Walmart delivered another standout quarter, posting strong sales and profits that blew past Wall Street expectations as it wins over more cash-strapped Americans who have grown increasing anxious about the economy

NEW YORK — Walmart delivered another standout quarter, posting strong sales and profits that blew past Wall Street expectations as it wins over more cash-strapped Americans who have grown increasing anxious about the economy.

With other retailers dialing back projections, the nation’s largest retailer raised its financial outlook Thursday, setting itself up for a strong holiday shopping season.

Walmart Inc., based in Bentonville, Arkansas, also said Thursday that it will be transferring the listing of its common stock to the tech-heavy Nasdaq from the New York Stock Exchange. It expects its common stock to begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on December 9, under the the same ticker symbol “WMT.”

CEO Doug McMillon, who surprised investors with plans to retire early next year, has reshaped Walmart itself as tech-powered retail giant that has leaned heavily into automation and artificial intelligence.

Microsoft Corp. once again surpassed $4 trillion in valuation, joining artificial intelligence chipmaker Nvidia in the exclusive club that also briefly included Apple on Tuesday. The sky-high valuations highlight the investor frenzy around artificial intelligence.

Earlier in the day, OpenAI said it has reorganized its ownership structure and converted its business into a public benefit corporation after two crucial regulators, the Delaware and California attorneys general, said they would not oppose the plan. It also said has signed a new agreement with its longtime backer Microsoft that gives the software giant a roughly 27% stake in OpenAI’s new for-profit corporation.

The news gave Microsoft’s shares a boost as the stock closed up 2% at $542.07, valuing the technology giant at $4.04 trillion. Microsoft’s valuation previously passed $4 trillion in July, making it the second company after Nvidia to reach the milestone.

Apple’s shares, meanwhile, crossed the $4 trillion line earlier Tuesday before closing up slightly at $269 and a total valuation of $3.99 trillion. Thanks to the iPhone’s success, Apple was the the first publicly traded company to valued at $1 trillion, $2 trillion and eventually, $3 trillion.

LONDON — The CEO of Nvidia, which faces tight restrictions on selling its chips to China amid the U.S.-China battle over trade and tech, said he’s disappointed about the situation.

Jensen Huang said he expects to discuss the issue with President Donald Trump at a state banquet hosted by the British government that they’ll be attending on Wednesday night.

Santa Clara, California-based Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company, is restricted from exporting its most advanced chips, which are in demand for developing artificial intelligence, to China. This week, Beijing regulators also targeted the company, accusing it of antitrust breaches stemming from a 2020 acquisition of an Israeli tech company.

Adding to the problems, the Financial Times reported Wednesday, citing unnamed sources, that China’s internet regulator is banning domestic tech companies from buying an Nvidia chip model tailored for the local market.

Asked about the report at a media briefing in London, Jensen Huang said he didn’t have a reaction, but added, “I think that we could only be in service of a market if the country wants us to be.”

China is the world’s second biggest AI computing market and Nvidia has contributed more than most companies, he said.

“I’m disappointed with what I see, but they have larger agendas to work out, you know, between China and the United States, and I’m understanding of that, and we’re patient about it,” he said.

Huang said the company will continue to be “supportive” of both governments as they “sort through these geopolitical policies”, adding there’s “not very much anxiety there.”

Huang said he hasn’t yet spoken to Trump about the latest developments, “but I’ll see him tonight, and he’ll probably ask me. I’ll probably say something similar.”

The CEO is visiting London at same time as Trump to unveil a flurry of new investments that coincide with the president’s visit, including a deal to supply tens of thousands of its processor chips for data centers that will be part of the U.K. arm of Stargate, a Trump-backed AI infrastructure project led by OpenAI.

NEW YORK — Wall Street is rising toward more records on Monday at the start of a week that could show whether the U.S. stock market’s big recent rally has been overdone or prescient.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.4% and was on track to squeak past its latest all-time high, which was set last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 26 points, or 0.1%, with an hour remaining in trading, and the Nasdaq composite was adding 0.8% to its own record.

Tesla helped lead the way and rose 2.8% after Elon Musk bought stock worth roughly $1 billion through a trust. The electric vehicle company’s stock price came into the day with a slight loss for the year so far, and the purchase could be a signal of Musk’s faith in it.

The only stronger force lifting the S&P 500 was Alphabet, which gained 3.4%, as the total value of Google’s parent company topped $3 trillion. Nvidia, Microsoft and Apple are the only other companies on Wall Street worth that much.

The market’s main event for the week will arrive on Wednesday. That’s when the Federal Reserve will announce its latest decision on interest rates, and the unanimous expectation is for the first cut of the year. Such a move could give a kickstart to the job market, which has been slowing.

