By DAMIAN J. TROISE, Associated Press Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are holding relatively steady in morning trading on Wall Street Wednesday as more U.S. companies turn in their latest quarterly reports.

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The S&P 500 rose 0.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 65 points, or 0.1%, as of 9:48 a.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.3%.

Companies from a broad spectrum of industries reported their latest financial results and gave updated forecasts.

Taser maker Axon Enterprise slumped 17.3% after forecasting weaker profits than analysts were expecting. Live Nation Entertainment fell 6.4% after its latest results fell short of analysts’ forecasts.

On the winning side, McDonald’s rose 3.1% after reporting that its sales benefited from the return of its popular Snack Wraps in the third quarter.

The latest round of earnings offers Wall Street a source of information on consumers, businesses and the economy that is otherwise lacking amid the government shutdown. Important monthly updates on inflation and employment have ceased, leaving investors, economists and the Federal Reserve without a fuller picture of the economy.

There are still several informative private economic updates that Wall Street can review.

A monthly report from ADP showed that private payrolls rose more than expected in October. The report offers a partial glimpse into the job market, which has been generally weakening and raising broader concerns about economic growth.

Treasury yields edged higher in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.12% from 4.09% late Tuesday.

European markets were mostly lower and Asian markets closed mostly lower.

When you work in an industry like personal finance, it can be embarrassing to admit that you went against the best practices that you preach. But I’ll keep it real and confess that I stuck with a mediocre bank for years without seeking out something better. I was a customer at what I’ll refer to as Big Bank. (Yes, you’ve heard of its real name.)

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My relationship with Big Bank began, as many mistakes do, in college. Big Bank had a branch on campus and I knew it had a large ATM network, but that was the extent of my research before I opened a checking and savings account.

I stuck with Big Bank for the next decade. I even added a couple of credit cards and an auto loan from Big Bank. It felt like a choice that would streamline my finances, with a variety of accounts available to me behind the same user login.

Over time, however, I became increasingly aware of the many ways that Big Bank was deficient. Better savings account interest rates were available elsewhere, as were credit cards with better cash back and rewards programs. But the inertia (and, to be honest, laziness) of not wanting to make the switch kept me at Big Bank for way longer than I should have been.

Making the switch

After I started working on the banking team at NerdWallet, I couldn’t feign ignorance or justify my inaction anymore. Based on the research I was doing every day, it was clear I was getting a raw deal, especially when it came to my savings. I slowly started to release the grip that Big Bank had on my finances by opening a new high-yield savings account at a different bank, and I re-routed a percentage of my paychecks into that account.

I immediately started earning literally hundreds of times more than the measly 0.01% annual percentage yield that I was getting at Big Bank. The interest rate at my new bank has fluctuated over the years since, from the lows of the pandemic to recent peaks, but even so, it’s stayed well above the abysmal rate I was getting before.

As I began exploring my options elsewhere and started opening other accounts, I still found it hard to give up on Big Bank for my checking. I had set up a legion of automatic payments for subscriptions and bills through that account, and the idea of transitioning everything over felt like a bridge too far, so I put it off.

But one day, in a surge of self-determination, I did what had been so hard for so many years: I spent five minutes opening a checking account at the same bank where I had my high-yield savings, and then I spent another five minutes switching over my direct deposit information.

Of course, it took a while to finally transfer all of my automatic payments and subscriptions to my new account, and it wasn’t the most convenient process. Leslie Beck, owner and principal at Compass Wealth Management, says this is by design.

“Banks try to make their services ‘sticky’ and make it as difficult as possible for you to leave them,” Beck says. She says she encourages her clients to gradually move recurring payments to the new account instead of rushing to do it all at once.

“It might make things a little more complicated for a period of time,” Beck says, “but it makes the process of moving things over more palatable.”

Choose your own banking adventure

If you’re considering making the jump from a suboptimal bank to a new and better one, keep in mind that you don’t necessarily have to make the switch all at once, or even completely switch at all. As long as you’re meeting the activity requirements and avoiding fees, it’s more than fine to keep accounts open at multiple banks.

Bill Shafransky, a senior wealth advisor with Moneco Advisors, recommends his clients take a “micro and macro” approach to their banking. He says that local, “micro” community banks tend to have more concierge-like customer service where the employees know you by name, and you might get better financing options for things like auto loans. Larger national “macro” banks, on the other hand, might have a better suite of products and services — especially for international travel — but might not have the personal touch of a smaller bank.

