her,” Bakalova elaborated. “I feel that Ivana was just as important in building his business as himself,” he added. This movie has been generating awards buzz this Oscar, Golden Globe and SAG season, with critics praising the acting performances of Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, and Bakalova. “I hope everybody in this movie gets a lot of recognition because everybody deserves to be seen,” she said. “What our director, Ali Abbasi, has managed to do, and the entire team, is just incredible. Also, what Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong have done with their acting work is just amazing,” Bakalova acknowledged. Bakalova stars as Slava Platnikova in the new international film “Triumph.” In “Triumph,” she took on the dual roles of lead actress and producer. “It has been a magical experience,” she said about “Triumph.” “I’ve been wanting to collaborate with the duo of directors (Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov) for a long time. They were some of my teachers back in my university days.” “I loved their work and how they managed to create such an interesting genre between drama (heavy and emotional drama) mixed with satire, absurdity and social commentary of the environment,” she noted. “Triumph is a part of a trilogy, and these things really happened in my country of Bulgaria,” she said. “It’s strange to think about the fact that back in the ‘90s, a country like mine decided to trust a psychic to lead a mission of digging a hole underground by the Bulgarian Army and wasting a lot of money and wasting a lot of time in search of alliance intelligence,” she elaborated. “It has been interesting to mix this mystical story in the environment of a very difficult time for my country back in the ‘90s after the fall of communism, feeling fragile and not knowing what to do and which side to take,” she explained. “My country has been the only one to choose a communistic dictator after not having to be part of a communistic environment anymore. If you mix the social environment with the mystical side of it, you have ‘triumph,’ which is a beautiful mixture of life and absurdity in life,” she added. Bakalova stated that the international film “Triumph” is that it is a co-production between Bulgaria and Greece. It has been selected as Bulgaria’s candidate for the 97th Academy Awards in the “Best International Feature Film” category. “My dream is for people to see this movie and to get a sense of that place because it’s very authentic at the end of the day,” she said. “It is also very universal, so I just wish for a lot of people to watch the movie and be open-minded and open-hearted to experience this comical tragedy because that is what ‘Triumph’ is,” Bakalova elaborated. “If you look at it closely, you see it as a drama, if you look at it from afar, it looks like a satire,” she added. On being a part of the digital age, Bakalova responded, “I don’t really know. We are having this beautiful interview on Zoom and it’s working in my favor because I am in Canada right next to the Rocky Mountains far away from where you are in New York, and we can do this because of technology thanks to the digital age.” “On the other hand, it’s a bit of a sacrifice of art in general... It is easy to get information, and if you manage to use it in a smart way, you can find a lot of benefits in it... but if you get soaked into the idea of using it only to make yourself lazy and not putting in the effort, then it’s working against you,” Bakalova explained. Bakalova noted that the digital age is a double-edged sword. “It’s good and it’s not good,” she noted. “Some movies are made to be seen on streaming platforms, where some shows and some movies work better at home,” she said. “During the COVID lockdown, the only hope and escape from these four white walls was through digital and the streaming platforms... so it’s just as equally crucial,” she noted. Bakalova continued, “On the other hand, a lot of movies don’t work at home... you need an audience and this contagious feeling of the audience’s reaction and how they perceive the scenes. If the audience loves a scene, then you understand that maybe it’s okay to love at the scene. If the audience gasps, then maybe it’s okay to gasp.” “It’s a shared experience,” she admitted. “For me, it is always better to go to a theater and to experience something on the big screen, as a cinematic lover. You can also see a lot of details such as the music, the sound, and the sound design... it is always more influential in a theater.” In 2021, Bakalova was nominated for the “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role” Oscar for her acting work in “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.” “It has been wonderful,” she exclaimed. “It’s the biggest thing that can happen to you, and I was lucky enough to have this happen to me when I was working and surrounded by some incredibly talented people from something that I really cared about.” “I was shooting a movie called ‘The Bubble’ with Judd Apatow directing it,” she recalled. “I was in the middle of a scene with Pedro Pascal, and Judd just stopped the scene and told me ‘you just got nominated for an Academy Award!'” “Having that experience shared with somebody like Pedro was an even better feeling because he is exceptionally talented, and on top of that, he is one of the nicest human beings that I’ve met,” she acknowledged. “It has been incredible, and it has been so important because ‘Borat’ is a satire; it’s a political satire comedy, and usually, comedies are underrated and overlooked, even though they can manage to send a message even more widely simply through the power of comedy and through the tools of entertainment, which manage to make this world a better place,” she elaborated. On the title of the current chapter of her life, Bakalova revealed, “Triumph.” “I feel that title is very accurate right now,” she said. “I’ve been very lucky to be able to work and to be able to do what I love. ‘Triumph’ is a movie that I am really proud of, and as we say in the movie, ‘every day is a triumph.’ For young and aspiring actors, she said, “Coming from a place that doesn’t really get a lot of attention and hasn’t been given a lot of chances, and that’s why I will always be grateful to Sacha Baron Cohen for opening a possibility for somebody like me to take a role that is so widely seen in the face of Tutar (Borat’s teenage daughter). “Also, I am grateful to Ali for choosing somebody like me... someone from that region of the world that feels authentic to represent somebody as Ivana, who is coming from communistic Czechoslovakia and I’m coming from communistic Bulgaria,” she said. “Of course, I am fully aware that Czechoslovakia is not Eastern Europe; it’s considered an Eastern country because it has been under the Eastern Bloc... it’s Central Europe but it feels relevant,” she clarified. “I will always be grateful to both of them (Sacha and Ali) for choosing me to portray characters that feel authentic,” she added. On the best advice that she has ever been given, she shared, “One of the first pieces of advice I ever got, was to go and watch a lot of independent films, and I keep following that advice. Also, I go to a lot of festivals, and I go see movies that are not necessarily Blockbusters. “A lot of times, these movies are even more moving and more powerful and they give you the opportunity to expand your cinematic culture by seeing different regions of the world and obtaining different tastes and different tools. Get to know directors from all over the world,” she elaborated. “Just pay attention to the films that don’t immediately get all the attention; if you find these gems, it is just as inspiring for you to know them,” she acknowledged. “Get a lot of gemstones of how to do your acting and how to build a show. One day, you might be behind the camera and you might want to participate in the producing, writing, and directing teams,” she said. “Get a lot of tools of how to do this, not only by saying your lines, but get to know the craft and the art of acting. This was the advice that I wish I was given,” she concluded. Track and field running legend Wilma Rudolph once said: “Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us.” Maria Bakalova is a woman, actress, and storyteller that embodies this wise quotation. To learn more about Oscar nominee Maria Bakalova, follow her on Instagram . Markos Papadatos is Digital Journal's Editor-at-Large for Music News.Papadatos is a Greek-American journalist and educator that has authored over 21,000 original articles over the past 18 years. He has interviewed some of the biggest names in music, entertainment, lifestyle, magic, and sports. He is a 16-time "Best of Long Island" winner, where for three consecutive years (2020, 2021, and 2022), he was honored as the "Best Long Island Personality" in Arts & Entertainment, an honor that has gone to Billy Joel six times.Restaurant Brands International Inc. stock rises Thursday, still underperforms marketTHE BBC runs a competition called “Women’s Footballer of the Year”. In drawing up a shortlist, they have one job. And that’s to select a woman who plays football . Doesn’t sound terribly onerous, does it? Plenty of women around who play football, aren’t there? But the BBC couldn’t quite manage that task. Because on the shortlist was the Zambian player Barbra Banda . Barbra certainly plays football. And when up against women, is rather good. Trouble is, Babs ain’t what you or I would call a woman. Instead, Babs is rather closer to what you or I would call a bloke. READ MORE FROM ROD LIDDLE Banda plays for the Zambian national team. However, the player was withdrawn from the 2022 African Cup of Nations . Because it was claimed she — or maybe more properly he — did not meet the gender verification criteria. There are lots of things which might be responsible for that, such as having male levels of testosterone. Or generally having a male physique. But the BBC was happy to let Banda be named Women’s Footballer of the Year. Probably, knowing the BBC, even happier than if Barbra had actually been a, you know, young lady. They like to make a progressive political point at the BBC. Most read in The Sun Needless to say there were howls of outrage from within the game. And plenty more outside it. Largely from women who believe that it’s only fair to let women compete against other women. Rather than against men who are born stronger and faster. Harry Potter author JK Rowling , for example, had this to say: “Presumably the BBC decided this was more time efficient than going door to door to spit directly in women’s faces.” Ouch! But she’s right, isn’t she? Because the selection of Banda is an insult not only to women footballers, but to all women. Deranged argument Right now women’s sport is in an absolute crisis — all because of the counter-rational and truly idiotic insistence that blokes who say they are women but are actually men should be allowed to compete against women. It’s taken years for women’s sport to be taken as seriously as men’s sport. And now, suddenly, just as women’s football has really taken off, guess what? The men-women people are inveigling their way in. It’s not just football, of course. A recent United Nations report suggested that transgender athletes have taken a total of 900 medals away from real women across 29 different sporting disciplines. That’s kinda shocking. And remember, this report was from the UN which is about as progressive as it gets. I thought this battle was well on the way to being won. More and more sports bodies are outlawing transgender competitors having previously allowed this fraud. Everywhere, the deranged argument that insists blokes who say they are women really are women is in rapid retreat. Common sense has been allowed back into the argument. But not at the BBC, of course. They are determined to carry on flying the banner for a cause which even some of the transgender activists have given up on. One day, not too far down the line, this last decade will be regarded as being really very, very odd. The obsession with gender politics . The general determination not to allow sanity to have its say. But when Barbra picks up the award, 90 per cent of those watching will know the truth. That the award should really have gone to a WOMAN. ALERTS OFTEN HOT AIR WHY did Storm Bert cause so much damage to the country? Hundreds and hundreds of homes underwater. Communities evacuated. There have been complaints that there