By STAN CHOE, Associated Press Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are drifting on Tuesday, and financial markets worldwide are holding relatively steady as the wait continues for more updates on President Donald Trump’s tariffs and how much they’re affecting the economy.

The S&P 500 was virtually unchanged in early trading, coming off a modest gain that added to its stellar May, and is within 3.4% of its all-time high set earlier this year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 30 points, or 0.1%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was flat.

Dollar General jumped 12.9% for one of the market’s bigger gains after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the start of the year than analysts expected. The discount retailer also raised its forecasts for profit and revenue over the full year, though it cautioned that “uncertainty exists for the remainder of the year” because of tariffs and how they might affect its customers.

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Many other companies have cut or withdrawn their financial forecasts for the upcoming year because of the uncertainty caused by Trump’s on-again-off-again rollout of tariffs. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said on Tuesday that it’s forecasting 1.6% growth for the U.S. economy this year, down from 2.8% last year.

But while Trump’s tariffs have certainly made U.S. households feel more pessimistic about where the economy and inflation are heading, reports have suggested only a moderate hit so far. Manufacturers have begun to feel the effects, but the overall job market has remained solid overall with layoffs remaining relatively low, and inflation has not taken off.

A report later in the morning will show how many job openings U.S. employers were advertising at the end of April. That will lead into a more important report on Friday, which will show how much hiring and firing U.S. employers did in May. Economists expect to see overall hiring slowed from April’s level.

On the trade front, hopes are still high on Wall Street that Trump will reach trade deals with other countries that will ultimately lower tariffs, particularly with the world’s second-largest economy. The U.S. side said President Donald Trump was expecting to speak with Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said Tuesday that they had no information on that.

On Wall Street, Constellation Energy rose 5.7% after signing a 20-year deal to provide Meta Platforms with power from its nuclear plant in Clinton, Illinois.

In the bond market, Treasury yields eased a bit. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.42% from 4.46% late Monday.

It’s a cooldown following a sharp rise for yields over the last two months, in part on worries about how the U.S. government may be set to add trillions of dollars to its debt through tax cuts. Besides making it more expensive for U.S. households and businesses to borrow money, higher Treasury yields can also discourage investors from paying high prices for stocks and other investments.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed amid mostly modest moves across Europe and Asia.

Hong Kong was an exception, where the Hang Seng jumped 1.5%. That came despite a report showing Chinese manufacturing activity slowed in May.

South Korean markets were closed for a snap presidential election triggered by the ouster of Yoon Suk Yeol, a conservative who now faces an explosive trial on rebellion charges over his short-lived imposition of martial law in December.

AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

By ADIL JAWAD, Associated Press

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — More than 100 inmates escaped from a prison and at least one was killed in a shootout in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi overnight after they were temporarily moved out of their cells following mild earthquake tremors, officials said Tuesday.

Kashif Abbasi, a senior police official, said 216 inmates fled the prison in the capital of Sindh province before dawn. Of those, 78 had been recaptured. No one convicted or facing trial as a militant is among those who fled, he said.

One prisoner was killed and three security officials were wounded in the ensuing shootout, but the situation has been brought under control, Abbasi said, adding that police are conducting raids to capture the remaining escapees.

Ziaul Hassan, the home minister of Sindh province, said the jailbreak occurred after prisoners were evacuated from their cells for safety during the earthquake.

Police officer stand guard as members of media film inside the premises of the district Malir prison from where more than 100 inmates escaped overnight, in Karachi, Pakistan, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Ali Raza)

The inmates were still outside of the cells when a group suddenly attacked guards, seized their weapons, opened fire and fled.

Arshad Shah, the superintendent of Malir Prison, said the inmates fled toward a nearby residential area. According to residents, police later used mosque loudspeakers to alert them to the jailbreak and seek help in arresting the escapees.

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Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, who is not related to the prison official, asked the escaped prisoners in televised comments to return on their own, saying they had only been involved in minor crimes until that point. But he said they could face terror charges if they are arrested by police on the jailbreak charge.

