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SYDNEY — Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index fell for a third consecutive session Thursday, dragged lower by continued weakness in Commonwealth Bank of Australia shares even as the lender posted annual profit growth broadly in line with expectations.

The index was down 46.0 points, or 0.50%, to 9,163.4 as of 12:21 p.m. Sydney time, extending Wednesday’s 0.45% decline, when the benchmark closed at 9,209.4 points after a session dominated by disappointing technology stocks and a heavy corporate earnings calendar.

Commonwealth Bank, Australia’s largest lender by market value, remained at the center of Thursday’s session after reporting its full-year results a day earlier. The bank’s cash profit came in comfortably ahead of Morgan Stanley’s expectations, aided by softer-than-expected expenses and a lower impairment charge. Despite the earnings beat, CBA shares extended a decline that began immediately following the results release, with market commentary attributing the continued weakness in part to the bank’s confirmation of a slump in mortgage lending following the federal budget, a factor that appeared to overshadow the otherwise solid headline profit figures for investors focused on the bank’s forward growth trajectory.

Justin Lin, an investment analyst at Global X ETFs, said the broader pullback across Australian shares this week likely reflected investors positioning for the heart of reporting season rather than any deeper shift in sentiment. “Today’s move seems most likely just a short-term blip and investors seem to be squaring up for August earnings season, locking in some profits,” Lin said, adding that with company-specific results back in focus, broader macroeconomic concerns may “temporarily take a back seat” as investors sift through individual earnings reports.

Jun Bei Liu, founder and portfolio manager at Ten Cap, said she expected a mixed showing from the banking sector this reporting season. “Expecting a little soft results from the banks as their margin will continue to be under pressure, and limited ability to deliver more capital return,” Liu said, noting that Westpac and ANZ Group are scheduled to report their own quarterly results Friday and Saturday, respectively, following Commonwealth Bank’s lead. Liu added that results from companies outside the banking sector were likely to look considerably stronger, citing resilient economic conditions and easing inflationary pressure as supportive factors for corporate earnings more broadly this season.

Thursday’s session also featured a particularly dense slate of major companies reporting results, including Telstra Group, Insurance Australia Group, Origin Energy, ASX Ltd and Treasury Wine Estates, making it one of the busiest single days of the current reporting period. Elsewhere in the results calendar, jobs classifieds company Seek Ltd drew a downgrade from Bell Potter following its full-year results, with the broker cutting its rating to hold from buy and reducing its price target to $15.20 from $18.58, after concluding the stock’s shares were now fully valued following the report.

Energy stocks faced a modestly softer session after oil prices eased slightly overnight. According to Bloomberg data, West Texas Intermediate crude slipped 0.4% to $82.86 a barrel, while Brent crude fell 0.35% to $88.61 a barrel, even as reports emerged of vessel attacks in the Gulf of Oman, underscoring the continued volatility surrounding Middle East shipping routes despite Thursday’s modest pullback in prices. The softer crude backdrop weighed on ASX-listed energy producers, including Woodside Energy Group and Santos, both of which were expected to face a comparatively soft session as a result.

Thursday’s decline continues a broader pattern of caution that has characterized the ASX 200 through the opening stretch of August’s reporting season. The benchmark is entering the period with expectations for its first year of profit growth in four years, though that growth remains heavily concentrated in the resources sector. Industrial earnings outside of mining are forecast to grow by roughly 2.6%, below the underlying inflation rate of approximately 3.6%, meaning many non-resource companies are effectively expected to post earnings declines in real terms even while reporting nominal profit growth.

That backdrop has been further shaped by the Reserve Bank of Australia’s monetary policy path this year. The central bank raised its cash rate three times during 2026, in February, March and May, lifting it from 3.60% to 4.35%, before holding steady at its subsequent meetings, including its most recent decision on August 11, which landed in the middle of the current reporting season. Analysts have said company commentary on funding costs and consumer demand is likely to carry additional weight this earnings season given that backdrop of a still-elevated cash rate.

Despite the choppy start to reporting season, some market commentary has pointed to potential upside from currently subdued expectations, arguing that a reporting period widely anticipated to be difficult can often produce positive surprises precisely because expectations and investor positioning have already been set defensively heading in.

With Westpac and ANZ both due to report in the coming days, alongside a continued wave of results from companies across the industrial, retail and healthcare sectors, investors are likely to keep a close watch on whether the banking sector’s soft start to reporting season proves to be an isolated dynamic tied to CBA specifically, or a signal of broader margin pressure likely to weigh on the sector as a whole through the remainder of August.

