NEW YORK (AP) — Investors on Wall Street need a place to hide. The stock market’s skid this year has pulled the S&P 500 close to what’s known as a bear market. Rising interest rates, high inflation, the war in Ukraine and a slowdown in China’s economy have caused investors to reconsider the prices they’re willing to pay for a wide range of stocks, from high-flying tech companies to traditional automakers.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A federal appeals court has ruled that details of some of the conversations between the nation’s four largest railroads about their rates can now be included in lawsuits challenging billions of dollars they charged their customers. But the mixed ruling will also exclude some documents.

WASHINGTON (AP) — More Americans applied for jobless aid last week, but the total number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits is at a 53-year low. Applications for unemployment benefits rose by 21,000 to 218,000 for the week ending May 14, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street was headed for more losses at the open following the previous day’s rout as investors remained anxious over the impact of persistent high inflation on corporate profits and consumer spending.

NEW YORK (AP) — The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank more than 1,100 points and the S&P 500 had its biggest drop in nearly two years Wednesday, as big earnings misses by Target and other major retailers stoked investors' fears that surging inflation could cut deeply into corporate profits.

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks fell in morning trading on Wall Street Wednesday, led by led by steep drops in retailers as Target plunged after issuing a grim quarterly earnings report.

LONDON (AP) — Tesla CEO Elon Musk says his deal to buy Twitter can’t move forward unless the company shows public proof that less than 5% of the accounts on the platform are fake or spam. Musk made the comment in a reply to another user on Twitter early Tuesday.

NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart reported stronger sales for the first quarter, but its profit took a beating as the nation’s largest retailer grappled with surging inflation on food and fuel and higher costs from a snarled global supply chain.

Home Depot’s fiscal first-quarter sales improved even as the chain faced a slower start to spring, and it raised its full-year guidance. The home improvement company’s revenue increased about 4% to $38.91 billion.

Wall Street was heading toward a strong open on Tuesday as investors took in another batch of earnings from retailers that could reveal how persistent inflation is impacting consumer spending.

McDonald’s says it's started the process of selling its Russian business, which includes 850 restaurants that employ 62,000 people. The fast food giant pointed to the humanitarian crisis caused by the war, saying holding on to its business in Russia “is no longer tenable, nor is it consistent with McDonald’s values.”

Russia will take control of French car manufacturer Renault’s operations in the country and resurrect a Soviet-era auto brand. The news Monday marks the first major nationalization of a foreign business since the war with Ukraine began.

LONDON (AP) — Elon Musk says his plan to buy Twitter is “temporarily on hold” as he tries to pinpoint the exact number of spam and fake accounts on the social media platform, another twist amid signs of turmoil over the proposed $44 billion acquisition.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Thursday confirmed Jerome Powell for a second four-year term as Federal Reserve chair, giving bipartisan backing to Powell’s high-stakes efforts to curb the highest inflation in four decades.

LONDON (AP) — The name “FIFA” can bring to mind images of the World Cup and soccer’s greatest players. Pele, Zinedine Zidane and Lionel Messi among them. The acronym for the sport’s governing body may also remind some of shameless bribery and corruption. But for many it’s the video game that is synonymous with FIFA.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — In the weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine, a protest movement was born in Poland urging people to boycott companies that have chosen to keep operating in Russia.

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is pointing toward another down day with global markets falling sharply on more bad inflation data. Futures for the S&P 500 are 0.5% lower and the Dow is down 0.3% a day after a U.S. government report showed inflation remains close to a four-decade high.

Many people are puzzling what a Elon Musk takeover of Twitter would mean for the company and even whether he’ll go through with the deal. If the 50-year-old Musk’s gambit has made anything clear it’s that he thrives on contradiction.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Inflation slowed in April after seven months of relentless gains, a tentative sign that price increases may be peaking while still imposing a financial strain on American households. Consumer prices jumped 8.3% last month from 12 months earlier.

NEW YORK (AP) — Just as Americans gear up for summer road trips, the price of oil remains stubbornly high, pushing prices at the gas pump to painful heights. AAA says drivers are paying $4.37 for a gallon of regular gasoline. That’s especially hard on people who drive for a living.

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks deepened their losses on Wall Street Monday, sending the S&P 500 to its lowest close in more than a year. The benchmark index is coming off its fifth weekly loss in a row as renewed worries about China’s economy piled on top of markets already battered by rising interest rates. Stocks fell across Europe and much of Asia, as did everything from old-economy crude oil to new-economy bitcoin.

WASHINGTON (AP) — More Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week but the total number of people collecting jobless aid is at its lowest level in more than 50 years. Jobless claims in the U.S. rose by 19,000 to 200,000 for the week ending April 30, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

LONDON (AP) — OPEC and allied oil-producing countries are gradually increasing the amount of crude they send to the world. That decision Thursday comes even as Europe’s proposed phaseout of Russian oil threatens to yank millions of barrels off a global market already thirsty for crude.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates resumed their ascent this week, as the key 30-year loan reached its highest point since 2009. The increases came in the week preceding the widely anticipated action by the Federal Reserve, announced Wednesday, to intensify its fight against the worst inflation in 40 years by raising its benchmark interest rate by a half-percentage point and signaling further large rate hikes to come.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Record-low mortgages below 3% are long gone. Credit card rates will likely rise. So will the cost of an auto loan. Savers may finally receive a yield high enough to top inflation. The half-point hike in its benchmark short-term rate that the Federal Reserve announced Wednesday won’t, by itself, have much immediate effect on most Americans. But additional large hikes are expected to be announced in June and July, and economists foresee the fastest pace of rate increases since 1989.