US stocks rally; Dow surges 669, clawing back lost ground
NEW YORK — News that the U.S. and China are open to negotiating to avert a trade war put investors in a buying mood Monday, giving the market its best day in more than two years and erasing about half of its huge losses last week.
Technology companies accounted for much of the broad rally, which powered the Dow Jones industrial average to a gain of nearly 670 points. Microsoft was the biggest gainer in the 30-company Dow and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index, climbing nearly 8 percent.
Banks also notched solid gains, benefiting from a pickup in bond yields. Retailers, consumer goods companies and health care stocks were among the big gainers.
The market rebound followed the worst week for U.S. stocks in two years as investors traded last week’s jitters for a more optimistic outlook on trade, and an opportunity to buy.
“Certainly nothing’s settled,” said Rob Haworth, senior investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management. “Investors are still viewing this as a glass half-full market and a constructive economy, so it’s not surprising to see them buy on value here, buy on dips to try to rebuild their positions.”
Egypt begins voting for president, with el-Sissi assured win
CAIRO — Egyptians began voting Monday in an election that virtually guaranteed another term for President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who faced only a token opponent in balloting that resembled the referendums held by autocrats for decades before the Arab Spring briefly raised hopes of democratic change.
El-Sissi’s only challenger was Moussa Mustafa Moussa, a little-known politician who joined the race at the last minute to spare the government the embarrassment of a one-candidate election after several hopefuls were forced out or arrested.
Authorities hope enough of Egypt’s nearly 60 million eligible voters will participate in the three-day election to give it legitimacy. Local media, which are dominated by pro-government commentators, have portrayed voting as an obligation and the only way to prevent foreigners from sowing instability.
Most polling places had only modest lines Monday, and some were empty for most of the day.
Officials overseeing four polling centers in the greater Cairo area said turnout hovered around a lowly 7 percent by 6 p.m., three hours before their scheduled close for the day. They said they expected a dramatic increase on the final day Wednesday.
El-Sissi, a general who led the 2013 military overthrow of Egypt’s first freely elected president, the Islamist Mohammed Morsi, voted at a school in the Cairo suburb of Heliopolis as soon as the polls opened at 9 a.m. He made no comment before heading for a meeting with his campaign team.
Experts: Prince toxicology report shows very high drug level
MINNEAPOLIS — A toxicology report from Prince’s autopsy, obtained Monday by The Associated Press, shows he had what multiple experts called an “exceedingly high” concentration of fentanyl in his body when he died.
Prince was 57 when he was found alone and unresponsive in an elevator at his Paisley Park estate on April 21, 2016. Public data released six weeks after his death showed he died of an accidental overdose of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times more powerful than heroin.
A confidential toxicology report obtained by the AP provides some insight into just how much fentanyl was in his system. Experts who are not connected to the Prince investigation said the numbers leave no doubt that fentanyl killed him.
“The amount in his blood is exceedingly high, even for somebody who is a chronic pain patient on fentanyl patches,” said Dr. Lewis Nelson, chairman of emergency medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. He called the fentanyl concentrations “a pretty clear smoking gun.”
The report says the concentration of fentanyl in Prince’s blood was 67.8 micrograms per liter. The report explains that fatalities have been documented in people with blood levels ranging from three to 58 micrograms per liter.
GOP-led states back Trump in California ‘sanctuary’ lawsuit
SAN FRANCISCO — Texas and more than a dozen other states led by Republican governors got behind the Trump administration on Monday in its lawsuit over California’s so-called sanctuary laws that protect people in the U.S. illegally.
California’s laws are designed to interfere with or block federal immigration enforcement but the state does not have that authority, the other states said in a court filing in the U.S. Department of Justice’s lawsuit against California. The filing in federal court in Sacramento supports the Justice Department’s attempt to block the laws.
An email to the California Attorney General’s office was not immediately returned.
The Justice Department sued California in March over three state laws, including one that requires the state to review detention facilities where immigrants are held and another that limits the ability of state and local law enforcement officials to turn people over to immigration authorities.
Federal officials have said California officials have prevented them from removing dangerous people who are in the U.S. illegally. California officials have responded that their sanctuary policies increase public safety by promoting trust between immigrant communities and law enforcement.