Stocks have already run to records on the assumption that a cut is coming on Wednesday, though. Expectations are also high that the Fed will keep lowering rates through the end of this year and into 2026. That creates the possibility for disappointment in the market, which would mean drops for stock prices, if the Fed doesn’t end up slashing rates as aggressively as traders expect.

That’s why more attention will be on what Fed Chair Jerome Powell says in his press conference following the decision than on the decision itself. Fed officials will also release their latest projections for where they see interest rates and the economy heading in upcoming years, which could provide another potential flashpoint.

What’s keeping the Fed on guard is a possible jump in inflation because of President Donald Trump’s tariffs. That’s because lower interest rates can give inflation more fuel and send it even higher. And inflation has already proven difficult to get under the Fed’s 2% target.

Another threat for Wall Street is if the job market slows too much. In that case, a recession could create a downturn in corporate profits that’s steep enough to swamp the benefits that lower interest rates bring in the near term.

Trump, meanwhile, has pushed angrily for cuts to interest rates. He’s often attacked Powell personally, nicknaming him “Too Late,” and is trying to remove one of the Fed’s governors from its board.

“‘Too Late’ must cut interest rates now, and bigger than he had in mind,” Trump wrote on his social media network Monday, using his trademark all-caps style.

On Wall Street, TKO Group climbed 2% after the owner of the UFC mixed-martial arts organization and other entertainment brands announced a plan for $1 billion in purchases of its stock. Such moves send cash directly to shareholders and can boost per-share results.

Intel rose 3.2% after trimming its forecast for expenses this year. The move came after it completed the sale of a 51% stake in its Altera business to the Silver Lake investment firm.

On the losing side of Wall Street was Hain Celestial, which fell 24.4% after reporting a larger loss for its latest quarter than it did a year earlier. Interim CEO Alison Lewis said the owner of “better-for-you” brands like Terra chips is making moves to stabilize sales “as we recognize our performance has not met expectations.”

Alaska Air Group lost 5.3% after the airline said high fuel costs will likely cause its third-quarter results to come in at the low end of its forecasted range. It also cited higher expenses for overtime pay and for passengers’ compensation after bad weather and air-traffic control issues led to difficult operations in the summer, though it saw strong airfare trends thanks to demand for premium seats.

Nvidia slipped 0.4% after China accused the chip company of violating its antimonopoly laws. Chinese regulators did not mention a punishment for Nvidia in a one-sentence statement on the matter but did say they would carry out “further investigation.”

In the bond market Treasury yields eased, continuing their downward run on expectations for cuts to rates by the Fed.

The latest discouraging data on the economy came Monday from a report showing manufacturing activity in New York state is shrinking, contrary to economists’ expectations for continued growth. It’s the first month of contraction since June.

The next big economic update will arrive Tuesday, when the U.S. government will say how much shoppers spent at U.S. retailers last month.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.03% from 4.06% late Friday.

In stock markets abroad, France’s CAC 40 climbed 0.9%, while indexes moved more modestly across the rest of Europe and Asia.

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AP Writers Yuri Kageyama, Matt Ott and Ken Moritsugu contributed.

Apple on Tuesday will unveil its next line-up of iPhones amid a global trade war that’s added a potential price increase to the usual intrigue surrounding the annual evolution of the company’s marquee product.

The new iPhones will be the first to be released since President Donald Trump returned to the White House and unleashed a barrage of tariffs, in what his administration says is an attempt to bring overseas manufacturing back to the U.S. — a crusade that has thrust Apple CEO Tim Cook into the hot seat.

If Apple follows the same naming scheme since the product’s 2007 debut, the new models will be called the iPhone 17. But the Cupertino, California, company recently deviated from tradition with its naming formula for the iPhone operating system. When the next version of its iOS system was previewed at its developers conference in June, Apple revealed the free update will be called iOS 26 in reference to the upcoming year — a marketing technique that automakers have embraced for decades.

Regardless, these new iPhones are still expected to be made in Apple’s manufacturing hubs in China and India, much to the Trump administration’s consternation.

Both Trump and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have repeatedly insisted that iPhones be made in the U.S. instead of overseas. It’s an unrealistic demand that analysts say would take years to pull off and would result in a doubling, or even a tripling, of the iPhone’s current average price of about $1,000.

Cook tried to placate Trump by initially pledging that Apple would invest $500 billion i n the U.S. over the next four years, and then upped the ante last month by adding another $100 billion to the commitment. He also gifted Trump a statue featuring a 24-karat gold base.

That kind of diplomacy has helped insulate Apple from Trump’s most severe tariffs. However, the iPhones being brought into the U.S. still face duties of about 25%, stoking speculation that the company will reveal its first across-the-board price increase in five years in an effort to preserve its hefty profit margins.

Since 2020, Apple has charged $800 for its basic iPhone and $1,200 for its top offering, but analysts now believe the company may raise prices by $50 to $100 on some of the new models. If Apple does announce price increases, it will come just weeks after Google held steady on prices for its new Pixel smartphones.

Whatever Apple ends up charging for the next iPhone, the new line-up isn’t expected to be much different from last year’s model — the first to be designed for a wide range of new artificial intelligence features. While the iPhone 16 has proven to be popular, the models didn’t sell quite as well as analysts had anticipated because Apple failed to deliver all the AI-fueled improvements it had promised, including a smarter and more versatile Siri assistant. The Siri improvements have been pushed back until next year.

That has lowered the expectations for this year’s line-up, which will likely include the usual improvements in camera quality and battery life on top of a slightly redesigned appearance. The most significant new twist could be the introduction of an ultra-thin iPhone dubbed “Air” — a moniker Apple already slaps on like its sleekest iPads and Mac computers.

The relatively minor updates to recent iPhone models are raising questions about Apple’s ability to innovate in the fast-moving era of AI, said Forrester Research analyst Thomas Husson. “Apple is reaching a tipping point, and I expect 2026 and 2027 to be pivotal years.”

Apple’s AI follies, combined with its exposure in Trump’s trade war, have weighed on the company’s stock, while the market values of Big Tech peers like Microsoft, Nvidia, Meta Platforms and Google parent Alphabet have been surging.

Although Apple’s stock price is still down by 4% so far this year, the shares have been bouncing back in recent months amid signs it won’t be as hard hit by the tariffs as once feared, and a highly anticipated court ruling cleared the way for the company to continue receiving $20 billion annually to lock in Google’s search engine as the default option on iPhones.

MELBOURNE, Austalia — MELBOURNE, Austalia (AP) — Google has agreed to pay a 55 million Australian dollar ($36 million) fine for signing anticompetitive deals with Australia’s two largest telcos that banned the installation of competing search engines on some smartphones, the U.S. tech giant and Australia’s competition watchdog said.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said in a statement it had commenced proceedings in the Australian Federal Court on Monday against the Singapore-based Google Asia Pacific division. The court will decide whether the AU$50 million ($36 million) penalty is appropriate.

Under the anticompetitive agreements, which were in place for 15 months until March 2021, Telstra and Optus only pre-installed Google Search on Android phones sold to customers. Other search engines were excluded. In return, the telcos received a share of the advertisement revenue Google generated from those customers.

Google accepted that the agreements were likely to have the effect of “substantially lessening competition,” the commission said.

Google has also signed a court-enforceable undertaking that commits the company to removing certain pre-installation and default search engine restrictions from its contracts with Android phone manufacturers and telcos, the commission said.

The tech company said in a statement: “We’re pleased to resolve the ACCC’s concerns, which involved provisions that haven’t been in our commercial agreements for some time.”

Commissioner chair Gina-Cass Gottlieb said: “Conduct that restricts competition is illegal in Australia because it usually means less choice, higher costs or worse service for consumers.”

“Importantly, these changes come at a time when AI search tools are revolutionising how we search for information, creating new competition,” Cass-Gottlieb added.

Last year, Telstra, Optus and their smaller rival TPG agreed to court-enforceable undertakings with the commission that they would not renew or make similar deals with Google to limit search options.

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan says he’s “always operated within the highest legal and ethical standards” after President Donald Trump said he should resign.

On Thursday Trump said on Truth Social platform that, “The CEO of Intel is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately. There is no other solution to this problem. Thank you for your attention to this problem!”

Trump’s post landed after Sen. Tom Cotton sent a letter to Intel Chairman Frank Yeary expressing concern over Tan’s investments and ties to semiconductor firms that are reportedly linked to the Chinese Communist Party and the People’s Liberation Army, and asked the board whether Tan had divested his interests in these companies to eliminate any conflicts of interest.

It was not immediately clear on Thursday if Tan, who took over as Intel’s CEO in March, had divested his interests in the companies.

The economic and political rivalry between the U.S. and China are increasingly focused on computer chips, AI and other digital technologies that are expected to shape future economies and military conflicts.

Intel said in a statement that it’s “deeply committed to advancing U.S. national and economic security interests and are making significant investments aligned with the President’s America First agenda.”

Tan also addressed the situation, saying in a message to employees that there was misinformation circulating about his past roles at Walden International and Cadence Design Systems and that he’s always followed proper standards.

Tan also said Intel was in contact with the Trump administration.

“We are engaging with the Administration to address the matters that have been raised and ensure they have the facts,” Tan said. “I fully share the President’s commitment to advancing U.S. national and economic security, I appreciate his leadership to advance these priorities, and I’m proud to lead a company that is so central to these goals.”.

The company’s stock rose slightly in premarket trading on Friday.

A federal judge on Monday rebuffed Apple’s request to throw out a U.S. government lawsuit alleging the technology trendsetter has built a maze of illegal barriers to protect the iPhone from competition and fatten its profit margins.

