BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Authorities in Idaho were searching Thursday for a suspect who they said stole an ambulance outside a hospital, poured an accelerant over it and drove it into a nearby building that houses U.S. Department of Homeland Security offices.
Meridian Police Chief Tracy Basterrechea didn't identify the substance poured on the inside and outside of the ambulance. “It appears the suspect was unable to ignite the accelerant before being scared off by responding agencies,” he said in a statement.
The incident occurred at about 11:10 p.m. Wednesday in the Boise suburb of Meridian, police said.
The suspect took the ambulance from St. Luke's hospital and drove it north through a parking lot, Basterrechea said. The suspect then retrieved gas cans from nearby vegetation, he said.
Images broadcast on television show shattered glass doors at the entrance to an office building.
The building is owned by St. Luke's Health System, and is one of several in a large business complex known as The Portico, next door to the hospital. Other tenants at Portico North include health insurance company SelectHealth Inc., St. Luke’s Home Health and Hospice and Quest Diagnostics.
The hospital has faced criticism for leasing space to the Department of Homeland Security while President Donald Trump's administration carries out his immigration enforcement crackdown.
“There has been a lot of rhetoric” on the issue of the lease, Basterrechea said, adding that “comments on social media such as ‘property damage isn’t violence’ is absolutely false.”
He called the incident “a serious criminal act.”
“This was absolutely an act of violence, and if the suspect had not been interrupted, there is no doubt this building would have been burned, putting the lives of first responders and others at risk,” Basterrechea said.
He said his department was leading the investigation and was working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, DHS and other agencies.
McAvoy reported from Honolulu.
This photo provided by Idaho News 6 shows police tape on the scene where a stolen ambulance was driven into the Portico North building Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026, in Meridian, Idaho. (Idaho News 6 via AP)
This photo provided by Idaho News 6 shows the aftermath of a stolen ambulance being driven into the Portico North building Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026, in Meridian, Idaho. (Idaho News 6 via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — Most of the U.S. stock market rose after oil prices eased back to where they were before the war with Iran, but drops for AI stocks kept the market in check. The S&P 500 slipped 0.1% Friday, even though more stocks rose than fell within the index. The S&P 500 closed out just its second losing week in the last 13, largely because of drops for AI stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite lost 0.2%. Indexes tumbled in South Korea and Japan earlier in the day. Treasury yields eased along with the fall in oil prices.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
NEW YORK (AP) — Most of the U.S. stock market is rising Friday after oil prices eased back to where they were before the war with Iran, but drops for AI stocks are keeping the market in check.
The S&P 500 slipped 0.2% and is on track to close out just its second losing week in the last 13, largely because of drops for stocks swept up in the mania around artificial-intelligence technology. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 78 points, or 0.2%, with an hour remaining in trading, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% lower.
Stocks got a boost as the price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, dropped 3.8% to $72.60. That's lower than it was the day before the United States and Israel attacked Iran, which eventually led to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the curtailment of oil shipments worldwide.
The easier oil prices helped stocks of companies with big fuel bills, and United Airlines climbed 1.3%.
Health care stocks, meanwhile, were some of the strongest forces pushing upward on the market after a committee of the European Medicines Agency recommended several medicines for approval and the extension for another dozen of their therapeutic indications. That included one for Eli Lilly, whose stock jumped 7%.
Besides Lilly, roughly three out of every five stocks within the S&P 500 rose. But more drops for AI stocks helped to overshadow them.
After soaring to tremendous heights and leading the market for years, AI stocks have been under pressure recently because of worries their profits can’t possibly keep pace with the tremendous rallies for their stock prices. And those drops have an outsized effect because AI stocks have grown into Wall Street’s largest and most influential, giving movements for their stock prices more weight on indexes than others.
Micron Technology's drop of 5.5% was the heaviest weight on the market, for example. The maker of memory for computers has been a big winner this year, with its stock quadrupling, because the AI boom has created a surge of demand for its products.
But investors saw the downside of that surge Thursday, when Apple said it had to raise prices on laptops and other products by significant percentages to make up for the increases in memory prices. The worry is that such higher prices could ultimately lead to lower demand.
Highlighting the roller-coaster ride that AI stocks have been on, SpaceX briefly dropped below $149 in the morning, a loss of 2.9%, before swinging between gains and losses.
After initially selling its stock at $135 apiece in its ballyhooed initial public offering earlier this month, SpaceX's price briefly soared above $225 within its first few days of trading. Besides rockets, Elon Musk's company also owns the xAI artificial-intelligence business.
The day's largest loss in the S&P 500 was a 24.5% drop for ON Semiconductor, which said it agreed to buy Synaptics in an all-stock deal valued at roughly $7 billion.
In the bond market, Treasury yields eased with oil prices. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.37% from 4.40% late Thursday.
It fell after a report showed expectations for inflation in the coming year inched down among U.S. consumers to 4.6% from 4.8% in May. That's still high, but moves downward mean less chance of a vicious cycle where expectations for higher inflation drive changes in behavior that create higher inflation.
High yields in bond markets worldwide caused by worries about inflation have been threatening to slow economies, and they have already sent rates higher for mortgages and other kinds of loans. High yields also hurt prices for investments, particularly those seen as the most expensive. That raises the pressure on AI winners.
Asian stock markets began Friday with sharp drops because of losses for AI winners.
In Japan, a 12.5% plunge for Softbank Group Corp. helped pull the Nikkei 225 index down by 4.2%. The company is a major investor in OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, and a report in The New York Times suggested OpenAI is considering delaying an initial public offering of its stock to next year from the second half of this year.
Such an IPO would give OpenAI the chance to raise more cash to spend on data centers, as well as the opportunity for early investors like Softbank to cash out some of their holdings. But the recent stumbles for SpaceX’s stock and for AI stocks broadly may be a signal of less appetite for big AI stocks among investors.
In South Korea, SK Hynix fell 8.4%, and Samsung Electronics sank 5.3%. That helped pull the Kospi 5.8% lower and trim its gain for the year so far to 99.6%.
AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
Trader Edward Curran works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, June 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Traders Robert Charmak, left, and Mark Puetzer work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, June 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Specialist Michael Gagliano works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, June 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, June 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, June 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A currency trader watches monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, June 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A currency trader passes by a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, June 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
