By Redd Brown, Bloomberg News

Creatine is shedding its gym-bro reputation, unlocking lucrative new markets as women and older Americans get wise to the benefits of the long-stigmatized supplement. Sales are booming as a result.

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As the COVID-19 pandemic put health and wellbeing front and center for many Americans, creatine started riding the same wave that pushed up demand for anything from high-protein food products and weight-loss drugs to an interest in weight lifting, among other lifestyle changes.

Vitamin- and supplement-seller GNC, which has over 4,000 locations across the US, has seen creatine sales surge 75% from 2020. “Creatine is now in more baskets than almost any other supplement we carry,” said Mark Butera, GNC’s vice president of merchandising.

Consumer demographics are changing too. Women now account for 30% of all creatine purchases at the retailer, up from 18% in 2020, while buyers’ average age has risen to 35 years from 30.

Creatine is a naturally occurring compound produced by the body for energy production — indirectly contributing to muscle growth by enabling more training. It’s different from protein, which supplies the materials for actual tissue growth.

Research into creatine — first discovered and isolated in 1832 — has largely focused on adult male athletes with new inquiries increasingly focusing on the benefits beyond muscle building, including on bone and cognitive health across all ages and genders.

“It’s something to consider for likely anybody on the planet in some way or another,” according to Darren Candow, a professor at the University of Regina focusing on exercise physiology, nutrition and aging.

Academic research on creatine supplementation has grown steadily, with papers published rising 7.2% on average over the last five years, according to data compiled by PubMed, a division of the US Department of Health Human Services. AlzChem Group AG, the most prominent creatine producer outside China, is a major funder of such research, supporting studies of over 30 scientists in female health, longevity and cognitive performance, it said in written comments.

AlzChem doubled its production capacity in 2022 amid “exceptionally strong” demand, with another expansion planned this year and a further increase currently being evaluated.

Enthusiasm aside, creatine supplements alone won’t result in the rapid body transformations touted online.

“Creatine is both underrated because there’s a lot of people that are still kind of fearful of creatine and there’s so many benefits to it, but I also think it’s one of the most overrated supplements as well,” said Scott Forbes, an associate professor at Brandon University studying creatine’s effectiveness on athletic performance and brain health.

Stigmatization

Creatine’s growing popularity is overcoming decades of stigmatization through associations with performance-enhancing drugs.

It first garnered mainstream attention during the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics when British athletes controversially used the little-known supplement, including Linford Christie, who went on to win the gold medal in the men’s 100-meter race. Creatine’s reputation was further tarnished during Major League Baseball’s so-called “steroid era.”

“Turns out that everyone in the MLB that was taking steroids was also taking creatine and so in the hearts and minds of the American consumer creatine was, therefore, a steroid,” said Dan McCormick, co-founder and chief executive officer of Create Wellness, which sells flavored creatine gummies.

Lingering misconceptions about side effects ranging from hair loss and kidney damage have contributed to its reputation, casting it into obscurity in niche bodybuilding and athletic communities.

In reality, creatine is among the most well-studied, efficacious and safe supplements in sports science, University of Regina’s Candow said.

Healthfluencers

Creatine’s budding popularity cuts against slowing growth within the supplement market at large. Church & Dwight Co., which sells vitamins under its Vitafusion brand, is considering selling the division amid flagging growth and heightened competition. GNC, for its part, could also use the boost five years after filing for bankruptcy.

Compare that to trends of creatine sales on Amazon.com Inc.’s online market place. The category is projected to grow 13% to more than $400 million this year, according to Jungle Scout data. In June, sales jumped 31% to $41 million alone.

Online “wellness translators” — such as podcast hosts Andrew Huberman, Joe Rogan and Tim Ferriss — helped drive demand, translating scientific research for listeners “in a way that’s applicable to their lives,” McCormick said.

After launching Create in 2022, sales grew to $5 million in 2023, before ballooning to $20 million the next year. Now, Create, which will be launching its products in Target Corp. stores nationwide in October, should generate sales between $40 million and $80 million by year-end, according to McCormick.

Globally, the creatine market is seen quadrupling from 2024 levels to $4.2 billion by 2030, according to Grand View Research. At an annual growth rate of 25%, that’s well ahead of the projected 6.4% for the wider supplement market.