Hours later, Sindh Informational Minister, Sharjeel Memon, said the government dismissed prison chief Nazir Ahmad and two other officials, including the prison superintendent, over the jailbreak.

Hours alter, efforts were still underway to recapture all the escapees.

Though prisoners have in the past escaped while being transported to court for trial, prison breaks are not common in Pakistan, where authorities have enhanced security since 2013 when the Pakistani Taliban freed more than 200 inmates in an attack on a prison in the northwestern district of Dera Ismail Khan.

Karachi has experienced several mild and shallow earthquakes in the past 24 hours, ranging from 2.6 to 3.4 in magnitude, according to the National Seismic Monitoring Center.

By CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY and NADIA LATHAN, Associated Press

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have made it a priority this year to require people to prove citizenship before they can register to vote. Turning that aspiration into reality has proved difficult.

Trump’s executive order directing a documentary, proof-of-citizenship requirement for federal elections has been blocked by a judge, while federal legislation to accomplish it doesn’t appear to have the votes to pass in the Senate. At the same time, state-level efforts have found little success, even in places where Republicans control the legislature and governor’s office.

The most recent state effort to falter is in Texas, where a Senate bill failed to gain full legislative approval before lawmakers adjourned on Monday. The Texas bill was one of the nation’s most sweeping proof-of-citizenship proposals because it would have applied not only to new registrants but also to the state’s roughly 18.6 million registered voters.

“The bill authors failed spectacularly to explain how this bill would be implemented and how it would be able to be implemented without inconveniencing a ton of voters,” said Anthony Gutierrez, director of the voting rights group Common Cause Texas.

Voting by noncitizens is rare

Voting by noncitizens is already illegal and punishable as a felony, potentially leading to deportation, but Trump and his allies have pressed for a proof-of-citizenship mandate by arguing it would improve public confidence in elections.

Before his win last year, Trump falsely claimed noncitizens might vote in large enough numbers to sway the outcome. Although noncitizen voting does occur, research and reviews of state cases has shown it to be rare and more often a mistake.

President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Elon Musk in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, May 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Voting rights groups say the various proposals seeking to require proof-of-citizenship are overly burdensome and threaten to disenfranchise millions of Americans. Many do not have easy access to their birth certificates, have not gotten a U.S. passport or have a name that no longer matches the one on their birth certificate — such as women who changed their last name when they married.

Married women who changed names are a particular concern

The number of states considering bills related to proof of citizenship for voting tripled from 2023 to this year, said Liz Avore, senior policy adviser with the Voting Rights Lab, an advocacy group that tracks election legislation in the states.

That hasn’t resulted in many new laws, at least so far. Republicans in Wyoming passed their own proof-of-citizenship legislation, but similar measures have stalled or failed in multiple GOP-led states, including Florida, Missouri, Texas and Utah. A proposal remains active in Ohio, although Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, has said he doesn’t want to sign any more bills that make it harder to vote.

In Texas, the legislation swiftly passed the state Senate after it was introduced in March but never made it to a floor vote in the House. It was unclear why legislation that was such a priority for Senate Republicans – every one of them co-authored the bill — ended up faltering.

Speaker of the House Dustin Burrows presides before adjourning Sine Die on the last day of the 89th Texas Legislature at the Capitol in Austin, Texas, Monday, June 2, 2025. (Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP)

“I just think people realized, as flawed as this playbook has been in other states, Texas didn’t need to make this mistake,” said Rep. John Bucy, a Democrat who serves as vice chair of the House elections committee.

Bucy pointed to specific concerns about married women who changed their last name. This surfaced in local elections earlier this year in New Hampshire, which passed a proof-of-citizenship requirement last year.

Similar laws have created confusion

Other states that previously sought to add such a requirement have faced lawsuits and complications when trying to implement it.

In Arizona, a state audit found that problems with the way data was handled had affected the tracking and verification of residents’ citizenship status. It came after officials had identified some 200,000 voters who were thought to have provided proof of their citizenship but had not.

