There are no shortages of challengers to the reigning WNBA champion New York Liberty or star power across the league.
A’ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier are some of the veterans who will share the spotlight with Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers as the league, in its 29th season, hopes to continue its rise in popularity.
The WNBA season tips off Friday with expansion team Golden State playing its first game that night. A day later the Liberty will host the Aces where New York will receive its rings and raise the first championship banner in the franchise's history.
Later that day, Clark and Reese will meet for the first of five matchups this season between Indiana and Chicago.
Both are looking to build off their stellar rookie seasons where they set records and helped the league to record ratings and attendance.
No team made more moves this offseason then the Fever, who brought in a lot of talented veterans around Clark and Aliyah Boston — the last two WNBA Rookie of the Year award winners. Indiana added DeWanna Bonner, Natasha Howard and Sophie Cunningham as well as re-signing Kelsey Mitchell.
Clark is a slight favorite over Wilson and Collier according to BetMGM to win the MVP. The Fever are one of the betting favorites to win the title.
Indiana is not the only team to make major moves with several franchises adding marquee names to rosters during the offseason via free agency and trades.
Atlanta picked up former Mercury All-Star Brittney Griner, who had spent her entire WNBA career playing in Arizona since being drafted No. 1 in 2013 by Phoenix. The Dream also added former Connecticut standout Brionna Jones.
Phoenix was active in bolstering its roster, trading for Alyssa Thomas and signing Satou Sabally.
The Sun lost their entire starting five from last season and brought back former UConn All-American Tina Charles.
It’s rare for teams to win back-to-back championships in the WNBA. Las Vegas became the first to do it in 21 years with its consecutive titles in 2022 and 2023. New York is trying to do it now. The Liberty made a few key offseason moves bringing in veteran guard Natasha Cloud as well as forward Isabelle Harrison. New York also will have exciting guard Marine Johannes back this season after she missed last year to prepare for the Olympics with her French team.
The Liberty did lose guard Betnijah Laney-Hamilton to a knee injury that she suffered in the offseason. She'll be out for the year.
Minnesota was overlooked at the start of the season and led by Collier, they made it back to the WNBA Finals for the first time since 2017 before losing in a decisive Game 5 to New York. While they didn't make many offseason moves, the Lynx return all five starters. Collier, the league's Defensive Player of the Year last season, anchors a solid defense that held opponents to a league-best 41% shooting from the field.
Bueckers was the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft and will try and help revitalize the Dallas franchise. She was the most efficient player in college on the offensive end and capped off her career helping UConn win its 12th national championship. Before she went through a series of injuries at UConn, Bueckers became the first freshman ever to win AP Player of the Year.
Eight of the 13 teams will have new head coaches this season.
Atlanta and Los Angeles turned to college coaches Karl Smesko and Lynne Roberts, respectively. Indiana brought back former coach and player Stephanie White to lead the Fever. White had been in charge of the Connecticut Sun, who replaced her with former Belgium national team coach Rachid Meziane.
Chicago, Dallas and Washington turned to former WNBA assistant coaches Tyler Marsh, Chris Koclanes and Sydney Johnson, respectively. Golden State also brought in a former assistant coach, Natalie Nakase, to be the first head coach in the expansion franchise’s history.
AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball
Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers poses for photos during a WNBA basketball media day in Arlington, Texas, Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese (5) shoots against Brazil forward Manu Alves (21) in the second half a WNBA exhibition basketball game in Baton Rouge, La., Friday, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark, center, walks off the court after an exhibition women's basketball game against Brazil, Sunday, May 4, 2025, in Iowa City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market is rising toward records Tuesday after an easing of oil prices let Wall Street turn its focus back to the big profits that companies keep producing.
The S&P 500 rose 0.6% and was on track to top its all-time high set at the end of last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 248 points, or 0.5%, as of 10:15 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was heading toward its own record after climbing 0.7%.
Stocks got a boost after oil prices gave back some of their big jumps from Monday. The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, fell 3.3% to $110.70 after briefly topping $115 on Monday, though it’s still well above its roughly $70 price from before the war with Iran.
A ceasefire in the war appears to be holding, even after the United Arab Emirates said Monday that Iran fired missiles and drones at it. The U.S. military is trying to force open a path in the Strait of Hormuz, which would allow oil tankers to resume shipments from the Persian Gulf and hopefully bring down the price of crude.
Iran’s powerful parliamentary speaker and chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, accused the United States of undermining regional security with the effort to end Iran’s stranglehold on the strait and warned that Tehran will respond.
Even with the war ongoing, the U.S. stock market has remained remarkably resilient on its record-setting run. That’s in large part due to the strong profits that U.S. companies have reported for the start of 2026 despite the rise in oil prices since the end of February.
“This has been a ‘why ask why’ market,'” according to Scott Wren, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. “You just have to go with it.”
Even though many risks are still weighing on the market, “investors are looking at earnings” and how much companies are spending on AI data centers and other investments, he said.
DuPont’s stock rallied 8.7% Tuesday after the chemical giant led another cavalcade of companies reporting better-than-expected profits for the latest quarter.
DuPont said its water technologies business felt some impact because of the war with Iran due to logistics disruptions in the Middle East. But it nevertheless raised its forecasts for financial results over the full year due in part to its strong start to 2026.
Other winners included American Electric Power Co., which rose 1.8%, and Cummins, which added 1.7%, after they likewise made more money during the first three months of the year than analysts expected.
Pinterest soared 14% after the online bulletin board topped Wall Street’s first-quarter sales and profit targets as its number of active monthly users jumped 11% to 631 million.
AB InBev likewise topped analysts’ profit forecasts, and it credited growth for its Corona, Stella Artois and Michelob Ultra brands outside of their home markets. “Cheers to beer,” CEO Michel Doukeris said, as the company’s stock that trades in the United States jumped 9.2%.
They helped offset a drop for Palantir Technologies, which fell 4.3% even though it reported stronger results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Its stock has struggled this year with worries about increased competition, like many software companies have. Its stock is also coming off a huge run where it more than doubled in each of the last three years.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe. The CAC 40 rose 0.6% in Paris, but the FTSE 100 fell 1.7% in London. Many Asian markets were closed for holidays, as Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.8%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.2% after the central bank raised its benchmark interest rate to 4.35%, saying conflict in the Middle East had sharply increased fuel and commodity prices that were already adding to inflation.
In the U.S. bond market, Treasury yields eased after oil prices gave back some of Monday’s gains and reports on the U.S. economy came in mixed.
One report said growth for U.S. services businesses unexpectedly decelerated last month, with some companies saying the war is slowing spending. A separate report said U.S. employers were advertising slightly more job openings at the end of March than economists expected, an encouraging signal for the job market.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.42% from 4.45% late Monday.
That’s still well above its 3.97% level from just before the war began. That rise has made mortgages and other kinds of loans for U.S. households and businesses more expensive.
AP Writers Chan Ho-him, Matt Ott and Rod McGuirk contributed.
Specialist Patrick King works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Options trader Anthony Spina, foreground, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
A board above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange displays the closing number for the Dow Jones industrial average, Thursday, April 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
FILE - A train arrives at a Wall Street subway station in New York's Financial District on Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)