Applications of creatine have expanded to helping women mitigate some symptoms of menopause, including brain fog and — alongside semi-regular weightlifting sessions — improved bone integrity which declines with age.

Uses could increase in the future as researchers aim to study its impact on women during pregnancy, cancer prevention and healthier aging, said Candow. Further research shows signs the supplement may improve symptoms with some of the most pernicious, degenerative brain diseases as well.

“One study on Alzheimer’s disease that showed that if they supplement with creatine they can actually increase the creatine stores within the brain and they also improved cognitive function,” Brandon University’s Forbes said.

©2025 Bloomberg News. Visit at bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By STAN CHOE, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are drifting near their record levels on Tuesday, as expectations for coming cuts to interest rates by the Federal Reserve continue to support financial markets.

The S&P 500 added 0.1% and was just below its all-time high set last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 32 points, or 0.1%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2% higher, coming off its own record.

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Treasury yields were holding steadier in the bond market following their sharp slide during recent weeks, when expectations cemented that the Fed will cut interest rates for the first time this year at its next meeting in a week.

A series of reports showing the U.S. job market is slowing has traders convinced that the Fed will see it as the bigger problem for the economy now, rather than the threat of inflation worsening because of President Donald Trump’s tariffs. While easier rates from the Fed can give the economy a boost, they can also push inflation higher.

The latest signal on the job market will arrive in less than half an hour, when the U.S. government will release preliminary revisions to hiring numbers for the country through March.

The hope on Wall Street is that it and other economic reports show that the job market is slowing enough to need the help of the Fed through lower interest rates, but not so weak that a recession is coming. Inflation also needs to stay at reasonable levels, even though it looks tough to get below the Fed’s target of 2%. A lot is riding on such a not-too-hot, not-too-cold scenario: Investors have already sent U.S. stock prices to records on expectations that it’s coming.

On Wall Street, UnitedHealth Group climbed 2.9% after saying its executives plan to tell investors and analysts that it’s sticking with its profit forecast for 2025. That helped it trim its loss for the year so far, which came into the day at 36.7%, as insurers across the industry have contended with soaring medical costs.

Fox dropped 5.3% after Rupert Murdoch’s family said they’ve reached a deal on control of the 94-year-old mogul’s media empire after his death. The agreement ensures that there will be no change in direction at Fox News, the most popular network for President Donald Trump and conservatives.

The deal creates a trust establishing control of the Fox Corp. for Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert’s chosen heir who has been running Fox in recent years, along with his younger sisters, Grace and Chloe.

Apple slipped 0.3% ahead of its unveiling of the next generation of iPhones amid a global trade war that’s added a potential price increase to the company’s marquee product.

Nebius Group, a Dutch company working in artificial-intelligence infrastructure, saw its stock that trades in the United States soar 43.9% after it announced a contract to deliver GPU services to Microsoft. The contract could be worth between $17.4 billion and $19.4 billion, and it runs through 2031. Microsoft stock added 0.6%.

In stock markets abroad, France’s CAC 40 rose 0.2% as the market remained relatively calm even though its government is facing a crisis of confidence after legislators voted to oust another prime minister. It and other governments around the world, including the United States, are facing increased scrutiny on how they plan to pay for their spending.

Indexes were mixed across the rest of Europe and in Asia.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 erased early gains to finish 0.4% lower as political uncertainty continued after Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said over the weekend that he planned to step down. Who will replace him is still uncertain and may take weeks to decide.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury was holding at 4.05%, where it was late Monday.

AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.

Like a crisp breeze and a color-changing leaf, pumpkin spice is the harbinger of fall. And it’s here — unavoidably so. As in, you can’t turn your head in a grocery store without seeing some kind of pumpkin-spice-flavored food: cookies, pancake mix, oatmeal, coffee creamer, granola bars, donuts, muffins, hummus, cereal, ice cream … you get the picture.

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Pumpkin spice is traditionally a blend of five spices — cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves and allspice — and they’re all sourced primarily outside the U.S.

The spice industry is bracing for how tariffs could impact prices to import a variety of spices. The American Spice Trade Association says many spices require tropical conditions, which means they can’t be cultivated domestically. That includes staple spices like cinnamon, pepper, nutmeg, cloves and vanilla.

