By DAVID FISCHER, Associated Press

FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) — A man charged with attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump last year at his Florida golf course will return to court Thursday to once again explain why he wants to fire his court-appointed lawyers and represent himself.

Ryan Routh previously made the request earlier this month during a hearing in Fort Pierce before U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon. She did not rule during the hearing but said she would issue a written order later. But now Routh, 59, is set to be back in front of Cannon, a day after his court-appointed federal public defenders asked to be taken off the case.

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Routh is scheduled to stand trial in September, a year after prosecutors say a U.S. Secret Service agent thwarted his attempt to shoot Trump as he played golf. Routh has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer and several firearm violations.

The judge told Routh earlier this month that she doesn’t intend to delay the Sept. 8 start date of his trial, even if she lets him represent himself. Routh, who has described the extent of his education as two years of college after earning his GED certificate, told Cannon that he understood and would be ready.

In a June 29 letter to Cannon, Routh said that he and his attorneys were “a million miles apart” and that they were refusing to answer his questions. He also suggested in the same letter that he could be used in a prisoner exchange with Iran, China, North Korea or Russia.

“I could die being of some use and save all this court mess, but no one acts; perhaps you have the power to trade me away,” Routh wrote.

On Wednesday, the federal public defender’s office filed a motion for termination of appointment of counsel, claiming that “the attorney-client relationship is irreconcilably broken.” Attorneys said Routh refused to meet with them for a scheduled in-person meeting Tuesday morning at the federal detention center in Miami. They said Routh has refused six attempts to meet with their team.

“It is clear that Mr. Routh wishes to represent himself, and he is within his Constitutional rights to make such a demand,” the motion said.

The U.S. Supreme Court has held that criminal defendants have a right to represent themselves in court proceedings, as long as they can show a judge they are competent to waive their right to be defended by an attorney.

Prosecutors have said Routh methodically plotted to kill Trump for weeks before aiming a rifle through the shrubbery as Trump played golf on Sept. 15 at his West Palm Beach country club. A Secret Service agent spotted Routh before Trump came into view. Routh allegedly aimed his rifle at the agent, who opened fire, causing Routh to drop his weapon and flee without firing a shot.

Law enforcement obtained help from a witness who prosecutors said informed officers that he saw a person fleeing. The witness was then flown in a police helicopter to a nearby interstate where Routh was arrested, and the witnesses confirmed it was the person he had seen, prosecutors have said.

Routh has another, unrelated hearing in Cannon’s courtroom scheduled for Friday on the admissibility of certain evidence and testimony that can be used for the trial.

In addition to the federal charges, Routh also has pleaded not guilty to state charges of terrorism and attempted murder.

By STAN CHOE, Associated Press Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is hanging near its records on Thursday, but the calm surface of the U.S. stock market is hiding some roiling moves underneath. Alphabet is rising, and Tesla is tumbling following a jumble of profit reports from big U.S. companies.

The S&P 500 was 0.2% higher in morning trading after setting an all-time high the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 204 points, or 0.5%, as of 10 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2% higher.

Alphabet climbed 1.6% after the company behind Google and YouTube delivered a fatter profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It’s leaning more into artificial-intelligence technology and said it’s increasing its budget to spend on AI chips and other investments this year by $10 billion to $85 billion.

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That helped push up other stocks in the AI industry, including a 0.8% rise for Nvidia. The chip company was one of the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500 because it’s the largest on Wall Street in terms of value.

But a 7.9% drop for Tesla kept the market in check. Elon Musk’s electric-vehicle company reported results for the spring that were roughly in line with or above analysts’ expectations, and Musk is trying to highlight Tesla’s moves into AI and robotaxis.

The focus, though, remains on how Musk’s foray into politics is turning off potential customers, and he said several rough quarters may be ahead as “we’re in this weird transition period where we’ll lose a lot of incentives in the U.S.”

Stocks have broadly been rallying for weeks on hopes that President Donald Trump will reach trade deals with other countries that will lower his stiff proposed tariffs, along with the risk that they could cause a recession and drive up inflation. The record-setting gains have been so strong that criticism is rising about how expensive stock prices have become. That in turn puts pressure on companies to deliver solid growth in profits in order to justify their gains.

Besides Tesla, Chipotle Mexican Grill also helped weigh on the market. The burrito chain delivered a profit for the spring that topped analysts’ expectations, but its growth in revenue came up short. Its stock fell 12%.

