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Stocks on Wall Street inched further into record territory in afternoon trading Thursday, following new economic data and a mixed batch of earnings reports from big U.S. companies. The S&P 500 was up 0.2% a day after climbing to a new high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average reversed an early slide to add 40 points, or 0.1%, as of 12:29 p.m. eastern time. The Nasdaq composite was 0.5% higher. Gains in technology and communication services companies tempered declines in health care and most other sectors. Broadcom rose 2.5%, Oracle was 2% higher, and Google parent Alphabet rose 2.1%. Tech giant Nvidia was down 1.2% a day after reporting quarterly earnings and revenue that beat Wall Street analysts forecasts, though the company noted that sales of its artificial intelligence chipsets rose at a slower pace than analysts anticipated. Investors consider Nvidia a barometer for the strength of the boom in artificial intelligence because the company makes most of the chips that power the technology. Its heavy weighting also gives Nvidia outsized influence as a bellwether for the broader market. Shares in several retailers were down following their latest quarterly results. Best Buy fell 5% after the consumer electronics chain’s second-quarter snapshot was overshadowed by an outlook clouded due to the tariffs the U.S. is imposing on trading partners. Despite also posting better-than-expected quarterly results, Urban Outfitters slid 9.7% after the retailer warned that it expects tariffs will increase pressure on its gross margins in the second half of the year. Dicks Sporting Goods fell 4.1% despite reporting second-quarter results that beat analysts’ expectations. Victorias Secret gave up an early gain and was down 1.7% Burlington Stores bucked the trend. The retail chain climbed 7% after its latest earnings topped analysts estimates. Elsewhere in the market, Spam maker Hormel sank 12.7% for the biggest drop among S&P 500 companies after its earnings fell short of Wall Streets forecasts and the company cut its outlook for the year. Traders also had their eye on new government reports on the job market and economy. The Labor Department reported that applications for unemployment benefits fell last week, the latest sign that employers are holding onto their workers even as the economy has slowed. The most recent government data suggests hiring has slowed sharply since this spring. Meanwhile, the Commerce Department reported that U.S. gross domestic productthe nations output of goods and servicesgrew at a 3.3% annual pace in the April-June quarter after shrinking 0.5% in the first three months of this year due to the fallout from the Trump administrations trade wars. The sluggishness in the job market is a key reason that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled last week that the central bank may cut its key interest rate at its meeting next month. Lower rates can boost investment prices and the economy by making it cheaper for U.S. households and businesses to borrow, but they risk worsening inflation. Traders are still betting the Fed will trim its benchmark interest rate at its next meeting in September. Traders see an 85.3% chance that the central bank will cut the rate by a quarter of a percentage point, according to data from CME Group. Friday will bring another update on inflation: the U.S. personal consumption expenditures index. Economists expect it to show that inflation remained at about 2.6% in July, compared with a year ago. Businesses have been warning investors and consumers about higher costs and prices because of tariffs. Treasury yields were mixed in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 4.21% from 4.24% late Wednesday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for Federal Reserve action, rose to 3.64% from 3.62%. European and Asian markets were mixed. Alex Veiga, AP business writer
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E-Commerce
Ford Motor is recalling nearly 500,000 vehicles nationwide over a brake fluid leak. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued the safety notice noting a rear brake ruptured hose could cause fluid to leak, extending the distance required to stop the vehicle, thereby increasing the risk of a crash. This is the automaker’s 105th recall of the year, a record for any automaker, which it happened to break in just the first six months of 2025. The recalled models include Fords SUV Edge, from 2015 to 2018, in addition to the Lincoln MKX, from 2016 to 2018. In its report, the NHTSA said only 1% of the recalled vehicles have the defect; Ford has not received any reports of accidents or injuries linked to the issue at this time, CNBC reported. What should I do if my car is being recalled? The NHTSA said letters notifying owners of the safety risk are expected to be mailed out on September 8, 2025. Additional letters will be sent once the remedy is available, which is anticipated to be April 2026. Owners may contact Ford customer service by phone at 1-866-436-7332. Ford’s number for this recall is 25S87. Ford recall for faulty tail lights In addition, Ford is also recalling over 213,000 vehicles over faulty tail lights. The NHTSA issued that safety notice for 2025 Ford Explorer and Lincoln Aviator vehicles. According to the report, while towing, trailer tail lights may not light up as intendeddue to an improperly manufactured body control module reducing visibility to other drivers, increasing therisk of a crash. Ford by the numbers Shares in the Ford Motor Company (F) were down nearly 2% at the time of this writing in midday trading on Thursday. The automaker reported Q2 2025 earnings for the period ending on June 30, reinstating its full-year guidance, in which it beat expectations, but revealed it would take an estimated $2 billion hit from Trump tariffs.