There is a 10% baseline tariff on all countries, with higher tariffs for certain countries. A major source for global spices is India, which faces a 50% tariff; a variety of spices originate there including red chilli, cumin, turmeric, black pepper, curry, nutmeg, cardamom, coriander, ginger and mustard seeds, among others.

Back to pumpkin spices. Let’s break down where they’re sourced from, based on import data from the World Bank’s World Integrated Trade Solution (WITS), and the tariffs those countries face:

Cinnamon:

Indonesia: 19% tariff.
Vietnam: 20% tariff.
India: 50% tariff.
Sri Lanka: 20% tariff.
China: 30% tariff.

Nutmeg:

Indonesia: 19% tariff
India: 50% tariff.
Vietnam: 20% tariff.
Sri Lanka: 20% tariff.
Netherlands: 15% tariff (the Netherlands re-imports spices)

Ginger:

China: 30% tariff.
Netherlands: 15% tariff.
India: 50% tariff.
Peru: 10% tariff.
Thailand: 19% tariff.

Cloves

Madagascar: 10% tariff.
Indonesia: 19% tariff.
Tanzania: 10% tariff.
Sri Lanka: 20% tariff.
United Arab Emirates: 10% tariff.

Allspice

Jamaica: 10% tariff.
Mexico: 25% tariff.
Honduras: 10% tariff.
Guatemala: 10% tariff.
Nicaragua: 18% tariff.

Tariffs are expected to increase the cost to ship spices to the U.S. That means that producers will need to absorb prices and/or pass them onto the consumer. That could result in fewer premium spice options and higher prices on grocery store shelves, in restaurants and, yes, even in your pumpkin spice latte. The taste of your food and spices may even change if companies need to source from countries that produce similar (but not identical) spices at a lower tariff rate — or turn to artificial flavors, as some products already have.

For McCormick & Company, a worldwide spice brand, it calculates its exposure to tariffs at about $90 million annually, with $50 million in 2025 alone. The company sources globally: roughly 17,000 unique materials from over 90 countries, which helps limit its tariff exposure. In the U.S., 90% of what’s sold is sourced domestically. In the call, executives said the tariffs don’t encourage U.S. production, but do raise costs for U.S. businesses and restaurants, as well as consumers.

There may be hope: The American Spice Trade Association says it’s possible that the administration is considering a reduction in tariffs on specific commodities that can only be sourced abroad, like spices (which it says can be considered “Unavailable Natural Resources”).

That said, the financial impact of tariffs takes time to settle in so it may not impact spice prices this fall. Starbucks, which arguably launched the pumpkin spice craze, has yet to change the price of its signature latte.

Anna Helhoski writes for NerdWallet. Email: anna@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @AnnaHelhoski.

The article How Tariffs Could Mess With Your Pumpkin Spice originally appeared on NerdWallet.

By AMY TAXIN and ANNE D’INNOCENZIO, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — At a Home Depot parking lot, a man patrols on a bicycle for federal immigration agents, toting a megaphone on his hip so he can blast a warning to day laborers waiting to land a landscaping or construction job.

The workers from Mexico, El Salvador and elsewhere carry whistles to also sound the alarm, while activists swap details over two-way radios about whether cars whizzing by could be unmarked vehicles carrying officers preparing for a raid.

Their work is cut out for them. Agents have raided the lot outside the 108,000 square-foot Home Depot store in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles at least five times this summer, rounding up some immigrants and sending others running in search of safety.

A day laborer waits for work in the parking lot of a Home Depot in the Van Nuys section of Los Angeles, TAug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Home Depot stores in Southern California have long been an informal job-seeking hub for day laborers in the country both legally and illegally. Now the locations have become a prime target for immigration agents.

In fact, Home Depot was reportedly mentioned as a target for immigration raids by Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff and chief architect of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, earlier this year.

At least a dozen Home Depot stores have been targeted, some of them repeatedly, in Southern California since the administration stepped up its immigration crackdown this summer.

Immigrant advocates sued over the raids but on Monday the Supreme Court cleared the way for federal agents to continue conducting sweeping immigration operations for now in Los Angeles, the latest victory for the Trump administration at the high court. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called it “a win” for the rule of law, while advocates swiftly criticized the ruling.

“When you undermine the civil rights of those who are more vulnerable, you undermine the civil rights of everyone else,” Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said Monday during a press conference held near a Home Depot.