were not enough early warnings. But the Met Office said: “Storm Bert was well forecast, 48 hours in advance, with a number of warnings in place ahead of the system reaching the UK.” So what went wrong, then? Here’s my guess. It’s about the boy who cried wolf. You know the story. EVERY weather front which approaches the UK gets the same treatment. With the forecasters shrieking at us “STAY INSIDE!” In case we are burnt to death. Or drown. Or have our testicles frozen off in a snowstorm. And nine times out of ten there’s no problem at all. So when they warned us about Bert, we just thought: “Yeah, yeah. Same ol’ same ol’.” CUT PEP LOOKS HELLISH WHAT the hell has happened to Pep Guardiola ? He looks like he’s just done ten rounds with a Tasmanian devil. Scratches and gouges all over his face and head. Manchester City lost five games on the trot. And Pep made a comment about self-harming. The most likely explanation is that Pep was set upon by furious Satanic imps because he had reneged on a deal with their boss. I can’t prove it, it’s just a guess. WOKE IS WAL OVER THE biggest company in the world has become the latest to ditch its odious DEI policies. DEI stands for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. It is wokedom gone mad – and racist. Companies across the Western world are quickly getting rid of this rubbish. Walmart is removing ALL vestiges of DEI from its company. Well done, Walmart. In future , with any luck, people will be hired for jobs because they are the best people available. Not because of the colour of their skins, religion or gender. ANOTHER anti-Semitic hate crime in London . This time a bunch of girls walking home from school had bottles thrown at them. One 14-year-old lass was taken to hospital with a head wound. Earlier this year, a 16-year-old Jewish lad had to flee in terror when he was pelted with rocks by a mob. We know who the perpetrators are. Here, just as in France and Belgium and Germany . But for some reason we’re scared to call it out. It’s time we started telling the truth about these horrible racist attacks. SHIRK FORCE DODGE SO, the Labour Government isn’t going to reform our costly and catastrophic benefits system at all. They had said they would. But nope, not really. There are hundreds of thousands of people claiming state money for doing nothing but sitting on their fat arses watching Homes Under The Hammer . Unless they are threatened with the immediate withdrawal of benefits, they will continue to do so. And our welfare bill will continue to spiral. Alien language has down-to-earth use THE incredibly esteemed Ubiquity University in California is offering a degree in Extraterrestrial Studies. This includes an important module on “How to communicate with aliens”. At first I had been inclined to snigger at this. READ MORE SUN STORIES But it’s probably of more practical value than half the courses on offer at our own universities . In fact, I might sign up, in case I ever have to interview Rachel Reeves .
Insider Moves Amidst Turbulent Times: What You Need to KnowThe ( ) is one of my favourite buy ideas because of its long-term potential. I'm always on the lookout for businesses that can significantly scale from where they are today. I think Tuas could be one of those companies that may be much bigger in five years' time. Why? The company is demonstrating a lot of characteristics that make me believe its revenue and, more importantly, profit could be notably higher than it is today. Let me explain why I'm confident about it has risen even higher. One of the most important things for the telco company is to simply keep adding more subscribers in its home market of Singapore, which I think is a great country to operate in. It's winning over customers by offering great value. In , the business grew its active mobile services by 28.6% to 1.05 million. At its recent , the company reported that its active customers had grown to 1.11 million, which was an increase of 26.6% year over year and a rise of 5.7% quarter over quarter. I'm expecting the company to continue to grow its mobile subscriber numbers in Singapore for a long time to come. According to Tuas and the latest available mobile subscriber data, it had reached a market share of 10.7% in Singapore as of July 2024. Another growth avenue for the company to pursue is broadband. As of 30 November 2024, it had reached 10,000 active subscribers, and I think it can add tens of thousands of subscribers in the coming years. To help boost long-term growth, it's looking to make network quality upgrades and target new mobile segments. One of the main reasons I'm optimistic about the ASX growth stock at the current valuation is the likelihood of it expanding beyond Singapore, which only has a of just over 6 million. The investment team at Wilson Asset Management (WAM) believe the business could expand to countries like Malaysia and Indonesia, which have populations of more than 34 million and 279 million, respectively. These are much bigger markets for the company to tap into. In summary, the business is making strong progress in driving its revenue higher. In FY24, the business grew revenue by 36% to $117.1 million, and in the first quarter of FY25, it made $35.5 million in revenue. I think this shows that the business continues to make very good revenue progress. Investors usually value a business based on how much profit it makes, so if profit margins rise, then the profit can rise faster than revenue, which could help push the Tuas share price higher at a faster rate. In the ASX growth stock's FY24 result, its operating profit ( ) grew by 60% – faster than revenue, with the EBITDA margin improving to 42%, up from 36% in FY23. There are signs that the company's profitability grew even further in the first quarter of FY25 – it made $16.1 million of EBITDA, representing a 45% EBITDA margin. The company also reported that its first quarter FY25 was positive, and it also made $18.3 million of operating . In five to ten years, I think the business could make a very exciting profit in Southeast Asia, and it could make strong capital growth between now and then.
[Shang-Jin Wei] Institutional reforms China needsHouston Astros welcome 1B Christian Walker to team; say negotiations with Bregman stalled