9 views

Nov. 20, 2025, 11:17 AM ESTBy Rob WileA blowout quarterly earnings report from the computer chip giant Nvidia, a strong showing from Walmart and a better than expected September jobs report sent stocks surging early Thursday, as investors’ saw fresh signs that the U.S. economy could prove resilient in the face of gathering headwinds. The S&P 500, a broad measure of stocks, gained 1.5% as trading opened. The tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 2%, but later backed down slightly from its high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 600 points, around 0.8%.Stocks had been showing signs of flagging in recent weeks, amid rising questions about how much room the artificial intelligence boom had to run after powering markets through a year of steady gains. Nvidia has been at the heart of that boom. Its earnings report Wednesday exceeded investor forecasts, and suggested there is still plenty of room for growth in AI. Walmart, the world’s largest retailer and America’s biggest private employer, is widely viewed as a bellwether for U.S. retail and consumer sentiment. So when the company raised its full-year earnings and sales outlook Thursday, investors saw another good sign. A third factor driving stocks up was data in the long-delayed September jobs report, which showed that the U.S. had added 119,000 jobs in September, a much larger figure than forecast. September jobs report shows economy added 119k jobs, unemployment at 4.4%04:13Although the unemployment rate ticked up from 4.3% in August to 4.4%, approximately 450,000 workers entered the labor force. Economists view this as evidence that job opportunities are still plentiful, despite a wave of corporate layoffs. Just prior to the release of Thursday’s jobs report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Verizon told employees it planned to lay off 13,000 employees, or approximately 13% of its entire workforce. The company joined a suite of other blue-chip employers that say they plan to eliminate tens of thousands of jobs, including Amazon, General Motors, IBM, Microsoft, Paramount, Target and UPS.The jobs report, which captured conditions before the government shutdown as well more recent jobs data, suggested a more mixed picture for the U.S. economy. Manufacturing shed 6,000 jobs, continuing a trend in a sector the Trump administration has touted as a key target of its economic policies. Transportation and warehousing also saw job losses totaling 25,300. Wage growth slowed, and job totals for July and August were revised downward. The employment gains in September were concentrated in the health care, hospitality and social assistance sectors.Eyes now turn to the Federal Reserve, which will announce its next interest-rate decision on Dec. 10. Following Thursday’s mixed September jobs report, odds of a rate cut in December increased among traders. This would provide a continued boost to the economy by making it cheaper to borrow money, spurring overall consumption and likely even more gains in the stock market. Rob WileRob Wile is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist covering breaking business stories for NBCNews.com.

- Latest News - November 20, 2025

Strong quarterly earnings from Nvidia and Walmart plus a better than expected September jobs report sent stocks soaring early Thursday.

Source link

TAGS:
11 views

Nov. 20, 2025, 11:00 AM ESTBy Denise ChowFor nine months in 2022, moss lived in space. It wasn’t in a lab aboard the International Space Station, like other gardening experiments conducted in orbit — rather, the moss was attached to the station’s exterior, fully exposed to the harsh environment of the cosmos.The purpose of the space moss test, reported in a study published Thursday in the journal iScience, was to see if moss — an early land plant capable of thriving in some of the most extreme environments on Earth — could survive long-term exposure to the vacuum of space.Surprisingly, the researchers found that the moss spores not only endured, they “retained their vitality” and were still capable of reproducing when they eventually returned to Earth.“Most living organisms, including humans, cannot survive even briefly in the vacuum of space,” Tomomichi Fujita, the study’s lead author and a professor in the department of biological sciences at Hokkaido University in Japan, said in a statement.“This provides striking evidence that the life that has evolved on Earth possesses, at the cellular level, intrinsic mechanisms to endure the conditions of space,” he added.

- Latest News - November 20, 2025

Moss spores were attached to the outside of the International Space Station for nine months in an experiment. Most survived and were able to reproduce back on Earth.

Source link.

TAGS:
12 views

Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or log in to save this articleNov. 20, 2025, 9:37 AM ESTBy Erika EdwardsA Centers for Disease Control and Prevention webpage that once stated unequivocally that vaccines do not cause autism has been rewritten, now suggesting without evidence that health authorities “ignored” possible links between the shots and autism.“The claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism,” the new language states. The change was posted Wednesday and was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.The webpage also notes that the Department of Health and Human Services has launched “a comprehensive assessment” to examine the causes of autism. It’s unclear what the assessment will be or how it will be conducted.HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said the website had been updated “to reflect gold standard, evidence-based science.” A question about how the agency defines such science was not immediately answered.Pediatricians and vaccine experts have long said that autism is among the most studied childhood conditions and that no credible research has ever suggested a link between it and vaccines.It also remains unclear who made the changes or from where the new information originated.The Autism Science Foundation said in a statement that the group is “appalled” by the change, calling it “anti-vaccine rhetoric and outright lies about vaccines and autism.”“The CDC has always been a trustworthy source of scientifically-backed information but it appears this is no longer the case,” Alison Singer, ASF’s president, said in the statement. “Spreading this misinformation will needlessly cause fear in parents of young children who may not be aware of the mountains of data exonerating vaccines as a cause of autism and who may withhold vaccines in response to this misinformation, putting their children at risk to contract and potentially die from vaccine preventable diseases.”The change in messages wasn’t reflected across the CDC’s website. A page for parents states that “scientific studies and reviews continue to show no relationship between vaccines and autism.”This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.Erika EdwardsErika Edwards is a health and medical news writer and reporter for NBC News and “TODAY.”

- Latest News - November 20, 2025

A CDC webpage that once stated that vaccines do not cause autism has been rewritten to suggest that health authorities “ignored” possible links between vaccines and the disorder.

Source link.

TAGS: