By TERESA CEROJANO and MATT OTT, Associated Press

Markets on Wall Street climbed early Friday after long-awaited government data showed that inflation remained elevated but that prices rose less than feared last month. The report buttressed expectations that the Federal Reserve will offer up another interest rate cut when the central bank’s officials meet next week.

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Futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.7% while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.5%.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury immediately fell after the release of the inflation report, dropping to 3.97% from 4.01%.

Friday’s inflation report — released more than a week late — showed that the costs of some imported goods rose while rental prices cooled.

Consumer prices increased 3% in September from a year earlier, up from 2.9% in August. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices also rose 3%, a decline from 3.1% in the previous month. Both figures are above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.

The report on the consumer price index is being issued more than a week late because of the government shutdown, now in its fourth week. The Trump administration recalled some Labor Department employees to produce the figures because they are used to set the annual cost-of-living adjustment for roughly 70 million Social Security recipients.

The figures reflect a smaller increase than many economists had forecast, and will likely encourage the Federal Reserve to cut its key interest rate when it meets next week for the second time this year.

Oil prices were higher following Thursday’s 5% surge after the U.S. and Europe imposed more sanctions on Russian oil.

Early Friday, U.S. benchmark crude gained 17 cents to $61.96 per barrel, while Brent crude rose 25 cents $66.24 per barrel.

Intel climbed 6.8% after it blew past Wall Street’s third quarter profit projections. It was Intel’s first earnings report since President Trump announced that the U.S. government was taking a 10% stake in the struggling chipmaker. The company has been slashing jobs and delaying major projects in an effort to shore up its finances to better compete with rivals that have since overtaken it.

Shares of Ford Motor Co. jumped 4.4% after the automaker easily beat Wall Street’s sales and profit targets. Revenue rose 9% from the same period last year, reaching a record $50.5 billion.

Gold, which has been soaring to records most of the year, fell 1.7% Friday to $4,075.10 per ounce.

At midday in Europe, Germany’s DAX rose 0.1%, while Britain’s FTSE 100 edged less than 0.1% higher. In Paris, the CAC 40 fell 0.3%.

Chinese benchmarks gained after the ruling Communist Party wrapped up an important planning meeting Thursday without any major policy changes.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained more than 0.7% to 26,160.15, while the Shanghai Composite index added 0.7% to 3,950.31.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 rebounded Friday from the previous day’s losses, adding 1.4% to 49,299.65. Tech shares were among gainers as sentiment was boosted by the White House confirmation of Trump’s meeting with Xi.

Data released Friday showed Japan’s core inflation rate rose to 2.9% in September from 2.7% in August. Despite price pressures, the Bank of Japan is widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged at a meeting next week: newly elected Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has expressed a preference to keep rates low.

In Seoul, the Kospi surged 2.5% to 3,941.59, a fresh record, as gains on Wall Street and news of the Trump-Xi summit lifted investor sentiment and eased trade worries.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped nearly 0.2% to 9,019.00 after preliminary data showed Australia’s factory activity contracted to 49.7 in October from 51.4 in September.

India’s BSE Sensex fell more than 0.5%, while Taiwan’s stock market was closed for a holiday.

By FATIMA HUSSEIN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Social Security cost-of-living increase will go up by 2.8% in 2026, which translates to an average increase of more than $56 for retirees every month, agency officials said Friday.

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The benefits increase for nearly 71 million Social Security recipients will go into effect beginning in January. And increased payments to nearly 7.5 million people receiving Supplemental Security Income will begin on Dec. 31.

Friday’s announcement was meant to be made last week but was delayed because of the federal government shutdown.

The cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, for retirees and disabled beneficiaries is financed by payroll taxes collected from workers and their employers, up to a certain annual salary, which is slated to increase to $184,500 in 2026, from $176,100 in 2025.

Recipients received a 2.5% cost-of-living boost in 2025 and a 3.2% increase in their benefits in 2024, after a historically large 8.7% benefit increase in 2023, brought on by record 40-year-high inflation.

The smaller increase for 2026 reflects moderating inflation.

Social Security Administration Commissioner Frank Bisignano said in a statement Friday that the annual cost of living adjustment “is one way we are working to make sure benefits reflect today’s economic realities and continue to provide a foundation of security.”

Emerson Sprick, the Bipartisan Policy Center’s director of retirement and labor policy, said in a statement that cost-of-living increases “can’t solve all the financial challenges households face or all the shortcomings of the program.”

SEATTLE (AP) — Alaska Airlines said its operations have resumed Friday after it had to ground its planes for hours because of an information technology outage.

The airline said in a statement that 229 flights were canceled because of the outage and that more flight disruptions were expected as it worked to “reposition aircraft and crews.”

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Alaska Airlines said it is working on getting travelers affected by the disruption to their destinations.

It asked that passengers check their flight status before heading to the airport.

The grounding Thursday affected Alaska Air and Horizon Air flights.

Hawaiian Airlines, which was bought by Alaska Air Group last year, said its flights were operating as scheduled.

