Just about a year after signing the One Big, Beautiful Bill with its major league tax cuts, the stock market is roaring.

In this year’s second quarter, the S&P 500 is up 15 percent and the NASDAQ up 21 percent — the best performance in 6 years. The small-cap Russell 2000 had the best first half in 35 years. The Dow Jones index is above 52,000.

Business is booming and profitable. Employment is rising. Oil and gas prices are coming down. The dollar is strong.

America is getting ready to celebrate the July 4th signing of the Declaration of Independence 250 years ago. Here’s what President Reagan said to the Republican National Convention in 1980, on the eve of his landslide victory over President Carter.

“Can we doubt that only a Divine Providence placed this land, this island of freedom, here as a refuge for all those people in the world who yearn to breathe free?”

Reagan loved to talk about freedom. It’s a wonderfully powerful word.

So is the most important sentence in history from the Declaration of Independence, that we “are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

I keep coming back to this because it’s so important. And I keep thinking about freedom and free-enterprise, I keep thinking about liberty and limited government, the rule of law and private property, free market competition, and individual incentives.

They all go together. They all underscore the greatness of American core values and our economy. We reward the entrepreneurial spirit and the risk takers who define it. It’s so important.

Yet we must defend freedom and free-enterprise. We must avoid the burdens of taxation and regulation and foolish socialist government giveaways.

Instead, we must reward work — for work itself is a core value. Like Reagan and President Trump and the founders, I believe America’s best days are ahead. Yet we must fight for these freedoms.

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has agreed to pay $600 million and enter into a non-prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice (DOJ) after admitting it failed to prevent tens of thousands of illegal product sales into the U.S. through its online marketplaces.

The DOJ announced Wednesday that Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and its U.S.-based payment processor, AUS Merchant Services, will pay a combined $600 million to resolve allegations they failed to stop merchants from selling and importing illegal pharmaceuticals, controlled substances, regulated chemicals and pill-making equipment through Alibaba.com and AliExpress.com.

As part of the agreement, Alibaba admitted that between January 2016 and December 2024, roughly 80,000 unlawful product sales involving imports into the U.S. violated the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, and other federal laws.

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The company acknowledged those transactions generated more than $200 million in gross merchandise value.

Court documents say the company failed to fully incorporate certain wire transfer data into its transaction monitoring system, causing it to miss some high-risk transactions. In at least one instance, a merchant continued selling prohibited products to U.S. buyers after AUS investigated and reported the seller. 

Federal investigators conducted more than 40 undercover purchases of pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical counterfeiting equipment that were illegal to import into the U.S., the DOJ noted.

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AUS Merchant Services, formerly known as Alipay U.S., also admitted shortcomings in its anti-money laundering compliance program.

According to court documents, the company failed to fully incorporate certain wire transfer data into its transaction monitoring system, causing it to miss some high-risk transactions. In at least one instance, a merchant continued selling prohibited products to U.S. buyers after AUS investigated and reported the seller.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
BABA	ALIBABA GROUP HOLDING LTD.	97.99	+2.01	+2.09%

“Companies operating online marketplaces — whether based in the United States or abroad — must implement appropriate safeguards to prevent bad actors from exploiting their platforms,” Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate said in a statement. “If they fail to do so, the Department will hold them accountable.”

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Alibaba said it cooperated fully with the Justice Department’s investigation and has agreed to strengthen compliance measures governing products sold by third-party merchants on its e-commerce platforms.

“Alibaba reached a mutually satisfactory resolution with U.S. regulators on bringing stricter compliance to the sale of products in the United States by third-party merchants on its e-commerce platforms,” an Alibaba spokesperson told FOX Business on Wednesday. “This settlement reflects a thorough regulatory process with Alibaba’s full cooperation and our commitment to best-in-class standards of control, policies, and measures against non-compliant product sales.”

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Under the agreement, Alibaba will pay a $125 million criminal penalty and forfeit $200 million, while AUS Merchant Services will pay an $85 million criminal penalty and forfeit $190 million.

