NANTERRE, France (AP) — Ryan Murphy came to the Paris Olympics hoping to reclaim his backstroke crowns. He'll have to settle for a single bronze medal.
The 29-year-old Floridian was surprisingly eliminated in the semifinals of the 200-meter backstroke on Wednesday night. His time of 1 minutes, 56.62 seconds was only 10th-fastest out of 16 swimmers, leaving him a tenth of a second away from the top-eight finish he needed to advance to the final on Thursday.
“I really don’t have a great frame on it,” Murphy said, still trying to figure out what happened. “Obviously, I'm very disappointed. It's my fault. I just didn’t gauge it well enough.”
Murphy swept the backstroke events at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, carrying on the proud American history in those events. He settled for silver and bronze in Tokyo, giving him extra motivation coming into these Games to get back on top.
But he could manage only a bronze in the 100 back, and he won't win anything at all in the 200.
AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
Ryan Murphy, of the United States, competes in the men's 200-meter backstroke semifinal at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in Nanterre, France. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
Ryan Murphy, of the United States, competes during a heat in the men's 200-meter backstroke at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in Nanterre, France. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
Ryan Murphy, of the United States, competes in the men's 200-meter backstroke semifinal at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in Nanterre, France. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is quieter on Friday, and U.S. stocks are edging back from the records they set the day before during a worldwide rally.
The S&P 500 was 0.3% lower in morning trading but still on track for its fifth winning week in the last six. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 71 points, or 0.2%, after it likewise set an all-time high the day before. The Nasdaq composite was 0.3% lower, as of 10:30 a.m. Eastern time.
FedEx dragged on the market with a drop of 14.8% after its profit and revenue for the latest quarter fell short of analysts’ expectations. It said U.S. customers sent fewer packages through priority services, while it had to contend with higher wages for workers and other costs. FedEx also cut its forecast for revenue growth for its fiscal year.
Helping to limit the market's losses was Nike, which ran 5.4% higher after it named Elliott Hill as its chief executive. Hill, 60, had spent more than three decades at Nike in various leadership positions before retiring in 2020. He replaces the retiring John Donahoe.
Shares in Trump Media and Technology Group slumped another 6.8% as its biggest shareholder, former President Donald Trump, won the freedom to sell his shares if he wants.
Trump owns more than half of the nearly $3 billion company behind the Truth Social platform. But Trump and other insiders in the company had been unable to cash in because a “lock-up agreement” prevented them from selling any of their shares. Before the lockup expired, Trump said he was in no rush to sell.
TMTG stock has dropped below $14 from more than $60 in March, and its decline Friday was in line with its volatile history. Over the last six months, it’s often swung by at least 5% in a day, up or down.
Homebuilder Lennar fell 4.6% after delivering a mixed earnings report. Its profit for the latest quarter topped expectations. But it also said it made less in profit on each $100 of home sales, and it expects that margin to stay flat in the current quarter.
Conditions may be set to improve for homebuilders, though. The Federal Reserve earlier this week cut its main interest rate for the first time in more than four years, with more likely to come. That could make mortgages more affordable for home buyers.
The momentous move closed the door on a run where the Fed kept its main interest rate at a two-decade high in hopes of slowing the U.S. economy enough to stamp out high inflation. Now that inflation has fallen from its peak two summers ago, Chair Jerome Powell said the Fed can focus more on keeping the job market solid and the economy out of a recession.
The Fed is still under pressure because hiring has begun to slow under the weight of higher interest rates. Some critics say the central bank waited too long to cut rates and may have damaged the economy.
Critics also say the U.S. stock market may be running too hot on hopes that the Federal Reserve will be able to pull off what earlier seemed nearly impossible: getting inflation down to 2% without creating a recession.
Barry Bannister, chief equity strategist at Stifel, is still calling for a sharp drop for the S&P 500 by the end of the year. He points to how much faster stock prices have climbed than profits at companies. When stocks have looked this expensive on such measures in the past, he said a recession and sharp downturn for stocks has followed.
He also warned in a report that slowing hiring “is now symbolic of recession risk.”
No economic releases are on the calendar for Friday to show where the economy may be heading. Next week will have preliminary reports on U.S. business activity, the final revision for how quickly the economy grew during the summer and the latest update on spending by U.S. consumers.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 3.75% from 3.72% late Thursday.
In stock markets abroad, indexes dropped across much of Europe after rising in Asia. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.5% after the Bank of Japan left interest rates steady, as was expected.
In China, the central bank left key lending rates unchanged on Friday. Indexes rose by 1.4% in Hong Kong and less than 0.1% in Shanghai.
__
AP Writers Matt Ott and Zimo Zhong contributed.
A bus passes the Wall St. subway station on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)
Trader Michale Conlon, right, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's news conference appears on a television screen behind him, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index and Japanese Yen exchange rate at a securities firm Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A person stands in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
People ride bicycles in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A person rides a bicycle in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