Xfinity customers began reporting problems with their internet, TV and phone service Wednesday night, according to outage-tracking service Downdetector, in what appeared to be a developing disruption affecting the Comcast-owned provider’s network.

Downdetector said user reports indicating problems with Xfinity by Comcast began climbing at 10:03 p.m. Eastern time. The tracking service posted about the rising number of reports on its official account on the social platform X, asking affected users to describe how the outage was impacting them and tagging the post with the hashtag “XfinityByComcastDown.”

As of Wednesday night, Comcast had not issued a detailed public statement addressing the scope, cause or expected resolution timeline for the reported disruption. Downdetector’s tracking methodology relies on real-time, user-submitted reports rather than direct access to Comcast’s internal network diagnostics, meaning the true scale of the outage, including how many customers were affected and in which regions, remained difficult to independently verify in the disruption’s early stages.

Separate outage-tracking service Geoblackout logged a wave of Xfinity-related outage reports earlier Wednesday afternoon, breaking down the nature of the complaints as roughly 67% tied to landline internet service, 20% tied to mobile internet, and 13% tied to TV streaming issues. It remained unclear whether that earlier wave of reports was directly connected to the disruption flagged by Downdetector later that night, or represented a separate, unrelated pocket of service issues earlier in the day.

Xfinity operates as Comcast’s consumer-facing brand for internet, television, phone and mobile services across most of the United States, running on a hybrid fiber-coaxial network that serves tens of millions of customers nationwide. Comcast also sells business-tier internet and networking services under the same underlying network infrastructure through Comcast Business, meaning a significant disruption affecting the residential Xfinity network can, in some cases, affect business customers simultaneously if the underlying issue originates within shared backbone infrastructure.

Wednesday’s reported outage would not be the first significant disruption to affect Xfinity’s network. Past incidents have ranged from brief, localized service interruptions lasting only a few minutes to far larger, more consequential outages. In one previous case widely covered by national outlets, more than 50,000 Xfinity customers in the Bay Area lost internet access during a single outage, with Comcast initially unable to provide customers a clear timeline for restoration. Xfinity’s own support materials acknowledge that outages can also result from planned network maintenance and construction work, during which the company says customers in affected areas should expect internet, phone and smart home services to go offline entirely for the duration of the work, typically completed within a single day.

Xfinity maintains a dedicated online outage map and status center where customers can check for reported disruptions in their specific area, along with an Xfinity Assistant tool offering round-the-clock troubleshooting support. The company has also encouraged customers to add a mobile phone number to their account to receive real-time text alerts ahead of planned service interruptions, along with updates during unplanned outages. For customers whose home internet goes down entirely, Xfinity has pointed to its network of public WiFi hotspots as an alternative way to stay connected, along with the Xfinity Stream app, which the company says remains accessible over a cellular connection or non-Xfinity WiFi network even when a customer’s home internet service is down.

Severe weather has also historically been a significant driver of Xfinity outages in various regions, with the company operating a dedicated Xfinity Response Center specifically to help customers manage service disruptions tied to hurricanes, storms, wildfires and other weather-related events. It remained unclear Wednesday night whether weather played any role in the reported disruption, or whether the outage stemmed from a different underlying technical cause.

Customers experiencing problems with their Xfinity service were, consistent with the company’s own published guidance, generally advised to first check Xfinity.com or the Xfinity mobile app to determine whether an outage had already been detected and logged in their specific area, before assuming their individual equipment or in-home wiring was to blame. The company’s outage map is designed to display known service disruptions by region, allowing customers to distinguish between a broader, area-wide network issue and a more localized problem specific to their own home equipment.

This remains a developing situation, and additional details regarding the precise scope, underlying cause and expected resolution timeline of Wednesday night’s reported Xfinity outage were not immediately available. Comcast had not issued an official public acknowledgment of the disruption as of late Wednesday, leaving affected customers largely reliant on Downdetector and the company’s own outage map to determine whether their service issues were part of a broader, network-wide problem or an isolated disruption specific to their location.

SEOUL — Shares of Samsung Electronics surged Wednesday, closing up 6.68% as South Korea’s benchmark Kospi index extended its winning streak to a third consecutive session, driven by intensifying investor appetite for the country’s dominant semiconductor manufacturers.

Samsung Electronics closed at 255,000 won, up 16,000 won from the previous session, according to Korea JoongAng Daily. Rival chipmaker SK Hynix also posted a strong gain, rising 5.54% to close at 1.5 million won. The rally in both stocks helped drive the broader Kospi index up 233.51 points, or 3.68%, to close at 6,579.04, following gains of 0.65% and 0.73% in the two preceding sessions.