Both companies also agreed to strengthen their compliance programs and continue cooperating with federal investigators.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

More than 13,000 air conditioning units were recalled for posing fire and burn hazards, as Americans attempt to stay cool during a heatwave for the Fourth of July weekend.

Texas-based Daikin Comfort Technologies Manufacturing, Inc. issued the recall last week for about 13,514 Amana Window-Room-Air-Conditioners and Through the Wall air conditioners or heat pumps sold nationwide, as well as about 53 that were sold in Canada.

“The heating element can remain energized during a ground fault, despite being turned off, posing a risk of fire or burn injury to consumers,” the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said.

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No injuries have been reported thus far in connection with the products, but the company received one report of plastic on the unit melting.

The products are white, with the brand name printed on most of the units’ control covers. The model number is located on a white sticker on the front edge of the units’ base plate.

Recalled units have a model number beginning with PB, AH or AE.

The units were sold through direct sales and heating and cooling dealers nationwide from April 2025 through December 2025 for between $850 and $1,500.

They are typically installed at hotels, apartment buildings and commercial spaces.

Consumers are urged to stop using the recalled products immediately and contact Daikin Comfort Technologies Manufacturing, Inc. for a full refund.

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The recall was announced ahead of a dangerous heatwave that began to intensify through much of the central and eastern parts of the U.S.

About two-thirds of the country is expected to be exposed to the extreme heat during the Fourth of July weekend, according to The Weather Channel.

Asian stocks fell for the first time in four days after a selloff in chipmakers revived concerns that the artificial intelligence-driven rally may have gone too far, too fast.

South Korea’s Kospi — home to many companies involved in AI infrastructure buildout — fell almost 6%, pulling the MSCI Asia Pacific Index down 1.2%. SK Hynix Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. each fell more than 8% in Seoul, while Kioxia Holdings Corp. tumbled 14% in Japan after a blistering rally that had sent the stock up more than 650% this year. Also hurting Korean chipmakers is news that Apple Inc. is in negotiations to purchase chips from two Chinese semiconductor makers.

The moves came after Wall Street benchmarks dropped on Wednesday and a gauge of semiconductor stocks sank 6.3%. US equity-index futures fell 0.2%, indicating more losses are in store for the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 indexes.

Markets found some stability as crude oil extended its decline, with Brent falling 0.8% to $71 a barrel, the lowest level since Feb. 26, as flows through the vital Strait of Hormuz climbed. Treasuries held their losses, while gold rose for a second day after Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh said price risks have come down in recent weeks.

Warsh repeated his determination to bring inflation back to the US central bank’s 2% target. Speaking at the European Central Bank’s annual forum in Sintra, Portugal, Warsh said inflation expectations had moderated over the past month. He also reiterated the Fed’s commitment to restoring price stability, reinforcing expectations policymakers are in no rush to raise interest rates.

Several new developments weighed on the technology sector.
News that Meta Platforms Inc. is developing plans for a cloud infrastructure business that would sell access to AI computing power and models fueled concerns the company may have overbuilt its capacity.Also, Apple’s negotiations to purchase chips from two Chinese semiconductor makers raised concerns that the competitive edge enjoyed by Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix may be eroding.

While the selloff in semiconductor stocks continued to drive sentiment in the equities market, investors took some comfort from Warsh’s comments and other central bankers suggesting inflation risks have become more balanced. Attention now shifts to the US jobs report on Thursday for fresh signals on the policy outlook after Warsh’s remarks damped expectations of a July rate increase.

“At a minimum, his comments provided no fuel for speculation on a near-term July rate hike, and in our view suggest the new Fed chair – while keeping all options open meeting by meeting – does not currently see cause for an immediate hike,” said Krishna Guha at Evercore.

Meanwhile, US manufacturing expanded for a sixth straight month in June as the war-driven surge in input costs eased, adding to signs the economy remains resilient. Printing, electrical equipment and textiles led gains, while paper products, furniture and wood products contracted.

