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    Wall Street closes up ahead of inflation data

    STORY: Wall Street eked out modest gains on Friday, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average notched its largest weekly gain of the year, as investors looked ahead to key inflation data due out next week.The Dow closed up about a third of a percent higher, its eighth straight day of gains. The S&P 500 ended up fractionally, while the Nasdaq finished about flat but in the red.All three indexes recorded another weekly gain, but the muted end to the week suggested investors might be holding steady before next week's highly anticipated consumer price index or CPI report for April.The U.S. Labor Department is set to release the report on Wednesday and it will be one of the last the Federal Reserve will have to digest before it decides whether to cut interest rates or not.That makes it an important one, says Glen Smith, chief investment officer at GDS Wealth Management."We're expecting CPI numbers to continue to trend down to the 2%, which is the fed target rate. We think it's going to be very important in helping the Fed to decide if they're going to cut rates or keep them elevated. If CPI numbers are trending down to two 2%, we think it's very likely we could get a rate cut in July. Not in June, but in July. And if and if we're really surprised and inflation is dropping dramatically, perhaps we could have two cuts this year."Stocks on the move included Nvidia, which gained roughly 1.3% after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, the world's largest chipmaker and a major supplier to Nvidia, reported a near 60% jump in April sales. Shares of SoundHound jumped more than 7% after the company beat first-quarter revenue estimates.And shares of Novavax nearly doubled in value on Friday, after the vaccine maker said it scored a licensing deal worth up to $1.2 billion with Sanofi.

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    Toronto Fire Chief Matthew Pegg to retire in October

    Toronto Fire Chief Matthew Pegg announced on Friday that he plans to retire officially in October after more than three decades of active service.Pegg, who has been fire chief since 2016, said in a letter in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that he told his command team on Friday morning of his intentions to step down. His last day on the job will be Oct. 4, 2024."I am deeply appreciative to be able to retire healthy, after more than 32 years of active service as a firefighter, eight as chief," he

  • Reuters

    Mexico heat wave melts temperature records in ten cities, including Mexico City

    Ten cities in Mexico registered record-high temperatures in 10 cities, including the capital, authorities said on Friday, amid a searing heat wave that has prompted blackouts nationwide and pushed the power grid to the brink. In the normally temperate high-altitude capital of Mexico City, North America's largest metropolis, thermometers on Thursday peaked at 34.3 degrees Celsius (93.7 degrees Fahrenheit), a tenth of a degree higher than the record hit just a month earlier. The intense heat caused blackouts lasting several hours in some areas of Mexico this week, mainly in the north, and caused classes to be suspended in the central state of San Luis Potosi, which this week reached 50 C.