The 33—page opinion from U.S. District Judge Xavier Neals in New Jersey will enable an antitrust lawsuit that the U.S. Justice Department filed against Apple 15 months ago to proceed. Neals has set a timetable that could see the case come to trial in 2027.

Apple has sought to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing the Justice Department had distorted the contours of the smartphone market and made a series of other misinterpretations that warranted the case be thrown out.

But Neals decided there is enough evidence to support the Justice Department’s market definitions and concluded the case’s key allegations merited further examination at trial.

The case seeks to pierce the digital fortress that Apple Inc., based in Cupertino, California, has built around the iPhone, iPad and other products to create a so-called “walled garden” allowing its hardware and software to mesh seamlessly for users.

The Justice Department alleges that walled garden has mostly turned into a shield against competition, creating market conditions that enable it to charge higher prices and stifle innovation.

The lawsuit “sets forth several allegations of technological barricades that constitute anticompetitive conduct,” Neals wrote in his opinion. The judge also concluded the Justice Department had pointed toward enough areas of troubling conduct that raised the “dangerous possibility” that Apple has turned the iPhone into an illegal monopoly.

In a Monday statement, Apple reiterated its position that the Justice Department’s case “is wrong on the facts and the law, and we will continue to vigorously fight it in court.”

The antitrust lawsuit isn’t the only legal headache threatening to undercut its profits, which totaled $94 billion on sales of $295 billion in its fiscal year ending last September.

Another federal judge in April issued a civil contempt order banning Apple from collecting any fees from in-app transactions on the iPhone that are funneled through other options besides its once-exclusive payment processing system that charged commissions ranging from 15% to 30%.

Apple also could lose a more than $20 billion annual payment that it gets for making Google the default search tool on the iPhone and other products as part of another antitrust case brought by the Justice Department. A federal judge in Washington D.C. is considering whether to ban the deals with Apple as part of a shake-up being proposed to address Google’s illegal monopoly in searc h.

Neals’ decision to allow the Justice Department’s antitrust case to proceed came on the same day that Apple was hit with a lawsuit by app maker Proton amplifying the accusations of wrongful conduct by the company. The lawsuit, which will seek to be certified as a class action presenting thousands of developers who have made iPhone apps, is asking for punitive damages against Apple, as well as a court order to dismantle its walled garden.

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TAIPEI, Taiwan — China blasted the U.S. on Monday over moves it alleged harmed Chinese interests, including issuing AI chip export control guidelines, stopping the sale of chip design software to China, and planning to revoke Chinese student visas.

“These practices seriously violate the consensus” reached during trade discussions in Geneva last month, the Commerce Ministry said in a statement.

That referred to a China-U.S. joint statement in which the United States and China agreed to slash their massive recent tariffs, restarting stalled trade between the world’s two biggest economies.

But last month’s de-escalation in President Donald Trump’s trade wars did nothing to resolve underlying differences between Beijing and Washington and Monday’s statement showed how easily such agreements can lead to further turbulence.

The deal lasts 90 days, creating time for U.S. and Chinese negotiators to reach a more substantive agreement. But the pause also leaves tariffs higher than before Trump started ramping them up last month. And businesses and investors must contend with uncertainty about whether the truce will last.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the U.S. agreed to drop the 145% tax Trump imposed last month to 30%. China agreed to lower its tariff rate on U.S. goods to 10% from 125%.

The Commerce Ministry said China held up its end of the deal, canceling or suspending tariffs and non-tariff measures taken against the U.S. “reciprocal tariffs” following the agreement.

“The United States has unilaterally provoked new economic and trade frictions, exacerbating the uncertainty and instability of bilateral economic and trade relations,” while China has stood by its commitments, the statement said.

It also threatened unspecified retaliation, saying China will “continue to take resolute and forceful measures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests.”

And in response to recent comments by Trump, it said of the U.S.: “Instead of reflecting on itself, it has turned the tables and unreasonably accused China of violating the consensus, which is seriously contrary to the facts.”

Trump stirred further controversy Friday, saying he will no longer be nice with China on trade, declaring in a social media post that the country had broken an agreement with the United States.

Hours later, Trump said in the Oval Office that he will speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping and “hopefully we’ll work that out,” while still insisting China had violated the agreement.

“The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US,” Trump posted. “So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!”

The Trump administration also stepped up the clash with China in other ways last week, announcing that it would start revoking visas for Chinese students studying in the U.S.

U.S. campuses host more than 275,000 students from China.

Both countries are in a race to develop advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, with Washington seeking to curb China’s access to the most advanced computer chips. China is also seeking to displace the U.S. as the leading power in the Asia-Pacific, including through gaining control over close U.S. partner and leading tech giant Taiwan.