The Kospi opened Wednesday 1.47% higher and continued adding to those gains as foreign and institutional investors poured money into major chipmakers throughout the session. The rally proved forceful enough that the Korea Exchange activated a buy-side sidecar at 11:57 a.m. local time, a circuit-breaker-style mechanism that temporarily suspends program trading for five minutes when the market moves sharply in one direction. Trading volume for the session was moderate, at 355 million shares worth 26.21 trillion won, or roughly $18.49 billion, even as decliners outnumbered advancers 477 to 378 across the broader market.

Lee Kyung-min, an analyst at Daishin Securities, said the session reflected renewed investor confidence in the durability of demand tied to artificial intelligence infrastructure. “Large order backlogs and new orders reaffirmed that investment in AI infrastructure and semiconductor demand remain solid, stimulating investor sentiment,” Lee said.

The rally followed government data released this week showing South Korea’s semiconductor exports surged 155.4% year-over-year to roughly $9.95 billion in the first 10 days of August, helping drive the country’s overall outbound shipments up 45.3% to $21.3 billion over the same period, a record for the window. That data provided the clearest signal yet that global demand for memory chips, driven by the ongoing artificial intelligence infrastructure buildout, remains robust even as broader technology markets elsewhere have shown signs of volatility.

Wednesday’s gains added to Samsung’s rebound from a rockier stretch earlier in the week. On Monday, foreign investors had aggressively sold both Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix shares, offloading a combined 1.02 trillion won and 410.3 billion won worth of stock, respectively, amid caution tied to reports about the rising competitiveness of Chinese semiconductor firms. That selling pressure reversed sharply once the strong export figures were released, with Samsung shares having tumbled as low as 224,000 won in early trading Tuesday before rebounding on the export data and continuing higher into Wednesday’s session.

Wednesday’s advance also came amid reports that Singapore’s state investment firm Temasek is exploring direct investments in South Korean semiconductor leaders, a development analysts said reflected growing international confidence in the long-term value of the country’s chip sector, even as some valuations remain relatively low compared with the scale of the AI-driven memory boom underway.

Samsung’s rally builds on an extraordinary run for the stock throughout 2026. Shares climbed more than 100% during the first half of the year, driven overwhelmingly by the company’s semiconductor division, which accounted for 99.7% of Samsung’s operating profit in the second quarter, according to the company’s disclosed segment data. Of Samsung’s 89.5 trillion won in second-quarter operating profit, 89.2 trillion won came from semiconductors alone, underscoring how thoroughly the company’s earnings have become dependent on memory chip pricing and demand, even as its mobile, television and appliance businesses have contributed comparatively little to overall profitability.

Some analysts have projected even steeper gains ahead. Recent forecasts have called for Samsung’s third-quarter 2026 operating profit to reach 112 trillion won, an 817% year-over-year improvement, supported by an expected operating margin of 55%. Some projections have also suggested Samsung’s shareholder distributions could eventually climb to between 100 trillion and 200 trillion won annually, a roughly tenfold increase over current payout levels that would imply a dividend yield exceeding 7% at current valuations, though such forecasts remain subject to considerable uncertainty given the historical volatility of memory chip pricing cycles.

Wednesday’s rally in Seoul came even as major U.S. indexes closed lower overnight, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 0.34%, the S&P 500 declining 0.32% to 7,728.2, and the Nasdaq Composite shedding 0.6%. The divergence underscored how strongly the domestic chip export data, rather than broader global market sentiment, drove Wednesday’s session in Seoul, with Korean investors focusing squarely on the country’s own semiconductor sector rather than following Wall Street’s lead.

The Korean won also strengthened against the dollar during Wednesday’s session, adding to the broadly positive tone across South Korean financial markets. With the Kospi now having risen for three consecutive sessions and Samsung and SK Hynix both posting substantial single-day gains, investors are likely to continue watching upcoming export data and any further developments tied to global memory chip demand as key drivers of sentiment heading into the remainder of August.

Whole Foods announced Wednesday that it is recalling certain produce and prepared foods containing fresh jalapeño peppers supplied by Coast Citrus Distributors over potential salmonella contamination.

The Food and Drug Administration said the recalled products were sold in 12 states and have “Best Before” dates ranging from Aug. 7 through Aug. 16.

No illnesses have been reported in connection with the recalled Whole Foods products, according to the FDA.

The recall includes select salsas, guacamole, pico de gallo and prepared foods, Whole Foods said. A full list of affected products is available on the FDA’s website.

