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U.S. stocks are ticking higher on Wednesday after a rally spurred by hopes for lower U.S. interest rates wrapped around the world.The S&P 500 rose 0.4%, coming off its latest all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 364 points, or 0.8%, as of 10:20 a.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was adding 0.3% to its own record set the day before.Stocks got a lift from easing Treasury yields in the bond market, as expectations reach a virtual consensus that the Federal Reserve will cut its main interest rates for the first time this year at its next meeting in September. Lower rates can boost investment prices and the economy by making it cheaper for U.S. households and businesses to borrow to buy houses, cars or equipment, though they risk worsening inflation.Stock indexes jumped in Asia in their first trading after Tuesday’s better-than-expected report on U.S. inflation triggered a jump in bets that a cut to interest rates is coming. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng leaped 2.6%, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rallied 1.3% and South Korea’s Kospi climbed 1.1%.Indexes also rose in Europe, though the moves were more modest after they already had the chance to trade on the U.S. inflation data the afternoon before. Germany’s DAX returned 0.8%, and France’s CAC 40 rose 0.7%.On Wall Street, the hopes for lower interest rates are helping to drown out criticism that the U.S. stock market has grown too expensive after its big leap since hitting a low in April.One way companies can make their stock prices look less expensive is to deliver strong growth in profits, and Brinker International added 0.8% after reporting stronger results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The company behind the Chili’s brand said it’s seeing more customers coming to its restaurants, and it’s also making more profit off each $1 in sales.“Chili’s is officially back, baby back!” said CEO Kevin Hochman.HanesBrands climbed 5.4% after it agreed to sell itself to Gildan Activewear for $2.2 billion in cash and Gildan stock. The deal would combine North Carolinas’ HanesBrands with Canada’s Gildan, and Gildan’s stock that trades in the United States rose 11.6%.On the losing end of Wall Street were grocery stores and delivery companies, which fell after Amazon said it will offer fresh groceries to customers in more than 1,000 cities and towns through same-day delivery. Kroger fell 4.6%, and DoorDash dropped 3.6%, while Amazon rose 0.9%.Cava Group sank 17.2% after the Mediterranean restaurant chain reported weaker revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, though its profit topped forecasts. It also cut its forecast for 2025 growth in sales at restaurants that have been open for more than a year, where guest traffic has been roughly flat recently from year-ago levels.CoreWeave lost 13.7% after the company, whose cloud platform helps customers running artificial-intelligence workloads, reported a larger loss for the latest quarter than analysts expected.In the bond market, Treasury yields eased as expectations built for coming cuts to interest rates by the Fed.The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.23% from 4.29% late Tuesday and from 4.50% in mid-July. That’s a notable move for the bond market.President Donald Trump has angrily been calling for cuts to help the economy, often insulting the Fed’s chair personally while doing so.But the Fed has been hesitant so far because of the possibility that Trump’s tariffs could make inflation much worse. Lowering rates would give inflation more fuel, potentially adding oxygen to a growing fire. That’s why Fed officials have said they wanted to see more data come in about inflation before moving.On Thursday, a report will show how bad inflation was at the wholesale level across the United States. Economists expect it to show inflation accelerated a touch to 2.4% in July from 2.3% in June. AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed. Stan Choe, AP Business Writer
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If the Swifties in your office are a little overstimulated and having trouble concentrating, grant them some grace. It’s been a big week for Taylor Swifts biggest fans, with the masterful announcement of her 12th studio album The Life of a Showgirl, and theres only more to come when the full episode of Travis and Jason Kelces podcast, New Heights, is released on Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET. Lets get you up to speed so you can be knowledgeable at the water cooler and prepared for new announcements on the pod. How did Taylor Swift announce her new album? Textbooks could be written about the brilliant marketing tactics that Swift employs. It all centers around the small details or easter eggs that her fans love to analyze ad nauseam. On Monday, August 11, the Kelce brothers announced a mysterious guest on this weeks episode. Jasons shirt and Taylors silhouette gave the secret away. Additionally, the episode comes out on today, the 13th of the month. Thirteen has a special meaning for Swifties as it is Swift’s lucky number. Later that same day, Taylor Nation posted a carousel of 12 images featuring Swift in orange outfits, which has taken on the meaning of her next era. Swift’s website also got a makeover, becoming an orange glittering countdown to 12:12 a.m. ET on August 12. It was then her new album was officially announced. What can we expect from Taylor Swifts appearance on New Heights? The announcement might just be the tip of the iceberg. After her website momentarily crashed, fans were able to preorder The Life of a Showgirl on CD, cassette tape, or vinyl, and were told that the products will ship before October 13 of this year. There is still no official release date, so that information could be in the episode. Fans can also look forward to possibly seeing the official cover art. Even though podcasts are primarily an auditory medium, most podcasts these days are also on-camera experiences. The cover art is also locked on Taylor Swift’s website. Fans will also most likely get a deeper look into Swift and Travis Kelce’s relationship. How do the two interact? What is it like falling in love in the spotlight? How to listen to New Heights Now that you are up to speed, you have some options about how to consume New Heights featuring Tay. If you want the full visual experience, head to YouTube. If you prefer just to listen, you can catch it on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Audible, Spotify, or Wondery. Until then, shake it off, Swifties, and try to get some work done.