Last month, outside a Home Depot in Monrovia, a man ran onto a nearby freeway to flee immigration authorities, and was struck and killed.

The Van Nuys location has been hit particularly hard.

Escaping three raids

Javier, a 52-year-old Mexican immigrant who has lived in U.S. states spanning from California to Kansas over the past three decades, said he narrowly escaped three raids at the store, avoiding agents by hiding beneath a truck, peeling off in his car and dashing inside among the busy shoppers.

“They come in big vans and they all go out to chase people,” he said in Spanish, asking that his last name not be used out of fear of government reprisal.

Luis poses with a megaphone used to alert other day laborers of ICE operations in the parking lot of a Home Depot in the Van Nuys section of Los Angeles, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

The store sits on property near the Van Nuys Airport that is owned by Los Angeles World Airports, a department in a city whose policies limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement that her office supports the litigation against the sweeps and has trained city workers to prepare for immigration enforcement on city-owned properties.

City councilperson Ysabel Jurado has voiced opposition to a plan for a new Home Depot in her district, contending the company hasn’t done enough to fight the raids.

Chris Newman, legal director for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said “these locations should be protected by the city to the same degree the public libraries are.”

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.

Contractors make up about half its business

Immigrant advocates say the country’s largest big-box home improvement retailer benefits from having an ample labor pool at the ready for contractors and should do more to protect customers, employees and day laborers.

The Atlanta-based company, with nearly $160 billion in annual sales through Feb. 2, counts on contractors and professionals for about half its business — and that’s a key draw for largely immigrant-day laborers. Its second-ranked competitor, Lowe’s, gets about 30% of its business from contractors, relying more heavily on homeowners and DIY enthusiasts, said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail.

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“So if you’re going for the volume, if you’re going where people are, and you can enforce things, you go to Home Depot,” Saunders said.

The raids haven’t hurt overall sales, but the disruptions could affect specific stores by making some customers afraid to shop there, Saunders said.

In the Los Angeles area, the company’s stores saw a 10.7% decline in foot traffic in June from a year ago and a 10% decline in July, according to Placer.ai, an analytics firm that tracks people’s movements based on cellphone usage. That’s a larger drop than the 3.8% and 2.7% declines reported at stores nationwide for the same months.

Home Depot says it is not alerted to raids

Home Depot has repeatedly denied being involved in immigration enforcement operations. The company’s late co-founder Bernie Marcus supported Trump, though a Home Depot political action committee has donated to both Democrats and Republicans.

The company said it isn’t told if a raid is going to take place at any of its roughly 2,300 stores.

“We tell associates to report any suspected immigration enforcement activity immediately and not engage with the activity for their safety,” said Beth Marlowe, a company spokesperson, adding that if employees feel uneasy after a raid, they can go home for the rest of the day with pay.

In Van Nuys, witnesses said federal agents have arrested those in the lot before appearing to ask about their immigration status. Local managers have shut the store’s automated glass doors to keep agents out, they said.

“They’re just fishing,” said Luis, a 37-year-old day laborer who is a legal resident and grew up in the United States after arriving from Mexico as a child. He declined to use his last name fearing government reprisal.

‘Home Depot is not an innocent bystander’

The trend of workers gathering outside Home Depot began with the rise of the home improvement retail store that allowed people, including contractors, to price shop and buy materials directly, said Nik Theodore, a professor of urban planning and policy at the University of Illinois in Chicago.

“The basis of competition began to shift and what distinguishes a contractor from getting the bid or not more and more has to do with labor costs,” Theodore said. “Home Depot is not an innocent bystander in all of this. Their sources of success were instrumental in catalyzing this change.”

As the trend grew so did complaints about workers congregating in store parking lots, and in 2008 Los Angeles passed an ordinance requiring similar retailers opening up to adopt plans to provide relief, such as a seating area, bathrooms and trash facilities.

In the parking lot in Van Nuys, a non-profit runs a labor center that takes workers’ names and tracks employers who fail to pay as promised. That’s one reason workers said they keep returning even after the repeated raids.

The other is community.

Since the raids, Javier said he’s started considering returning to Mexico to wait out the Trump administration. In the meantime, he said he’ll keep coming to Van Nuys to find work.

“It’s a place that becomes familiar,” he said. “Here, all of us together, we’ve become friends.”

D’Innocenzio reported from New York. Associated Press writer Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.