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Whole Foods is recalling select salsa, guacamole, pico de gallo and prepared foods containing jalapeños over potential salmonella contamination.

The products were sold in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio.

A Whole Foods spokesperson said Wednesday’s recall was issued because the products contain jalapeños that were sourced from Coast Citrus Distributors and are connected to the distributor’s recall. Some affected products were also included in a Taylor Fresh Foods recall announced Sunday.

The Whole Foods action comes amid a broader salmonella outbreak linked to jalapeños that has sickened 345 people and hospitalized 36 across 27 states, according to federal officials.

Prior to the Whole Foods announcement, at least 18 ready-to-eat meat and poultry products had already been identified in a USDA public health alertin Sinaloa, Mexico, and distributed by Coast Citrus Distributors.

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A multistate salmonella outbreak linked to jalapeños has prompted recalls involving products sold by several major retailers and brands. (iStock / iStock)

On Monday, Taylor Farms announced a recall of prepared foods containing jalapeños sold by retailers including Walmart and Whole Foods in several states over potential salmonella contamination.

The FDA advised consumers who purchased any of the recalled Whole Foods products to discard them or bring a valid receipt to a Whole Foods Market store for a full refund.

According to federal regulators, illnesses linked to the jalapeño outbreak began between June 19 and July 20, 2026.

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Whole Foods issued a recall affecting select products sold in 12 states amid a broader salmonella outbreak linked to jalapeños. (Liao Pan/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Officials said several major brands and retailers have been affected by the outbreak, including Taylor Farms, Deli Kitchen, H-E-B’s Higher Harvest and Meal Simple brands, Marketside, Wawa, Albertsons, Randalls, Tom Thumb and Hannaford.

Chipotle Mexican Grill and QDOBA also received affected jalapeños imported from Sinaloa, according to federal officials.

Chipotle switched its jalapeño supplier at affected locations beginning July 20 and is no longer serving the implicated product, while QDOBA stopped using jalapeños at all of its restaurants as of July 28.

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Coast Citrus Distributors has agreed to recall the remaining implicated product and is no longer importing jalapeños from the grower linked to the outbreak.

Food contaminated with salmonella can cause salmonellosis, with symptoms including diarrhea, stomach cramps and fever.

FOX Business’ Bonny Chu and Reuters contributed to this report.

CHICAGO — The Obama Foundation will release a new batch of tickets to the Obama Presidential Center’s museum Wednesday, giving hopeful visitors another shot at admission after the museum’s initial ticket allotment sold out well into next year amid overwhelming demand.

Tickets to the museum, located on the center’s campus in the Woodlawn and Jackson Park area on Chicago’s South Side, are currently sold out through the end of 2026. The Obama Foundation will release a new round of tickets at 10 a.m. Central time Wednesday, covering select visitor dates running through January 3, 2027. The foundation has said it plans to continue releasing additional tickets on the second Wednesday of each month going forward, giving prospective visitors a recurring, predictable window to try to secure a spot.

In an announcement email sent to prospective visitors last month, the Obama Center warned that demand for the new batch of tickets was likely to be intense. “We expect high demand for tickets, and you may experience a wait when purchasing your Museum tickets,” the center said in the message, adding that visitors’ place in the online queue would be preserved even amid a potentially long wait. The foundation has advised ticket buyers to have a few backup dates in mind when purchasing, since their first-choice date may already be sold out by the time they reach the front of the queue.

Museum tickets range in price from $15 to $30. While admission to the museum itself requires a ticket, large portions of the broader Obama Presidential Center campus remain free and open to the public without any ticket required, including the Forum event space, the Home Court athletic facility, and a branch of the Chicago Public Library, all located on the center’s grounds. The museum itself sits within a four-story building on the center’s 19.3-acre campus in historic Jackson Park.

The Obama Presidential Center’s museum officially opened to the public on June 19, 2026, following a star-studded grand opening celebration that drew significant national attention. Former first lady Michelle Obama spoke at the opening, delivering remarks that reportedly moved much of the crowd, including former President Barack Obama himself, to tears. The Obama Foundation has estimated the roughly $850 million campus could draw approximately 1 million visitors annually once fully operational, a figure that has already been reflected in the intensity of demand for museum tickets since the center’s opening.

Valerie Jarrett, chief executive officer of The Obama Foundation, described the center’s mission in a statement issued around the time of its opening. “We built the Obama Presidential Center to be a place where people,” Jarrett said, framing the campus as a space designed to bring together visitors from a wide range of backgrounds, offer inspiration, and send people away motivated to make a difference in their own communities.