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Doctors advise most patients on GLP-1 obesity drugs such as Wegovy and Zepbound to stay on them to keep the weight off, but as more U.S. insurers restrict coverage people are trimming costs by stretching doses or forgoing expenditures like vacations to pay for the medication out of pocket. A half dozen doctors who spoke with Reuters said insurance coverage has tightened in 2025 as many employers drop it for the expensive GLP-1 drugs. While patients on these medications are counseled on proper diet and exercise, clinical trials show that people who stop taking these drugs are apt to regain weight. Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound are weekly injections with U.S. insurer list prices of more than $1,000 a month. For customers willing to pay cash, both drugmakers will ship directly for $499 a month if refills are purchased at fixed intervals. “A significant number of my patients now pay cash,” said Dr. Nidhi Kansal, an obesity specialist at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago. “People find a way to scrounge up $6,000 a year, which sucks, because that’s a vacation or two.” More than a billion people worldwide are obese, according to the U.N. World Health Organization, which has said the GLP-1 drugs could help end the obesity pandemic. ‘A KIND OF PURGATORY’ A tech industry job change for Yelena Kibasova, a 40-year-old who lives in the Minneapolis area, meant loss of coverage for her Zepbound prescription that helped her achieve and maintain a 150-pound (68-kg) weight loss. GLP-1 patient Yelena Kibasova, 40, poses in this undated handout picture. [Photo: @morethanmyweight/Handout via Reuters] “My new company does not cover GLP-1s, so now I am in a kind of purgatory,” Kibasova said. “I stopped doing my nails. I stopped doing my hair. Those things are not as important as me staying at a healthy weight.” The doctors interviewed by Reuters said patients once leery about long-term obesity treatment are now more comfortable staying on a drug. The doctors said that conversations about temporary use happen only when a patient is trying to lose a certain amount of weight for issues such as fertility treatment or an organ transplant. These obesity specialists said they are hopeful that competition will help bring down prices as new weight-loss options emerge, including new oral drugs that may be available next year. Lilly last week announced trial results for its easier-to-manufacture pill, which was shown to cut patient weight by 12.4%, a few percentage points less than injected drugs. The company hopes to launch it in August 2026. Kenneth Custer, Lilly’s head of cardiometabolic health, told Reuters the pill is being tested in several settings, including as a maintenance therapy. Custer declined to comment on how it might be priced. MEDICATION FOR MAINTENANCE Dr. Anne Peters, an endocrinologist at Keck Medicine USC in Los Angeles, said it is important that patients who reach their weight-loss goal not stop a prescription “cold turkey,” so the dose can be tapered down over several months. Peters said about a third of her patients are able to reduce their dose and maintain weight loss, while the rest need to stay on the medication. An analysis of U.S. pharmacy insurance claims found that nearly two-thirds of patients who started on Wegovy or Zepbound in 2024 were still on the medications a year later. Peters said she uses “every technique in the book” to secure insurance coverage for patients, but noted that a growing number of plans no longer pay for the treatments, and patients have to pay out-of-pocket. U.S. pharmacies supply self-injection pens pre-loaded with doses of Wegovy or Zepbound. Lilly’s direct-to-consumer service also offers vials. “Some patients can stretch out the vials longer. Get 15 mg, and then give a 10 mg dose for instance,” Dr. Peters said, noting that the drug’s instructions advise that such an approach should not be taken. Doses of 5 mg, 10 mg and 15 mg are recommended for weight-loss maintenance. Patients also are turning to lower-cost compounded versions of the GLP-1 drugs, or are even mixing them at home with raw ingredients, both of which Peters and other doctors advise against due to safety concerns. Dr. Angela Fitch, former president of the Centennial, Colorado-based Obesity Medicine Association and chief medical officer at online primary care provider Knownwell, said nobody wants to be on a medication, but patients who respond to a GLP-1 drug “really don’t want to go off of it when they recognize that it has such a value to them.” Both Wegovy and Zepbound were first launched, under the brand names Ozempic and Mounjaro, as diabetes treatments. The class has been linked to a range of benefits, including improved heart health and less sleep apnea. Fitch said the most common reason for her patients to stop taking a GLP-1 drug is loss of insurance coverage. She said her experience is that about 10% of patients are able to reach a target weight and maintain it without further treatment. “We are in a dip where people are dropping coverage,” Fitch said, adding that the direct-to-consumer options are an “upper-ish middle-class thing.” Deena Beasley, Reuters
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