In July, Alaska grounded all of its flights for about three hours after the failure of a critical piece of hardware at a data center.

There has been a history of computer problems disrupting flights in the industry, though most of the time the disruptions are only temporary.

By GENE JOHNSON and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press

The deployment of National Guard troops on the streets of Washington faces challenges in two courts on Friday — one in the nation’s capital and another in West Virginia — while across the country a judge in Portland, Oregon, will consider whether to let President Donald Trump deploy troops there.

Law enforcement officers are seen outside a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Portland, Ore., Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

The hearings are the latest developments in a head-spinning array of lawsuits and overlapping rulings prompted by Trump’s push to send the military into Democratic-run cities over fierce resistance from mayors and governors. Deployment remains blocked in the Chicago area, where all sides are waiting to see if the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes to allow it.

Here’s what to know about legal efforts to block or deploy the National Guard in various cities.

A challenge to troops in Washington, D.C.

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, set a hearing Friday to consider whether to grant District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb ‘s request for an order that would get more than 2,000 Guard members off the streets of Washington.

In August, President Donald Trump issued an executive order declaring a crime emergency in the city — though the U.S. Justice Department itself says violent crime there is at a 30-year low.

National Guard soldiers patrol on the National Mall near the U.S. Capitol, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

Within a month, more than 2,300 National Guard troops from eight states and the district were patrolling the city under the command of the Secretary of the Army. Trump also deployed hundreds of federal agents to assist in patrols.

It Is unclear how long the deployments will last, but attorneys from Schwalb’s office said Guard troops are likely to remain in the city through at least next summer.

“Our constitutional democracy will never be the same if these occupations are permitted to stand,” they wrote.

Government lawyers said Congress empowered the president to control the D.C. National Guard’s operation. They argued that Schwalb’s lawsuit is a frivolous “political stunt” threatening to undermine a successful campaign to reduce violent crime in the district.

Republican governors from several states also sent units to D.C. Although the emergency period ended in September, more than 2,200 troops remain. Several states told The Associated Press they would bring their units home by Nov. 30, unless extended.

West Virginia judge considers that state’s deployment

Among the states that sent troops to the nation’s capital was West Virginia. A civic organization called the West Virginia Citizen Action Group says Gov. Patrick Morrisey exceeded his authority by deploying 300 to 400 National Guard members to support Trump’s efforts there.

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Under state law, the group argues, the governor may deploy the National Guard out of state only for certain purposes, such as responding to a natural disaster or another state’s emergency request.

“The Governor cannot transform our citizen-soldiers into a roving police force available at the whim of federal officials who bypass proper legal channels,” the group’s attorneys, with the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia, wrote in a court document.

Morrisey has said West Virginia “is proud to stand with President Trump in his effort to restore pride and beauty to our nation’s capital,” and his office has said the deployment was authorized under federal law. The state attorney general’s office has asked Kanawha County Circuit Court Judge Richard D. Lindsay to reject the case, saying the group has not been harmed and lacks standing to challenge the governor’s decision.

Troops in Oregon remain in limbo

U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee in Portland, is in a particularly tricky legal spot.

She issued two temporary restraining orders earlier this month — one prohibiting the president from calling up Oregon troops so he could send them to Portland, and another blocking him from sending any Guard members to Oregon at all after he tried to evade the first order by deploying California troops instead.

A 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel on Monday put her first ruling on hold, allowing Trump to take command of the 200 Oregon National Guard troops. Now she has to decide whether to dissolve her second order as well — clearing the way for the deployment.

The Justice Department has insisted she is required to immediately dissolve the second order, because its reasoning was the same as that rejected by the appeals panel. Attorneys for the state disagree, saying she must wait to see if the 9th Circuit will reconsider the panel’s ruling.

A hearing set for Friday was expected to focus on those arguments.

In Chicago, awaiting word from the Supreme Court

U.S. District Judge April Perry on Wednesday blocked the deployment of Guard troops to the Chicago area until the case has been decided either in her court or the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes. Perry had already blocked the deployment for two weeks through a temporary restraining order.

Attorneys representing the federal government said they would agree to extend the order but emphasized that they would continue pressing for an emergency order from the Supreme Court that would allow for the deployment.

Lawyers representing Chicago and Illinois have asked the Supreme Court to continue to block the deployment, calling it a “dramatic step.”

Democrats sue to stop Guard deployment in Memphis

In Tennessee, Democratic elected officials sued last Friday to stop the ongoing Guard deployment in Memphis. They said Republican Gov. Bill Lee, acting on a request from Trump, violated the state constitution, which says the Guard can be called up during “rebellion or invasion” — but only with state lawmakers’ blessing.

Since their arrival on Oct. 10, troops have been patrolling downtown Memphis, including near the iconic Pyramid, wearing camouflage uniforms and protective vests that say “military police,” with guns in holsters. Guard members have no arrest power, officials have said.

Associated Press writers Christine Fernando in Chicago, Adrian Sainz in Memphis and John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia, contributed.