CHICAGO (AP) — Joey Loperfido homered and drove in three runs, and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Chicago White Sox 8-4 on Monday night for their ninth consecutive win.
Addison Barger and Nathan Lukes also connected as AL East-leading Toronto improved to 27-10 in its last 37 games. Bo Bichette had two hits and All-Star slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. walked three times.
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Toronto Blue Jays' Vladimir Guerrero Jr. celebrates with teammates in the dugout after scoring on a Bo Bichette single during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Chicago White Sox, Monday, July 7, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)
Chicago White Sox starter Sean Burke delivers a pitch during the first inning of a baseball game against the Toronto Blue Jays, Monday, July 7, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)
Toronto Blue Jays starter Jose Berrios delivers a pitch during the first inning of a baseball game against the Chicago White Sox, Monday, July 7, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)
Toronto Blue Jays' Joey Loperfido celebrates with teammates in the dugout after hitting a solo home run during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Chicago White Sox, Monday, July 7, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)
Toronto Blue Jays' Joey Loperfido celebrates after hitting a solo home run during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Chicago White Sox, Monday, July 7, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)
At 53-38, the Blue Jays matched the franchise record for most victories before the All-Star break. It's the longest win streak for the team since an 11-game run in August 2015.
José Berríos (5-3) pitched six innings of one-run ball, bouncing back nicely after he struggled in a no-decision against the New York Yankees on Wednesday. The right-hander improved to 16-6 with a 2.96 ERA in 27 career starts against Chicago.
Mike Tauchman had three hits and two RBIs for the last-place White Sox, who won two of three at Toronto last month. Colson Montgomery, one of the team's top prospects, went 0 for 3 with a walk in his home debut.
The Blue Jays opened an 8-1 lead when they scored five times in the sixth. Barger hit a two-run drive off Sean Burke for his 12th homer, and Loperfido chopped a two-run single over a drawn-in infield.
Burke (4-8) was charged with six runs and six hits in five-plus innings. The right-hander allowed two earned runs in 16 1/3 innings over his previous three outings.
Loperfido and Lukes hit back-to-back homers in the fifth, giving Toronto a 3-1 lead. It was Loperfido's first homer of the season and No. 5 for his career.
It was Chicago's eighth consecutive home loss against Toronto.
Chris Bassitt (8-4, 4.32 ERA) starts for Toronto on Tuesday night, and fellow right-hander Aaron Civale (0-3, 4.29 ERA) pitches for Chicago.
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Toronto Blue Jays' Vladimir Guerrero Jr. celebrates with teammates in the dugout after scoring on a Bo Bichette single during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Chicago White Sox, Monday, July 7, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)
Chicago White Sox starter Sean Burke delivers a pitch during the first inning of a baseball game against the Toronto Blue Jays, Monday, July 7, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)
Toronto Blue Jays starter Jose Berrios delivers a pitch during the first inning of a baseball game against the Chicago White Sox, Monday, July 7, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)
Toronto Blue Jays' Joey Loperfido celebrates with teammates in the dugout after hitting a solo home run during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Chicago White Sox, Monday, July 7, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)
Toronto Blue Jays' Joey Loperfido celebrates after hitting a solo home run during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Chicago White Sox, Monday, July 7, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)
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)
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