With the traditional powerhouses taking a rest, it's a mouthwatering contest between surprise package Brest and a resurgent Lyon side in the French league spotlight this weekend.
Following its dramatic 4-3 win against Metz last week, second-place Brest can edge even closer to qualifying for next season's Champions League for the first time in the history of the small club from Brittany, which has one of the league's smallest budgets.
“Brest second in the league with six rounds left to play, I don’t think you’d have put much money on it,” coach Eric Roy said. “Me neither.”
With Paris Saint-Germain, Marseille and Lille all engaged in European competitions this week, the league has modified their schedules to give them more time to recover before the second legs. PSG, which lost 3-2 to Barcelona on Wednesday in the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals, was set to play at Lorient but the match was pushed back to April 24. Monaco vs. Lille and Marseille vs. Nice will take place on the same day.
Only PSG — which has a 10-point lead at the top of the table — has more wins than Roy’s side this season (18 against 15). It's a remarkable achievement for Brest, whose stadium holds 15,000 compares to PSG’s capacity of nearly 49,000 at Parc des Princes, while PSG’s annual budget of 700 million euros ($752 million) compares to Brest’s 48 million euros ($52 million).
The win against Metz equaled Brest's best-ever tally of victories in the league, achieved during the 1989-90 season. According to statistics from the French league, Brest needs only two points to beat the club's points record reached in 1986-87 after 38 top-tier matches.
Roy, who took over last season with the club fighting relegation, has built a team that defends extremely well but is also one of the most exciting sides to watch, with hard-working midfielder Pierre Lees-Melou and striker Romain Del Castillo praised for their decisive input.
Brest has lost just one of its last 17 league matches ahead of Sunday's trip to 10th-place Lyon, which has produced a remarkable turnaround under coach Pierre Sage following a catastrophic start to the season.
The seven-time French champions have won 10 of their last 14 league games and have qualified for the French Cup final against PSG on May 25.
Sage was initially hired as an interim coach but convinced his bosses he was the right man for the long term. Despite his lack of experience, he was given a chance to put the team back on track. Sage quickly created a positive dynamic within the team, helped by the club's savvy moves — including Gift Orban, Malick Fofana and Said Benrahma — during the winter transfer window.
Lyon spent an estimated 55 million euros ($59 million) during that window, with the arrival of experienced midfielder Nemanja Matic greatly improving the team's quality. Former Arsenal striker Alexandre Lacazette has rediscovered his scoring mojo and is the league's third best scorer, with 14 goals, behind Jonathan David and leader Kylian Mbappe.
Only six games will be played this weekend, with struggling Metz kicking off the 29th round against Lens on Friday.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Lyon's Alexandre Lacazette, on the ground, and Reims' Emmanuel Agbadou, challenge for the ball during the French League One soccer match between Lyon and Reims at the Groupama stadium, outside Lyon, France, Saturday, March 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)
FILE - Marseille's Iliman Ndiaye, center, makes his way between Brest's Mahdi Camara, right, and Brest's Pierre Lees-Melou, left, during the French League One soccer match between Marseille and Brest at the Velodrome stadium in Marseille, France, Saturday, Aug. 26, 2023. With the traditional powerwhouses taking a rest, it's a mouthwatering contest between surprise package Brest and a resugent Lyon side that takes the spotlight in the French league this weekend. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole, File)
Lyon's Ernest Nuamah, left, celebrates with team mate Said Benrahma, right, after scoring his side's first goal during the French League One soccer match between Lyon and Reims at the Groupama stadium, outside Lyon, France, Saturday, March 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)
Rennes' Romain Del Castillo, left, duels for the ball with Marseille's Duje Caleta-Car during the League One soccer match between Rennes and Marseille, at the Roazhon Park stadium in Rennes, France, Friday, Jan. 10, 2020. With the traditional powerwhouses taking a rest, it's a mouthwatering contest between surprise package Brest and a resugent Lyon side that takes the spotlight in the French league this weekend. (AP Photo/David Vincent)
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are opening higher on Wall Street to trim their losses for the week. The S&P 500 was up 0.7% in early trading Thursday, a day after swinging sharply when the Federal Reserve said it’s likely delaying cuts to interest rates, but not planning to raise them. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 224 points, and the Nasdaq composite was up 1%. Qualcomm rose after topping forecasts for profit and revenue in the latest quarter. Carvana soared after the used-car seller reported much better results than analysts expected. Treasury yields were mixed in the bond market.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
Wall Street continued to push higher Thursday after markets swung to a mixed finish a day earlier on news that the Federal Reserve was delaying cuts to interest rates.
Futures for the S&P 500 surged 0.6% before the bell, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were 0.4% higher.
On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said it will likely take “longer than previously expected” to get confident enough to cut rates, a move that would ease pressure on the economy and investment prices.
At the same time, Powell said it was unlikely that a rate hike was coming at the Fed's next policy meeting in June, calming fears swirling in the market.
Traders themselves had already downshifted their expectations for rate cuts this year to one or two, if any, after coming into the year forecasting six or more.
Powell had already hinted rates may stay high for a while. That was a disappointment for Wall Street after the Fed earlier had indicated it was penciling in three cuts to rates during 2024.
In premarket equities trading, DoorDash tumbled 11% after the food delivery app issued a profit forecast that came in below analyst targets. Investors also seemed concerned about rising costs for the company, which said it increased both marketing and research spending during the quarter.
Carvana jumped 38% in off-hours trading after the online used car dealer trimmed its losses by selling a record number of cars last quarter.
Connected exercise company Peloton rose 7.8% before the bell after it announced that it's cutting about 400 employees worldwide, or 15% of its headcount, as part of a restructuring effort. The New York company, whose shares hit all-time lows last week around $3 each, also said its CEO Barry McCarthy is stepping down.
Now that the Fed rate decision has passed, outside of corporate earnings investors will be focused on labor market data. Coming later Thursday is the government's latest weekly tally of layoffs, followed by its more comprehensive April jobs report on Friday.
The labor market appears to be softening in recent months, one of the Fed's goals in its bid to corral inflation. Earlier this week, the government reported that job openings fell to their lowest level in three years.
In Europe at midday, London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.4%, Germany’s DAX edged 0.1% lower and the CAC 40 in Paris lost 0.7%.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index slipped 0.1% and closed at 38,236.07.
The Japanese yen surged as much as 2% in early Asia hours Thursday, driven by speculation of another round of yen-buying intervention by Japanese authorities and a weaker U.S. dollar following the Fed meeting. Later, the yen reversed its course and erased most of those gains. The dollar was trading at 154.81 yen, down from 154.91 yen.
In South Korea, the Kospi was down 0.3% to 2,683.65 after official data showed consumer prices in April rose 2.9% year on year, a slower pace compared to March.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index added 2.4% to 18,187.56. Other markets in China remained closed for the Labor Day holiday.
Elsewhere, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.2% to 7,587.00.
In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude ended three days of declines, climbing 71 cents to $79.71 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, was up 82 cents to $84.26 a barrel.
In currency trading, the euro cost $1.0703, down from $1.0709.
On Wednesday, the S&P 500 fell 0.3% to 5,018.39. The index had rallied as much as 1.2% after the Fed's news conference, but gave up those gains at the end of trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2% to 37,903.29, and the Nasdaq composite lost 0.3% to 15,605.48.
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Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
A person looks at an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm Thursday, May 2, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A person stands in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm as pedestrians are reflected on a glass window Thursday, May 2, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A person looks at an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm Thursday, May 2, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
