Things To Do In SW Florida

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is strengthening on Thursday as tech stocks bounce back following an encouraging report from a Taiwanese chip giant and as oil prices ease sharply.

The S&P 500 rose 0.6% and was on track to break the two-day losing streak it’s been on since setting an all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 328 points, or 0.7%, as of 11 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.8% higher.

Nvidia and other formerly high-flying tech stocks helped lift the market after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., a major supplier to the industry, reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. TSMC also said it could boost its investment in equipment to $56 billion this year to take advantage of the boom in artificial intelligence.

The frenzy around AI has already sent Nvidia and other superstar stocks to dizzying heights, but that created criticism that their prices had shot too high. Nvidia was one of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500 Wednesday after sinking 1.4%. But it rose 2.5% after TSMC Chief Financial Officer Wendell Huang said it’s seeing “continued strong demand” in an encouraging signal for the entire AI industry. read more

By Matt Barnum for Chalkbeat

American colleges are under siege.

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The Trump administration has waged a legal and rhetorical battle against the country’s elite universities. Voters have grown increasingly skeptical of higher education. Some high school students are questioning the value of a college diploma. In turn, there’s been a veritable firehose of news stories about a generational pivot away from college due to some combination of ruinous costs, close-minded campus cultures, and appealing alternatives.

It is a disorienting experience, then, to examine the cold, hard data of higher education.

College tuition has become more affordable in recent years. The economic return on a bachelor’s degree has stopped growing but remains near historic highs. After a post-pandemic dip, four-year college enrollment has almost fully recovered to near-record levels. Students are increasingly flocking to flagship public universities like UCLA and the University of Michigan. read more

The next ship to join Norwegian Cruise Line‘s fleet will be its largest yet, expanding on the Prima class with a design that is 10% larger than its predecessors.

Set to homeport in Miami beginning in June 2027, the 169,000-gross-ton Norwegian Aura is the third Prima Plus-class ship following the Aqua and the forthcoming Luna, which will debut out of Miami in April. The Aura will be the cruise line’s 22d ship overall and fifth vessel in the Prima class, which is expected to grow to include a sixth ship by the end of 2028.

“Norwegian Aura represents the evolution of Norwegian Cruise Line and the celebration of bringing together families, friends and travelers from around the world,” said Harry Sommer, president and chief executive officer of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. “With brilliance and connection at her core, the ship was created to give all guests the freedom to vacation their very own way – offering the chance to exhale, connect and effortlessly escape into the moment.” read more

The Epcot International Festival of the Arts is back, with a wide swath of disciplines gathering. It remains a very visual event, but it’s also designed to entertain ears and taste buds.

Returning to the theme park are sets of Broadway singers, the walk-in works of art, behind-the-scenes exhibits and creative cuisine served up at two dozen outlets. (One or two have Skittles products, which, we must admit, are colorful choices.)

This fest, which debuted at Walt Disney World in 2017, is included with regular Epcot admission. It runs from Jan. 16 through Feb. 23.

CommuniCore encore

For the second year, “Once Upon a Stage: The Magic of Disney on Broadway” exhibit is set up inside CommuniCore Hall. Props and costumes from “The Lion King,” “Aladdin” and “Beauty and the Beast” are featured.

“The focus really is for that walkthrough experience to be more of that behind-the-scenes aspects of our Broadway productions, and kind of getting that real peek behind the curtain, so to speak,” said Christopher Revetria, a producer with Disney Live Entertainment. read more

By MATT OTT, Associated Press Business Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week as U.S. layoffs remain low despite growing concern about a weakening job market.

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U.S. filings for jobless aid for the week ending Jan. 10 fell by 9,000 to 198,000, down from 207,000 the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The figure was significantly less than the 215,000 that analysts polled by the data firm FactSet were expecting.

Applications for unemployment benefits are viewed as a proxy for layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market. read more