VERBANIA, Italy (AP) — Alberto Bettiol won Stage 13 of the Giro d’Italia in Verbania on Friday, while Afonso Eulálio retained the overall lead of the race.
XDS Astana rider Bettiol led a 15-man breakaway to hold off second-place Andreas Leknessund and Jasper Stuyven in third.
Eulálio (Bahrain Victorious) stayed 33 seconds ahead of Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma — Lease a Bike) on the overall leaderboard after crossing the line at the same time as his closest rival.
The mainly flat stage featured two lower-classified climbs toward the end of the 189-kilometer (117-mile) route from Alessandria to Verbania.
Bettiol’s win by a margin of 26 seconds was his first for two years and his ninth overall. He last won on the National Road Championship in June 2024. It was the third stage win of this year’s Giro for his team.
“It doesn’t matter whether my last victory came two years ago or even longer. If you win like this, waiting two years doesn’t feel heavy,” he said. “I knew every corner, every kilometer of the finale — I know this climb really well. I had ridden it a couple of months ago on my motorbike and had watched the descent video several times.
“I knew the final kilometer had to be taken flat out and that there would be excellent climbers here, but I was confident my condition was good. I’m incredibly happy to have finally taken a win with this team.”
The 109th men’s Giro ends on May 31 in Rome.
The women’s Giro runs from May 30-June 7 with Italian rider Elisa Longo Borghini as the defending champion.
AP cycling: https://apnews.com/hub/cycling
Italy's Alberto Bettiol celebrates winning the 13th stage of the Giro d'Italia cycling race, from Alessandria to Verbania, Italy, Friday, May 22, 2026. (Gian Mattia d'Alberto/LaPresse via AP)
Overall leader Portugal's Afonso Oliveira Eulalio smiles ahead of the 13th stage of the Giro d'Italia cycling race, from Alessandria to Verbania, Italy, Friday, May 22, 2026. (Gian Mattia d'Alberto /LaPresse via AP)
Italy's Alberto Bettiol celebrates winning the 13th stage of the Giro d'Italia cycling race, from Alessandria to Verbania, Italy, Friday, May 22, 2026. (Gian Mattia d'Alberto/LaPresse via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — The split between Wall Street and most U.S. households grew wider Friday, as U.S. stocks rose toward the finish of an eighth straight winning week, their best such streak since 2023. That's even though a survey showed U.S. consumers are feeling even worse about the economy.
The S&P 500 added 0.7% and pulled closer to its all-time high set in the middle of last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 408 points, or 0.8%, as of noon Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.6% higher.
Ross Stores helped drive the market and rose 6.5% after the off-price retailer reported profit and revenue for the latest quarter that easily cleared analysts’ expectations. CEO Jim Conroy said it saw strong customer traffic through the three months, and the company may have benefited from households spending their tax refunds.
Estee Lauder jumped 9.9% after saying it was no longer considering a possible merger with Puig, the Spanish fragrance and beauty products company.
Workday rose 3.9%, and Zoom Communications jumped 11.1% after both delivered better profit reports for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
They’re the latest companies to top analysts’ expectations for profits for the start of 2026, and the cavalcade of such reports has helped U.S. stocks remain near their records. Stock prices tend to follow the path of corporate profits over the long term.
The strength is coming even after a survey of U.S. consumers by the University of Michigan found sentiment fell to a record low, piercing below a bottom in 2022 when inflation peaked above 9%. Households are feeling worried about how bad inflation is now because of expensive oil created by the war with Iran.
U.S. consumers are forecasting inflation will worsen to 4.8% in the coming 12 months, up from a forecast of 4.7% last month, according to the survey. In the longer run, their forecasts for inflation jumped to 3.9% from 3.5% last month. Such rising expectations are a concern for economists because they can drive behavior that creates a vicious cycle that makes inflation worse.
Sentiment dropped in particular for lower-income consumers who are least able to absorb more expensive essentials, and it fell for Republicans as well, according to the survey.
Helping to keep uncertainty high have been continued swings for oil prices. They yo-yoed again on Friday, like they did through the week on uncertainty about when the United States and Iran may find a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Its closure has prevented oil tankers from exiting the Persian Gulf and delivering crude to customers worldwide.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, was last up 1% to $103.60. Benchmark U.S. crude, meanwhile, rose 0.7% to $97.04 per barrel after both erased earlier losses.
Worries about inflation staying high have pushed bond yields higher worldwide, threatening to slow economies and undercut prices for stocks, bitcoin and all kinds of other investments. High yields have already forced the average long-term U.S. mortgage rate to its most expensive level since last summer, and they could curtail companies’ borrowing to build the AI data centers that have supported the U.S. economy’s growth recently.
Yields had been down Friday morning, offering some relief, but they climbed after oil prices erased their losses and the survey on consumer sentiment showed worsening inflation expectations.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury pulled back to 4.57%, where it was late Thursday, and remains well above its 3.97% level from before the war.
Worries about inflation have climbed so high that traders on Wall Street have eliminated bets that the Federal Reserve will resume its cuts to interest rates this year. Lower rates would give the economy a boost, but they could also worsen inflation.
An important member of the Fed, Gov. Christopher Waller, said in a speech Friday, “If I believe inflation expectations start to become unanchored, I would not hesitate to support an increase in the target range for the federal funds rate.”
But he also said that is not the case now, and it “is time to simply sit and watch how the conflict and the data evolve” in his speech titled “Policy Risks Have Changed.”
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 climbed 2.7% to another record after a report showed inflation hitting a four-year low in April, at 1.4%, despite higher prices for oil and gas due to the war.
AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.
Specialist Anthony Matesic, left, and trader Fred Demarco work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Options trader Steven Rodriguez, center, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, May 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
A dealer talks on the phone at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, May 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Asia markets index of Japan, South Korea and Australia is seen on a screen at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, May 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
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)
