Wall Street drifts toward the finish of a tough June

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are drifting toward the finish of a tough June on Tuesday.

The S&P 500 rose 0.3%, though it's still heading toward its first losing month following two fabulous ones. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 49 points, or 0.1%, as of 10:05 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.7% higher.

The main reason for this month’s rockiness has been weakness for stocks in the artificial-intelligence industry. After roaring to tremendous heights in the frenzy around AI, such stocks have come under pressure because of worries that they shot too high. That’s a big deal for all investors because AI stocks have grown into some of Wall Street’s largest and most influential, pulling indexes behind them.

AI stocks were a bit calmer on Tuesday, with Nvidia rising 1%. It was one of the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500.

Outside of AI, the economy seems to be rumbling along, even though U.S. households are still feeling sour about it. A report released in the morning said that U.S. employers were advertising many more job openings at the end of May than economists expected, the latest signal that the job market remains resilient.

But a second report said that confidence among U.S. consumers improved by less than economists expected. More Americans are saying it's hard to get a job, despite the data suggesting continued hiring.

Tuesday's relatively quiet trading came as companies close their books for the quarter running from April through June. Investors will want to see strong growth in profits to justify the big gains stocks made early in the quarter. Even with June’s drop, the S&P 500 is still on track for its best quarter since six years ago, when stocks rocketed out of the crash caused by the COVID pandemic.

Concentrix tumbled 17.7% after the technology company reported profit and revenue for the latest quarter that were just shy of analysts’ expectations.

In the oil market, prices edged higher as two U.S. envoys arrived in Qatar for talks with mediators about the implementation of an initial deal to end the war in Iran. The Americans will not be having direct negotiations with Iranian diplomats while in Doha.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose 0.5% to $74.27. The hope is that an end to the war will restore full access to the Strait of Hormuz, allowing oil tankers to move more crude and lower its price.

Expensive oil has already sent inflation jumping around the world, which in turn has raised worries that the Federal Reserve and other central banks may have to raise interest rates. Higher rates would keep a lid on inflation, but they would also slow economic growth and hurt prices for investments.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury edged up to 4.39% from 4.38% late Monday.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia.

Germany’s DAX returned 1.3%, and South Korea’s Kospi climbed 1% for two of the bigger gains.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.9% as the value of the Japanese yen dropped near its lowest level against the U.S. dollar in 40 years.

U.S. government bonds are paying much higher yields than their Japanese counterparts, and the possibility of rate hikes by the Fed is putting more pressure on the yen. Speculation is rising that Japan’s government may try to prop up the yen’s value, but Japan’s finance minister said only that the government was ready to “respond appropriately whenever necessary.”

AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.

Specialist Michael Pistillo works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, June 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

A man walks past a monitor showing stock prices of companies on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Tokyo, Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

A huge screen shows the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

An electronic board shows Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index, bottom, and exchange rate of the Japanese yen against the U.S. dollar in Tokyo Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (Kenichiro Kojima/Kyodo News via AP)

MONACO (AP) — An explosive went off in an apartment building entrance in Monaco, wounding three people, reportedly including a Ukrainian tycoon with ties to Russia, the chief prosecutor in the exclusive Mediterranean country said Tuesday.

A search was underway for a suspect who fled on foot after the explosion Monday night, Prosecutor Stéphane Thibault said, adding that the motive was unclear.

Media reports identified Ukrainian construction tycoon Vadym Yermolaiev as being among the injured. He was targeted by Ukrainian sanctions in 2023 for ties to Russia. A woman and a child were also hurt.

“It appears that the family was specifically targeted,” said Christophe Mirmand, the minister of state for Monaco. He said the suspect “had walked around the area several times while waiting for the victims,” according to surveillance footage.

The attack shocked the country on the Mediterranean coast, one of the world’s smallest sovereign states known for its high concentration of wealthy residents. Monaco’s Prince Albert II described it as “an odious act” and said all public services were mobilized to ensure security.

Monaco police opened an attempted murder investigation into the attack, but they did not describe it as a terrorism investigation, Thibault told reporters.

The family members are “regular” residents of Monaco, and authorities did not yet know whether they had been threatened in the past, Mirmand said.

The blast occurred around 9 p.m. Monday at the entrance of a residence near the French border.

The woman who was wounded was in life-threatening condition, Thibault said. He did not provide the identities of the people who were hurt.

The woman was being treated at a hospital in Nice, Mirmand told French news broadcaster LCI. Her partner and the 13-year-old child suffered less severe injuries but were still hospitalized Tuesday, he added.

The suspect got away via steps to a small street to the neighboring French town of Beausoleil, according to surveillance footage.

In a picture captured by surveillance cameras and published by French media, the suspect could be seen in a street wearing a black jacket, light-colored pants, white shoes and a black bucket hat that partly concealed his face.

The three people were “apparently returning home peacefully,” Mirmand said, citing surveillance footage. “They were caught in the explosion as they crossed the threshold of their apartment building."

Yermolaiev, a Ukrainian-born businessman originally from the city of Dnipro, built his fortune through the Alef Group, a diversified business that includes commercial real estate, manufacturing and agriculture. He became one of the country’s best-known property developers, leading projects that reshaped parts of Dnipro’s city center. He has regularly appeared in rankings of Ukraine’s wealthiest entrepreneurs.

In an interview with Forbes Ukraine, Yermolaiev said he renounced his Ukrainian citizenship and became a Cypriot citizen in 2017.

In December 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy imposed sanctions on Yermolaiev as part of a broader package targeting individuals and companies Kyiv said had business links to Russia or Russian-occupied territories.

The Cyprus Registrar of Companies lists a man called Vadym Iermolaiev as the director of Vespano Ltd., a company in the Cypriot city of Limassol first registered in January 2019. Cyprus’ Interior Ministry told The Associated Press it could not provide information about the man’s citizenship status due to confidentiality rules.

A coastal playground for the rich and famous, Monaco is renowned as much for its tax-friendly incentives and Formula 1 Grand Prix as its glamorous royal family. The small principality is widely regarded as one of the safest places in the world, in part because of its network of thousands of surveillance cameras covering most public spaces.

Monaco’s population of 38,000 is multinational, with only a fifth of the population actually citizens of the principality.

Associated Press journalists Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Ukraine; Menelaos Hadjicostis in Nicosia, Cyprus; and Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, contributed to this report.

A view of the entrance to the residential building where an explosive device seriously injured three people in Monaco, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Philippe Magoni)

A view of the residential building where an explosive device seriously injured three people in Monaco, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Philippe Magoni)

Investigators examine the scene at the residential building where an explosive device seriously injured three people a day earlier in Monaco, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Philippe Magoni)

A police officer guards in a street in Monaco, Tuesday, June 30, 2026, a day after an explosive device seriously injured three people at a residential building in Monaco. (AP Photo/Philippe Magoni)

FILE - A luxury car drives along Monaco Harbor, Nov. 19, 2020. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole, File)