ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey is interested in participating in a new security initiative for Lebanon when the 7,500-member U.N. peacekeeping mission in the south of the country expires at the end of the year, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a joint press statement with his Lebanese counterpart on Thursday.
Last year, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to terminate the peacekeeping mission known as UNIFIL, bowing to demands from the United States and its close ally, Israel. The U.N. is now considering options to help end the decades-old conflict between Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah militants and Israel.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, and his Lebanese counterpart Joseph Aoun review an honor guard during a welcome ceremony before their meeting at the presidential palace in Ankara, Thursday, July 30, 2026. (Ugur Yildirim/DIA Photo via AP)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, shakes hands with his Lebanese counterpart Joseph Aoun before their meeting at the presidential palace in Ankara, Thursday, July 30, 2026. (Ugur Yildirim/DIA Photo via AP)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, shakes hands with his Lebanese counterpart Joseph Aoun before their meeting at the presidential palace in Ankara, Thursday, July 30, 2026. (Ugur Yildirim/DIA Photo via AP)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, shakes hands with his Lebanese counterpart Joseph Aoun before their meeting at the presidential palace in Ankara, Thursday, July 30, 2026. (Ugur Yildirim/DIA Photo via AP)
“After the withdrawal of the current international force, Turkey wants to take part in all initiatives that will be launched to support security in the region and ensure Lebanon’s sovereignty,” Erdogan said, speaking alongside Lebanese President Joseph Aoun.
“The end of the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, deployed in southern Lebanon, will constitute an important development,” Erdogan stated.
Other countries have voiced an interest in contributing to a UNIFIL successor force, including France and Italy, but it remains unclear what form that force might take and whether it would be under a U.N. mandate or some other arrangement.
Aoun’s visit to Ankara comes as Lebanon remains in a precarious situation despite a shaky truce that has largely halted the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
The latest Israel-Hezbollah war began on March 2 when Hezbollah launched rockets across the border, days after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, triggering an ongoing regional war. More than 4,000 people have been killed in Lebanon, including hundreds of civilians, and hundreds of thousands displaced. While the fighting has largely cooled in recent weeks, Israeli troops continue to occupy large swaths of southern Lebanon.
On June 26, Israel and Lebanon reached a U.S.-mediated “framework agreement” under which Israeli forces are to withdraw from areas of southern Lebanon they are occupying in exchange for the disarmament of the Hezbollah militant group.
Aoun said he wants to see the relations between the two countries become “more present and more ambitious” at a “crucial moment in which we are restoring our region and reshaping its future.”
“I am sure that this visit will mark the beginning of a new phase in Lebanese-Turkish relations, with the themes of partnership, trust and joint action,” he said.
Erdogan pledged support to Lebanon’s post-war economic recovery and to support the cash-strapped Lebanese army.
“Of course, our support for the Lebanese Armed Forces will continue in the security context,” Erdogan said.
The Turkish leader, whose country has strong influence over Damascus, urged increased dialogue between Lebanon and Syria, saying it would be “beneficial for both countries.”
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly proposed that Syrian forces should enter Lebanon to fight against Hezbollah, a prospect that has caused alarm in Lebanon although Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa has said on several occasions that he has no desire to intervene militarily in the neighboring country.
Sewell reported from Beirut.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, and his Lebanese counterpart Joseph Aoun review an honor guard during a welcome ceremony before their meeting at the presidential palace in Ankara, Thursday, July 30, 2026. (Ugur Yildirim/DIA Photo via AP)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, shakes hands with his Lebanese counterpart Joseph Aoun before their meeting at the presidential palace in Ankara, Thursday, July 30, 2026. (Ugur Yildirim/DIA Photo via AP)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, shakes hands with his Lebanese counterpart Joseph Aoun before their meeting at the presidential palace in Ankara, Thursday, July 30, 2026. (Ugur Yildirim/DIA Photo via AP)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, shakes hands with his Lebanese counterpart Joseph Aoun before their meeting at the presidential palace in Ankara, Thursday, July 30, 2026. (Ugur Yildirim/DIA Photo via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are rebounding Thursday after Microsoft leaped on hopes that its big spending on AI is translating into profits, while computer-chip companies clawed back some of their sharp recent losses.