IBM dropped 10.4% even though it likewise reported a stronger profit than expected. Analysts pointed to slowing growth in its software business, among other things underneath the surface.

American Airlines lost 7.9% despite reporting a stronger profit than expected. The company said it expects to report a loss for the summer quarter. It also gave a forecast for full-year results that had a wide range: between a loss of 20 cents per share and a profit of 80 cents per share, depending on how the economy performs.

Reactions in the stock market have generally been stronger than usual when companies beat or miss their profit targets by a wide margin, according to Julian Emanuel at Evercore.

Other extreme moves have also been roaring underneath the market’s surface, including huge swings for “meme stocks.” Those are stocks where traders are looking to jump in amid online cheerleading and ride it higher before getting left holding the bag when momentum stops. Opendoor Technologies is heading for a gain of 10.9% following a manic stretch where it swung by at least 10%, up or down, in 10 straight days.

Such swings, though, haven’t been showing up in overall market indexes, which have been gliding recently. The S&P 500 hasn’t had a day where it swung by at least 1% in a month.

In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady following the latest signals that the U.S. economy seems to be holding up OK despite all the pressures on it from tariffs and elsewhere.

One report said that fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, a potential signal of easing layoffs. A separate report from S&P Global suggested growth in U.S. business activity accelerated in July, and the preliminary results easily topped economists’ expectations.

That helped nearly cement expectations on Wall Street that the Federal Reserve will hold interest rates steady at its next meeting next week, even though Trump has been agitating angrily for cuts. The European Central Bank, which had earlier been cutting its rates, also held steady on Thursday as it waits to see how Trump’s tariffs affect the economy.

The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note briefly approached 4.44% in the morning before pulling back to 4.40%, where it was late Wednesday.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Asia and Europe. Tokyo’s jump of 1.6% and London’s rise of 1% were two of the bigger gains.

AP Writer Teresa Cerojano contributed.

MINNETONKA, Minn. (AP) — Shares of UnitedHealth Group dove early Thursday after the health care giant said it was under a Department of Justice investigation.

The company said it has started complying with both criminal and civil requests from federal investigators and it was working cooperatively with them.

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“(UnitedHealth) has a long record of responsible conduct and effective compliance,” the company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal said federal officials had launched a civil fraud investigation into how the company records diagnoses that lead to extra payments for its Medicare Advantage, or MA, plans. Those are privately run versions of the government’s Medicare coverage program mostly for people ages 65 and over.

The company said Thursday that it reached out to the justice department “after reviewing media reports about investigations into certain aspects of the company’s participation in the Medicare program.”

Company shares were down nearly 4%, or $11.51, to $281.12 before markets opened Thursday.

By MATT OTT, Associated Press Business Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans filing for jobless aid fell for the sixth straight week, hitting the lowest level since mid-April.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that jobless claims for the week ending July 19 fell by 4,000 to 217,000. That’s fewer than the 227,000 new applications analysts were expecting.

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Applications for unemployment aid are viewed as representative of layoffs.

Earlier in July, the Labor Department reported that U.S. employers added a surprising 147,000 jobs in June, adding to evidence that the American labor market continues to show resilience despite uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s economic policies. The job gains were much more than expected and the unemployment rate ticked down 4.1% from 4.2% in May.

Though the job market is broadly healthy by historical standards, some weakness has surfaced as employers contend with fallout from Trump’s policies, especially his aggressive tariffs, which raise prices for businesses and consumers. Most economists believe the import duties make the economy less efficient by reducing competition. They also invite retaliatory tariffs from other countries, hurting U.S. exporters and potentially driving businesses to freeze hiring or cut staff.

The deadline on most of Trump’s stiff proposed taxes on imports were extended again until Aug. 1. Unless Trump reaches deals with countries to lower the tariffs, economists fear they could act as a drag on the economy and trigger another bout of inflation.

Companies that have announced job cuts this year include Procter & Gamble, Workday, Dow, CNN, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines, Microsoft, Google and Facebook parent company Meta.

The Labor Department’s report Thursday showed that the four-week average of claims, which evens out some of the weekly volatility, declined by 5,000 to 224,500.

The total number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits for the week of July 12 remained stable, rising by just 4,000 to 1.96 million.