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E-Commerce
For years, advocacy groups made it easy for Americans to weigh in on federal regulations. If a proposed rule threatened internet freedoms or environmental protections, organizations could set up simple campaign sites: Type your comment, hit submit, and your feedback went straight into the federal record. During the 2017 net neutrality fight, more than 1.6 million comments reached the Federal Communications Commission in a single day. That era just quietly ended. As 404 Media first reported, the General Services Administration (GSA), which runs regulations.gov, abruptly disabled the Post function on its public API (that is, the software gateway that lets outside applications talk directly to a government website). Until last week, groups could batch-submit comments collected on their own websites. Now, only federal agencies can use the tool. Attempting a submission returns a 403 error (access denied). The GSA offered only a brief email notice and no real explanation, according to 404 Media. The official alternativenavigating regulations.gov directlyis a slog, requiring users to track down the docket number, complete a lengthy form, provide personal details, upload files, and clear a captcha (a test to determine whether the user is human). The difference may sound like a minor technical hurdle, but in governance, access is everything. Rule-making only works as a democratic mechanism if ordinary people can take part without needing specialized knowledge or legal help. By raising the friction, the government is effectively narrowing the field to insiders, lawyers, and industry lobbyiststhe very groups that already dominate policymaking. (GSA did not respond to Fast Company‘s request for comment.) Advocates say the effect of the API change is obvious: Civic participation will shrink. Public comment periods are one of the few channels through which citizens can weigh in on decisions that shape markets, workplaces, and daily life. The API allows members of the public to engage with rules without having to navigate this really frustrating, user-unfriendly website, said Liz Zepeda, the federal regulatory director of the Southern Environmental Law Center. Without it, she added, its just that much harder for them to make their voices heard. Zepeda sees the change as part of a broader trend. There is definitely a pattern of this administration skirting around transparency and oversight tools, Zepeda said. Across the federal government, agencies are shortening comment periods, skipping proposed-rule stages, and even letting regulatory websites crash or drop information. Instead of engaging with large volumes of critical feedback, she warned, officials are just making it harder for people to submit those comments at all. Matt Lane, senior policy counsel at Fight for the Future, traced the government hostility toward the comments feature back to the battle over net neutrality, when telecommunications companies were caught flooding dockets with fake submissions. Since then, he said, industries have pushed to neutralize public participation, because it makes them look bad. It really seems like it grew out of that moment in particular. (And agencies are actually required to read and respond to every comment.) The burden wont hit everyone equally. Shutting out easy digital access mostly hurts ordinary people, while corporations with deep pockets and teams of lawyers will likely keep filing comments as usual. The companies that care, they hire people who know how to work the system,” Lane said. “They pay lawyers. And if not for groups like ours encouraging greater public participation, theyre the only voices agencies are going to hear. And unfortunately, most people will probably never realize a backend function disappeared in the first place. “Thousands of people have used this API functionality and had no awareness,” Zepeda said. “They wont notice it disappearing, but they just wont see these easy opportunities to seamlessly get on the record.
Category:
E-Commerce
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