According to Shafransky, having both a micro and macro bank account can give customers a wide range of products, good customer service, and strong interest rates.

“It comes down to having options,” Shafransky says. “A lot of people don’t want a big institution or a small institution for different reasons, but having accounts at each can give you more freedom. It all comes down to what you’re looking for.”

Comparison shopping and mixing-and-matching your bank accounts can help you get the best of all worlds. Don’t settle for less than what you can get, especially in terms of interest rates and the services that you want from your bank.

Chanelle Bessette writes for NerdWallet. Email: cbessette@nerdwallet.com.

The article Why I Stayed with the Same Mediocre Big Bank for 10-Plus Years originally appeared on NerdWallet.

By LINLEY SANDERS, JOSH BOAK, and AMELIA THOMSON-DEVEAUX, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump wasn’t on the ballot in Tuesday’s elections, but many voters in key races made their choice in opposition to him or considered him to be irrelevant, according to the AP Voter Poll.

It was hardly an endorsement of his nearly 10 months back in the White House.

That theme played out in the governor races in New Jersey and Virginia, the mayoral contest in New York City and a state proposition to redraw congressional districts in California.

The AP Voter Poll, which surveyed more than 17,000 voters in those places, found that most voters disapproved of Trump’s performance as president, and many thought his aggressive approach to immigration had “gone too far.” Republicans and those who lean toward the Republican Party were more likely to say Trump wasn’t a factor for their vote, even though most approve of his job performance.

Few cast a vote to support Trump, while more wanted to oppose him

Most presidents fare poorly in the off-cycle elections that come a year after their White House wins, and Trump fit solidly into that pattern as Democrats boasted victories in Tuesday’s key races.

In both Virginia and New Jersey, slightly fewer than half of voters said Trump was “not a factor” in their respective votes for governor. Beside some social media posts and tele-rallies Monday night, Trump did little to help Republican candidates in those states.

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About 6 in 10 voters in New York City’s mayoral race said Trump did not play a role in their decision. That’s despite his threat to withdraw federal funding if Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani won, and his social media endorsement of Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor. New York City voters picked Mamdani to be their next mayor, setting up a possible showdown with the Trump administration.

For those who did identify Trump as a factor, it was to his disadvantage.

Roughly 4 in 10 voters in New Jersey and Virginia said they were casting ballots to oppose Trump. Fewer said they were voting to show their support for the Republican president.

Trump weighed more heavily in the minds of California voters, who were voting on a proposition to determine whether to redistrict the state’s congressional seats in favor of Democrats. The whole effort is designed to rebut Trump’s efforts to redraw congressional districts in Republican states with the specific goal of preserving the GOP House majority in next year’s midterm races.

Only about 4 in 10 California voters said Trump did not factor into their decision. But about half said they were voting to object to Trump. Roughly 1 in 10 California voters said they were voting with support for him.

Voters largely disapproved of Trump, and many cast ballots accordingly

Many voters disapprove of how Trump has performed since returning to the White House in January. That could be a problem for Republican candidates, as Trump has made loyalty to him a must for GOP candidates.

Only about 4 in 10 voters across Virginia and New Jersey approve of how the president is handling his job. Approval was even lower in the Democratic strongholds of California and New York City, where close to two-thirds of voters disapprove of his leadership so far.

Not surprisingly, the voters who were likeliest to disapprove of him were more likely to say they were signaling their dislike of him when casting a ballot. Meanwhile, voters who like Trump’s job performance were more likely to say the president wasn’t a factor in their choice.

Most Republican voters in Virginia and New Jersey approved of Trump’s performance as president, but that didn’t mean they saw him as a major motivator. About 6 in 10 Republicans in both states said Trump wasn’t a factor in their vote.

Many voters were unhappy with Trump’s immigration approach

In 2024, Trump capitalized on voters’ concerns about border crossings by immigrants without legal status.

This year, immigration fell far behind economic issues for voters when they were asked to think about what’s the most important issue facing their state or city. It wasn’t a top concern for voters in any of the four states where the AP Voter Poll was conducted. The survey also found that many voters were unhappy with Trump’s aggressive approach on deportations and arrests of immigrants believed to be in the country illegally.

Voters in California, New Jersey, New York City and Virginia were more likely to say that the Trump administration’s actions on immigration enforcement had “gone too far” than “been about right” or “not gone far enough.”

But voters in Virginia and New Jersey were about evenly split on whether their next governor should cooperate with the Trump administration on immigration enforcement.

Voters in New York City and California were more definitively opposed. About 6 in 10 voters in each place said their leaders should not be cooperating with the White House on immigration enforcement.

The 2025 AP Voter Poll, conducted by SSRS from Oct. 22 – Nov. 4, includes representative samples of registered voters in California (4,490), New Jersey (4,244), New York City (4,304) and Virginia (4,215). The AP Voter Poll combines data collected from validated registered voters online and by telephone, with data collected in-person from election day voters at approximately 30 precincts per state or city, excluding California. Respondents can complete the poll in English or Spanish. The overall margin of sampling error for voters, accounting for design effect, is plus or minus 2.0 percentage points in California, 2.1 percentage points in New Jersey, 2.2 percentage points in New York City, and 2.1 percentage points in Virginia.

By RODNEY MUHUMUZA, Associated Press

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — The opposition leader in Ugandan Parliament sees the Ugandan-born Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the New York mayoral race as an inspiring political shift but somehow too distant for many Africans at home.

“It’s a big encouragement even to us here in Uganda that it’s possible,” said Joel Ssenyonyi, who represents an area of the Ugandan capital of Kampala. “But we have a long way to get there.”

Uganda, where Mamdani was born in 1991, has had the same president for nearly four decades, despite attempts by multiple opposition leaders to defeat him in elections. President Yoweri Museveni, an authoritarian who is up for reelection in January, has rejected calls for his retirement, leading to fears of a volatile political transition. His most prominent challenger is a 43-year-old entertainer known as Bobi Wine, who charges he was cheated in the 2021 election.

Mamdani was briefly raised in Uganda and kept its citizenship even after he became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2018. He left Uganda to follow his father, political theorist Mahmood Mamdani, in South Africa and, later, the United States. His mother is filmmaker Mira Nair, whose work has been nominated for an Academy Award. The family maintains a home in Kampala, to which they regularly return and came earlier this year to celebrate Mamdani’s marriage.

The influence of his professor father

The elder Mamdani, a professor at Columbia University, is known as a demanding teacher and a key influence in the son’s outlook as a leading scholar in the field of postcolonial studies.

He has written critically of the Museveni government. His most recent book — “Slow Poison,” published in October by Harvard University Press — has juxtaposed the legacies of Museveni and late dictator Idi Amin, who is blamed for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Ugandans between 1971 and 1979. He argues that both leaders made violence central to their success and that while Amin retained popular support and didn’t die a millionaire, Museveni’s family is immensely wealthy while he’s no longer popular.

Robert Kabushenga, a retired media executive who is friendly with the Mamdani family, said Zohran Mamdani, like his parents, is unconventional. He “follows a tradition of very honest and clear thinkers who are willing to reimagine the politics,” said Kabushenga. “(His father) must be pleasantly surprised.”

Ugandans see hope in more youth joining politics

Mamdani’s victory in New York offers “a beacon of hope” for embattled activists and others in Uganda. The lesson is that “we should allow young people the opportunity to shape, and participate in, politics in a meaningful way,” Kabushenga said.

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Okello Ogwang, a professor of literature who has worked with the elder Mamdani at Uganda’s Makerere University, said the son’s success abroad means “it’s an important thing that we should invest in the youth.”

“He’s coming from here,” he said. “If we don’t invest in our youth, we are wasting our time.”

As a shy and soft-spoken teenager, Mamdani was briefly interested in a possible career as a newsman and later was part the rap ensemble Young Cardamom and HAB, whose eccentric music videos set in Kampala can still be viewed online.

Before he became a New York assembly member in 2021, the self-described democratic socialist was a community activist in the New York borough of Queens, helping vulnerable homeowners facing eviction.

His mayoral campaign, whose success in the Democratic primary sent a shockwave through the political world, focused on lowering the cost of living, promising free city buses, free child care, a rent freeze for people living in rent-stabilized apartments and government-run grocery stores, all paid for with taxes on the wealthy. Some Republicans have called for his denaturalization and deportation.

“He breaks new ground,” said Kabushenga. “He is willing to try in places that are new.”

Ssenyonyi, the Ugandan lawmaker, said Mamdani’s unlikely victory, as remote for Ugandans as it seems, deserves to be celebrated. “It inspires us,” he said. “Mamdani is Ugandan-born, like us.”