A proof-of-citizenship requirement was in effect for three years in Kansas before it was overturned by federal courts. The state’s own expert estimated that almost all of the roughly 30,000 people who were prevented from registering to vote while it was in effect were U.S. citizens who otherwise had been eligible.

In Missouri, legislation seeking to add a proof-of-citizenship requirement cleared a Senate committee but never came to a vote in the Republican-led chamber.

Republican state Sen. Ben Brown had promoted the legislation as a follow-up to a constitutional amendment stating that only U.S. citizens can vote, which Missouri voters overwhelmingly approved last November. He said there were several factors that led to the bill not advancing this year. Due to the session’s limited schedule, he chose to prioritize another elections bill banning foreign contributions in state ballot measure campaigns.

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“Our legislative session ending mid-May means a lot of things die at the finish line because you simply run out of time,” Brown said, noting he also took time to research concerns raised by local election officials and plans to reintroduce the proof-of-citizenship bill next year.

Complications prompt states to focus on other issues

The Republican-controlled Legislature in Utah also prioritized other election changes, adding voter ID requirements and requiring people to opt in to receive their ballots in the mail. Before Gov. Spencer Cox signed the bill into law, Utah was the only Republican-controlled state that allowed all elections to be conducted by mail without a need to opt in.

Under the Florida bill that has failed to advance, voter registration applications wouldn’t be considered valid until state officials had verified citizenship, either by confirming a previous voting history, checking the applicant’s status in state and federal databases, or verifying documents they provided.

The bill would have required voters to prove their citizenship even when updating their registration to change their address or party affiliation.

Its sponsor, Republican state Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, said it was meant to follow through on Trump’s executive order: “This bill fully answers the president’s call,” she said.

Cassidy reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writers Mead Gruver in Cheyenne, Wyoming; David A. Lieb in Jefferson City, Missouri; Kate Payne in Tallahassee, Florida; Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City; Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio; and Isabella Volmert in Lansing, Michigan, contributed to this report.

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN, Associated Press Business Writer

Dollar General set a quarterly sales record of $10.44 billion and upgraded its annual profit and sales outlook as Americans tighten their budgets and spend more at bargain stores and off-price retailers amid economic uncertainty.

The U.S. economy shrank at a 0.2% annual pace from January through March, the first drop in three years, as President Donald Trump’s trade wars dented spending by businesses. Consumer spending slowed sharply.

For the period ended May 2, Dollar General’s sales climbed 5% to $10.44 billion from $9.91 billion. That’s better than the $10.29 billion that Wall Street was expecting, according to a poll by Zacks Investment Research.

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Sales at stores open at least a year, a key indicator of a retailer’s health, increased 2.4%.

Customer traffic dipped 0.3%, but the average transaction amount rose 2.7%.

Shares jumped more than 10% before the opening bell Tuesday and shares of rival Dollar Tree, which reports its quarterly performance Wednesday, rose 4%.

Dollar General, based in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, earned $391.9 million, or $1.78 per share, in the quarter, blowing past the $1.47 per share that Wall Street had expected, as well as the $363.3 million profit it recorded during the same period last year.

Dollar General said that even though it topped its own expectations, there is a lot of uncertainty about how tariffs will impact its business and its customers for the remainder of the year.

People are trading down, or visiting bargain chains, as they seek to extend their spending, but lower-income Americans are much more vulnerable.

“While the macro backdrop continues to be broadly unhelpful, with core lower income consumers still facing considerable pressure on their finances, this was mitigated during the quarter by consumers gently stocking up on things in anticipation of tariffs,” Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, said in a statement.

The company is now projecting 2025 earnings in a range of about $5.20 to $5.80 per share. Its prior earnings forecast was for approximately $5.10 to $5.80 per share.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet are looking for earnings of $5.61 per share.

Sales are expected to climb approximately 3.7% to 4.7%. Dollar General previously predicted sales growth of about 3.4% to 4.4%. Same-store sales growth is now expected to be approximately 1.5% to 2.5% up from a prior outlook for about 1.2% to 2.2% growth.