SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Bulgarian President Iliana Yotova moved Thursday to quell the country’s chronic political instability by appointing a senior central bank official as interim prime minister until national elections in April.
Andrey Gyurov, deputy governor of the Bulgarian National Bank, will lead a caretaker government whose main task will be to organize a free and fair vote in a country that is holding its eighth election in five years.
The political uncertainty that has plagued the EU and NATO member state during this period has eroded public trust in institutions, created an opening for populist and nationalist groups, and paved the way for Russian hybrid influence.
President Yotova, who announced the appointment, said that she expects Gyurov to propose the members of his cabinet within seven days. She would then have to approve the proposal and set the election date, which she had previously indicated would be April 19.
Gyurov, 50, holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Truman State University in Missouri and a Ph.D. from the University of Vienna in Austria. Having held senior positions in academia and European financial institutions, he was appointed deputy governor of the central bank in Sofia in 2023. Before that he was also a lawmaker and floor leader of the reformist “We Continue the Change” group in parliament.
Nationwide protests erupted at the end of 2025, sparked by public anger over corruption, injustice, and perceived oligarchic influence, forcing the resignation of the governing coalition led by the center-right GERB party. Several subsequent attempts to form a new government within the current fragmented parliament have failed.
According to Mario Bikarski, senior Eastern and Central Europe analyst at the risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft, Gyurov’s appointment suggests that the president sought a figure who is not affiliated with GERB or DPS — the two main parties targeted by the street protests in December.
“The appointment will empower the opposition ahead of the upcoming snap election and will also dispel doubts about the policy priorities of the presidency,” Bikarski added in emailed comments.
Bulgaria joined the zone of countries using the euro currency at the beginning of this year. Picking a central bank representative as premier suggests macroeconomic stability has been sought amid the ongoing single currency adoption, Bikarski said.
However, he argued that the upcoming election is unlikely to resolve the prolonged political crisis.
“The election will likely produce three roughly equally sized blocs in parliament, with smaller parties at risk of falling below the parliamentary threshold (of 4% of the vote). Electoral consolidation is unlikely to restore stability, however, as all three political blocs will struggle to wrangle a majority,” he added.
FILE -A man walks backdropped by the Bulgarian Parliament building in Sofia, Oct. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova, File)
Bulgarian President Iliana Yotova, right, appoints Andrey Gyurov to lead as Prime Minister a caretaker government whose main task will be to organise free and fair elections in a country that will hold elections for the eighth time in the last five years, Sofia, Bulgaria, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (Bulgarian News Agency via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market is slipping Thursday after oil prices resumed their climb.
The S&P 500 fell 0.3% and is on track for a fourth drop in five days after setting its all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 83 points, or 0.2%, as of 1:01 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.4% lower.
A halt in the torrid run for stocks benefiting from the artificial-intelligence boom has slowed the U.S. market recently. Not even another better-than-expected profit report from Nvidia was enough to kick it back into gear.
The chip company reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, while also forecasting revenue for the current quarter that cleared analysts’ estimates. “The buildout of AI factories — the largest infrastructure expansion in human history — is accelerating at extraordinary speed,” CEO Jensen Huang said.
But such performances and such talk have become routine, and Nvidia's stock swiveled between losses and gains before falling 1.4%.
Some analysts said the weakness may have simply been because investors were locking in profits after Nvidia’s stock had soared nearly 70% over the prior year, more than double the S&P 500’s 27% jump. The broad AI industry is also getting criticism for becoming too expensive, as well as too circular as Nvidia has bought ownership stakes in companies that use its own chips that drive Nvidia’s revenue.
Pressure built on Wall Street, meanwhile, as the price for a barrel of Brent crude oil climbed 1.7% to $106.81 and trimmed its loss for the week. Oil prices have been swinging up and down with uncertainty about how long the war with Iran will keep the Strait of Hormuz shut, which is preventing oil tankers from exiting the Persian Gulf to deliver crude.
The higher oil prices pushed Treasury yields upward in the bond market, resuming rises following a slowdown the day before.
Climbing yields have cranked up the pressure on financial markets worldwide. They're slowing economies and weighing on prices for stocks and all kinds of other investments. Besides driving up rates for mortgages, high yields could also curtail companies’ borrowing to build the AI data centers that have been supporting the U.S. economy’s growth recently.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.61% from 4.57% late Wednesday.
It had gotten near 4.63% in the morning, after a report gave the latest signal that the U.S. job market remains in better shape than economists expected. The number of U.S. workers applying for unemployment benefits last week unexpectedly declined in an indication of fewer layoffs.
But yields eased a bit following a mixed preliminary report showing weaker-than-expected growth for business activity among U.S. services businesses and improved growth for U.S. manufacturers. Companies are feeling the effects of accelerating inflation and are seeing subdued growth in their order books, the preliminary data from an S&P Global survey said.
“The damaging economic impact from the war in the Middle East is becoming increasingly evident in the business surveys,” according to Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Inflation is worsening even beyond the high oil prices caused by the Iran war, while U.S. households are showing widespread discouragement about the economy.
Elsewhere on Wall Street, Walmart fell 7.2% following its profit report. The retailer delivered another quarter of impressive revenue but offered up weaker forecasts for upcoming profit than analysts expected.
On the winning side of Wall Street was Ralph Lauren, which jumped 12.2% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe following bigger moves in Asia.
South Korea’s Kospi Kospi soared 8.4% thanks to strength for technology stocks. Samsung Electronics jumped 8.5% after its labor union and management reached an agreement late Wednesday that averted a strike. SK Hynix, a chip company partnering with Nvidia, surged 11.2%.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 jumped 3.1%, while indexes fell 1% in Hong Kong and 2% in Shanghai.
AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
Trader Aaron Ford works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, May 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Trader Edward McCarthy works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, May 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
A Global Medical Response helicopter sits in front of the New York Stock Exchange before the planned IPO of GMR Solutions, Inc., Wednesday, May 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, May 18, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
Currency traders watch monitors at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A currency trader talks on the phone near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