“Overall, the report points to continued resilience in the manufacturing sector and supports our view that the US economy is reaccelerating, with growth remaining on track to reach approximately 2.4% this year,” said Eugenio Aleman, chief economist at Raymond James.

Elsewhere, US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held positive discussions in Qatar and progress is being made on technical talks with Iran, according to a senior administration official, as the countries seek to turn an interim peace deal into a permanent end to the war.

Working groups have been formed by Tehran to discuss the implementation of the current agreement and negotiate a final peace deal, though no talks have taken place yet, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported, citing Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi.

“We are on the optimistic front on geopolitics,” said Mohit Kumar of Jefferies. “It is not that we feel that we will have a comprehensive deal. It’s likely to be more of a fudge. But as long as the Strait remains open and oil keeps flowing, market is likely to get de-sensitized around geopolitics.”

BEIJING: Oil prices dropped in early trade on Thursday after Qatar said Iran and the U.S. had made “positive progress” in indirect talks that concluded on Wednesday, focused on the Strait of Hormuz, which handled one-fifth of global oil supply before the war.

Brent futures were down 73 cents, or 1.02%, to $70.84 a barrel by 0102 GMT, ‌while U.S. ⁠West Texas ⁠Intermediate crude fell 83 cents, or 1.21%, to $67.75 a barrel.

In the previous session, both benchmarks fell more than 1% to their lowest levels in four months.

Sources said negotiators for the U.S. and Iran spent two days in Doha discussing maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz and unfreezing Iran’s funds.

Though traffic has partially resumed, the two countries exchanged strikes last weekend following an Iranian attack on a cargo ship.

Iran is determined ⁠to win ‌international recognition of its control over the strait even if it has to do so by force, two senior Iranian sources said. Tehran has ⁠repeatedly said it will impose tolls on shipping starting in mid-August, after a toll-free period specified by the initial agreement expires.
Tanker traffic through the strait has started to recover, with U.S. Vice President JD Vance saying oil flows through the waterway had returned to pre-war levels, without citing figures. As the strait stays open and crude oil flows out, competition for market share keeps pushing oil prices down, and there are growing expectations of oversupply, Haitong Futures said ‌in a note.

Adding to supply at a time of falling oil prices amid the gradual reopening of the strait, sources said on Wednesday that OPEC+ oil-producing countries will likely ⁠agree to a further hike in their output targets from August when they meet on Sunday.

The target will increase by about 188,000 barrels per day for August, the same as for June and July, the sources said.

In the U.S., crude inventories fell by 3.8 million barrels to 408.4 million barrels last week, the lowest level since September 2018, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.

The draw, however, was smaller than analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a drop of 4.5 million barrels.

Wednesday’s New York Times Connections puzzle leaned heavily on geography, asking players to untangle four distinct categories hidden within a grid of 16 place names and location-derived words, creating a board where nearly every entry could plausibly belong to multiple groups before the correct sorting logic revealed itself.

Puzzle number 1,116 centered on a shared geographic theme, but the four categories used that theme in radically different ways, blending trivia about cocktails, cinema and etymology into what puzzle observers described as a satisfying, moderately difficult challenge that rewarded both cultural knowledge and careful word analysis. Here is a full breakdown of every category and every answer.

Yellow: Things Named After Places

The yellow category, traditionally reserved for the most accessible grouping in each day’s puzzle, gathered four words that originated as place names but have since entered everyday English as common nouns or concepts entirely separate from their geographic origins. Wednesday’s yellow group was: Champagne, China, Cologne and Limerick.

China refers to fine ceramic tableware, a usage derived from the country that originally produced and exported such goods to Europe centuries ago. The word became so synonymous with the product that it eventually detached from its geographic meaning in everyday speech. Champagne refers to the sparkling wine produced using the méthode champenoise, originally named for the Champagne region of northeastern France, where the production method was developed and where protected designation rules historically governed its use. Cologne refers to eau de cologne, the light, citrus-based fragrance that takes its name from the German city of Cologne, where it was first commercially produced in the early eighteenth century. Limerick refers to the five-line, AABBA-rhyme-scheme comic verse form, whose origin is disputed but commonly linked to the Irish city of Limerick, either through folk songs or through a parlor game popular in the nineteenth century.

