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By MATT OTT, Associated Press Business Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans filing unemployment claims last week fell slightly as businesses continue to retain employees despite growing economic uncertainty over U.S. trade policy.

Applications for jobless benefits fell by 2,000 to 227,000 for the week ending May 17, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s pretty close to the 230,000 new applications analysts forecast.

Weekly applications for jobless benefits are seen as representative of U.S. layoffs and have mostly bounced around a historically healthy range between 200,000 and 250,000 since COVID-19 ravaged the economy and wiped out millions of jobs five years ago.

Even though President Donald Trump has paused or dialed down many of his tariff threats, concerns remain about a global economic slowdown that could upend the U.S. labor market, which has been a pillar of the American economy for years.

The U.S. and China last week agreed to a 90-day pause in their trade war, giving financial markets a boost and at least temporarily relieving some of the anxiety over the impact of tariffs on the U.S. economy. read more

By DAMIAN J. TROISE, AP Business Writers

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks drifted to a mixed close on Wall Street Thursday in what has been a rocky week so far because of worries coming out of the bond market about the U.S. government’s mounting debt.

Trading remained choppy throughout most of the day following Wednesday’s big slump for the S&P 500. That loss has put the benchmark index on track for its worst week in the last seven.

The S&P 500 slipped 2.60 points, or less than 0.1%, to close at 5,842.01. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.35 points, or less than 0.1%, to 41,859.09. The Nasdaq composite rose 53.09 points, or 0.3% to 18,925.73.

Technology stocks did most of the heavy lifting for the broader market. The majority of stocks within the S&P 500 lost ground, but gains for technology companies with outsized values offset those losses. Google’s parent Alphabet jumped 1.4% and Nvidia rose 0.8%.

The choppy trading this week and sharp decline for stocks on Wednesday follows several weeks of mostly gains that have brought the S&P 500 back within 5% of its all-time high. read more

With a huge hike in development fees looming, homebuilders submitted a deluge of building permits in recent days to Osceola County.

The county received 879 building permits this month through Monday, the last day to submit an application and still qualify for the current rates for mobility fees, which pay for the traffic impacts of new development. Those rates will rise in June to become the state’s highest, jumping nearly $12,000 per new home and varying amounts for other developments.

The May surge includes 414 single-family homes and 411 townhomes, mostly from national production homebuilders. Over 500 permits were filed last Thursday and Friday alone.

The phenomenon underscores the rate and impact of growth in Osceola County, where new development comes at breakneck speed while traffic slows inexorably and the need for costly new roads grows desperate.

Deputy County Administrator Ken Brown said most of the applications were submitted electronically. The real challenge for the county starts now, with trying to review and approve hundreds of building permits over the next four weeks. read more

TALLAHASSEE — A federal judge on Wednesday rejected arguments made by an artificial intelligence company that its chatbots are protected by the First Amendment — at least for now. The developers behind Character.AI are seeking to dismiss a lawsuit alleging the company’s chatbots pushed a teenage boy to kill himself.

The judge’s order will allow the wrongful death lawsuit to proceed, in what legal experts say is among the latest constitutional tests of artificial intelligence.

The suit was filed by a mother from Florida, Megan Garcia, who alleges that her 14-year-old son Sewell Setzer III fell victim to a Character.AI chatbot that pulled him into what she described as an emotionally and sexually abusive relationship that led to his suicide.

Meetali Jain of the Tech Justice Law Project, one of the attorneys for Garcia, said the judge’s order sends a message that Silicon Valley “needs to stop and think and impose guardrails before it launches products to market.”

The suit, which also names Google and individual developers as defendants, has drawn the attention of legal experts and AI watchers in the U.S. and beyond, as the technology rapidly reshapes workplaces, marketplaces and relationships despite what experts warn are potentially existential risks. read more

By CORA LEWIS

NEW YORK (AP) — More Klarna customers are having trouble repaying their “buy now, pay later” loans, the short-term lender said this week. The disclosure corresponded with reports by lending platforms Bankrate and LendingTree, which cited an increasing share of all “buy now, pay later” users saying they had fallen behind on payments.

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The late or missed installments are a sign of faltering financial health among a segment of the US population, some analysts say, as the nation’s total consumer debt rises to a record $18.2 trillion and the Trump administration moves to collect on federal student loans. read more