The S&P 500 rallied 1.3% and recovered two-thirds of its drop from the prior day, which was its worst in seven weeks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 450 points, or 0.9% as of 12:50 p.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq composite, which is full of artificial-intelligence stocks, jumped 2.3% a day after it fell 9.8% below its record set last month.
Microsoft led the way and leaped 16.3% after reporting a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Growth was strong for its Azure cloud business, and CEO Satya Nadella said it reflects how customers are using Microsoft to move into AI.
Perhaps just as importantly for Wall Street, Microsoft did not announce a big increase in how much it plans to spend on AI investments, something that several other Big Tech rivals have done. Worries are high that such spending is eating into companies’ cash flows and may not ultimately be worth it if AI does not produce as much productivity and profits as promised.
Meta Platforms helped demonstrate such fears after falling 9.5%. The parent company of Facebook and Instagram reported a weaker profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, even though it made slightly more in revenue than expected. It also raised the lower end of its forecasted range for spending on investments this year.
Companies involved in the making of the computer memory and processors that such “hyperscalers” are buying rose Thursday, recovering some of the big losses they’ve taken on worries that their stock prices shot too high in the euphoria around AI.
Micron Technology jumped 16%, for example, to trim its loss for the week to 6.9%. It was one of the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500 after Microsoft.
Lam Research, a supplier to the semiconductor industry, soared 17.6% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Chip giant Advanced Micro Devices rallied 12.9%.
In the bond market, longer-term Treasury yields held a bit steadier following their sharp accelerations Wednesday. They had jumped after the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh, gave few clues about what the central bank will do with interest rates to combat the painfully high inflation that continues to hurt the country.
Higher rates could keep a lid on inflation, but they can also slow the economy and undercut prices for stocks and other investments.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.66% from 4.67% late Wednesday. The 30-year Treasury yield held steady at 5.20%, a day after it shot up from 5.09%. They move with investors’ expectations for inflation and economic growth in upcoming years.
Warsh reaffirmed on Wednesday the Fed wants to get inflation back down to 2%, even though the central bank decided not to raise interest rates despite its remaining higher than that. He also implied the bond market may already be doing some of the Fed’s work to restrain inflation, and he pointed to how yields have climbed since the central bank’s last meeting six weeks earlier.
That leaves investors questioning whether the Fed is prepared to act if inflation worsens, or whether it is relying on financial markets to achieve the same outcome, according to Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management.
“If investors conclude that the latter is true, the credibility of the Fed’s inflation-fighting commitment could come under increasing scrutiny. Arguably, it already is.”
President Donald Trump, who nominated Warsh to lead the Fed, has argued for lower interest rates even though they could cause inflation to accelerate.
Reports released Thursday suggested the U.S. economy’s growth slowed by more during the spring than economists expected. A measure of Inflation, meanwhile, remained worse last month than the Federal Reserve’s target, but it slowed from May.
In the oil market, prices eased back.
Brent crude, the international standard, fell 1.2% to $87.01 per barrel. It had swung as low as $72 early this month and as high as $102 last week on uncertainty about whether the United States and Iran could reach a deal to allow oil tankers to move freely again from the Middle East to customers worldwide.
In stock markets worldwide, indexes rose in Europe following a mixed finish in Asia. South Korea's Kospi fell 1.2%, and France's CAC 40 rose 0.9% for two of the world's bigger moves.
Seoul's market has been at the center of the huge recent moves for AI stocks because it's dominated by two tech titans, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. After more than doubling through this year's first six months, the Kospi has plunged 34% so far in July.
Its drop on Thursday came as Samsung Electronics dipped 0.7%. The tech giant reported a record profit for the spring and said demand for its chips continues to outpace supply, but its earnings nevertheless fell shy of analysts' high expectations.
AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.
FILE - People pass the New York Stock Exchange on May 28, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)
FILE - The New York Stock Exchange is seen in New York, Thursday, March 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
A screen shows the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics Co. stock price at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, July 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Currency traders work at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, July 30, 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, Thursday, July 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, July 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A currency trader talks on the phone at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, July 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