Green: Best Picture Winners and Nominees

Wednesday’s green group required a mixture of film history knowledge and geographic pattern recognition, gathering four words that are simultaneously real city names and the titles of Academy Award-recognized films. The green answers were: Casablanca, Chicago, Fargo and Munich.

Casablanca, the 1942 Warner Bros. classic starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, won three Academy Awards including Best Picture at the 1944 ceremony. It remains one of the most celebrated and widely quoted films in American cinema history. Chicago, the 2002 Rob Marshall-directed musical adaptation of the Broadway stage show, won six Academy Awards at the 2003 ceremony including Best Picture, ending a decades-long drought for movie musicals at Hollywood’s highest honor. Fargo, the 1996 Coen Brothers crime film set largely in the frozen upper Midwest, received seven Academy Award nominations and won two, for Best Original Screenplay and Best Actress for Frances McDormand, along with a Best Picture nomination. Munich, Steven Spielberg’s 2005 historical thriller depicting the Israeli intelligence response to the 1972 Olympics massacre, received five Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and Best Director, though it did not win in either of those categories.

Blue: Places in Cocktail Names

The blue category proved highly accessible for anyone with a working knowledge of classic bar culture, grouping four words whose primary Connections identity is as the geographic component of a named mixed drink. Wednesday’s blue answers were: Cuba, Long Island, Moscow and Singapore.

The Cuba Libre is a straightforward mix of rum, cola and lime, with the name translating roughly to “Free Cuba” and believed to have been coined by American soldiers in Havana around 1900 following the Spanish-American War. Long Island Iced Tea is a deceptively named mixed drink containing vodka, rum, tequila, gin and triple sec alongside cola and lemon juice, known for its high alcohol content relative to its relatively innocuous appearance. The Moscow Mule is a vodka-and-ginger-beer cocktail served over ice in a distinctive copper mug, created in the 1940s by a vodka distributor and a ginger beer maker in a collaboration intended to promote both products simultaneously in the American market. The Singapore Sling is a gin-based cocktail created at the Long Bar of the Raffles Hotel in Singapore around 1915, combining gin with cherry liqueur, Cointreau, Bénédictine, pineapple juice and lime juice, and is one of the signature cocktails of Southeast Asian hospitality culture.

Purple: Starting With Countries

The purple category, which the New York Times’ Connections format traditionally reserves for the trickiest, most conceptually unconventional grouping, required players to identify four place names whose first component is itself the name of a sovereign nation. This is a different relationship than the yellow category, which gathered words that have become entirely detached from their geographic origins. Wednesday’s purple group asked players to recognize the country hiding in plain sight at the start of a compound geographic name. The purple answers were: Dominican Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Indianapolis and Nigeria.

Dominican Republic begins with Dominican, which as an adjective derives from Dominica, a separate island nation in the Eastern Caribbean. Guinea-Bissau begins with Guinea, which is the name of a standalone country in West Africa. Indianapolis, the capital city of Indiana, begins with India, one of the world’s most populous nations. Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, begins with Niger, a separate landlocked nation to Nigeria’s northwest. The category is a textbook example of the kind of wordplay that Connections editor Wyna Liu has built her reputation around, since it requires solvers to mentally strip away the familiar, proper-noun framing of each entry and look instead at what is hiding at the beginning of each word.

The New York Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with developing and maintaining Connections since its launch in 2023. The game challenges players to sort 16 words into four groups of four, with up to four incorrect guesses allowed before the puzzle ends. Like Wordle, it resets at midnight in each player’s local time zone, and players worldwide receive the same grid each day. Results can be shared in emoji grid format on social media, continuing the sharing culture that has made the broader suite of New York Times daily word games a fixture in millions of daily routines.