Ticket access to the museum has followed a tiered release structure since the center’s opening. Founding Members of The Obama Foundation, who support the organization through ongoing membership contributions, receive exclusive early access to purchase tickets ahead of each public release, receiving a private, non-transferable presale link via email before tickets become available more broadly. Illinois residents also receive a standing benefit unavailable to out-of-state visitors: free museum admission every Tuesday, provided they reserve a Tuesday time slot in advance and can show proof of Illinois residency upon arrival.

According to the Obama Foundation, museum tickets are generally made available for visit dates roughly six months in the future, with additional dates opening up incrementally as each monthly release occurs. The foundation has cautioned that tickets are intended strictly for personal use and may not be resold or transferred through third-party platforms such as Facebook Marketplace, a policy aimed at preventing scalping given the sustained high demand for admission since the museum’s debut.

Beyond the museum itself, the Obama Presidential Center campus continues to host a rotating slate of public programming, much of it free and accessible without a museum ticket. Upcoming events at the center include a screening of the animated film “Encanto,” a conversation among chefs and food industry leaders exploring how food reflects American cultural history, and a comedy event featuring Bill Nye, Keegan-Michael Key and Sophie Shrand scheduled for August 28. The center’s calendar of public programs has continued expanding in the months since its opening, part of a broader effort to establish the campus as an active civic and cultural gathering space beyond its role as a presidential museum.

The Obama Presidential Center differs from traditional presidential libraries in that it does not house official presidential records, which instead remain digitized and accessible through the National Archives and Records Administration. Instead, the center has been designed to function as a museum, public campus and community space centered on Obama’s presidency and broader themes of civic engagement, with the surrounding free amenities intended to draw sustained foot traffic from the local Woodlawn and South Side community regardless of museum ticket availability.

With demand for museum admission continuing to outpace available ticket supply months after opening, prospective visitors hoping to secure a spot for a fall or winter visit are being encouraged to log on promptly when Wednesday’s 10 a.m. release begins, given how quickly previous ticket batches have been claimed since the museum first opened its doors in June.

McDonald’s is moving into energy drinks, teaming with Red Bull as the fast-food giant expands its beverage lineup while working to drive more customers to its U.S. restaurants.

Starting Aug. 17, participating McDonald’s restaurants nationwide will sell the Red Bull Dragonberry Energizer, marking the company’s entry into the energy drink category.

The drink combines Red Bull with blue raspberry syrup and freeze-dried dragonfruit. Customers can substitute Red Bull Zero for a reduced-sugar version or purchase an 8.4-ounce can of Red Bull separately.

The beverage expansion comes as McDonald’s works to improve customer traffic after its U.S. business delivered slower-than-expected sales growth during the second quarter.

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McDonald’s is adding Red Bull to its U.S. menu with the new Red Bull Dragonberry Energizer starting Aug. 17. (McDonald’s / Unknown)

Comparable sales in the U.S., McDonald’s largest market, increased 0.8% during the quarter, below the 1.06% growth analysts surveyed by LSEG had expected. U.S. comparable sales grew 2.5% a year earlier.

CEO Chris Kempczinski said execution problems, including inconsistent promotion of value offerings and reduced use of digital deals, contributed to weaker customer traffic.

“We don’t have a strategy problem. We simply didn’t execute at the level we needed to in the second quarter,” Kempczinski said.

McDonald’s CFO Ian Borden said the company planned to use more national digital offers and personalized promotions to “reenergize our high-frequency customers.”

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McDonald’s is expanding its beverage lineup with new crafted sodas and other specialty drinks at participating U.S. restaurants. (McDonald’s )

The Red Bull rollout builds on McDonald’s expansion of its core beverage lineup with crafted sodas and Refreshers.

“We’ve seen growing enthusiasm for our crafted sodas and refreshers as fans look for more variety and options to fit every occasion,” Alyssa Buetikofer, chief marketing and customer experience officer for McDonald’s USA, said. “They loved the Red Bull Dragonberry Energizer when we first tested it in the U.S., so we’re excited to give fans nationwide the energy they’ve been craving with Red Bull. And we’re just getting started.”

McDonald’s is also expanding its crafted soda lineup with a Vanilla Swirl, which combines vanilla flavor and cold foam with a choice of Coca-Cola, Diet Coke or Coke Zero Sugar.

Other offerings will vary by location and include Orange Dream with Fanta and reduced-sugar crafted sodas made with Diet Dr Pepper, Dr Pepper Zero Sugar and Sprite Zero Sugar.

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Both McDonald’s Refreshers and Red Bull Energizers contain caffeine, according to the company.