By YURI KAGEYAMA and MATT OTT, Associated Press

Bond yields inched higher and Wall Street flipped from small gains to losses before the opening bell Thursday after rising U.S. debt sank markets on the previous day.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.5% in premarket trading, while futures for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq each slid 0.3%.

U.S. markets are also reacting to the passage early in the House on Thursday of the Republicans’ multitrillion-dollar spending bill, which aims to extend some $4.5 trillion in tax breaks from President Donald Trump’s first term in 2017 while adding others. The bill, which has stiffer requirements for Medicaid and other programs, is expected to undergo some changes when it gets to the Senate for a vote.

Related Articles

US filings for jobless aid, a proxy for layoffs, inch down modestly last week as uncertainty lingers

Small plane crashes into San Diego neighborhood, setting home and cars on fire

Rapper Kid Cudi is set to testify at the Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs trial

Here’s what we know about the DC shooting where 2 staff members of the Israeli Embassy were killed

Today in History: May 22, strongest earthquake recorded strikes Chile

The legislation also includes a speedier rollback of production tax credits for clean electricity projects, which sent shares of solar companies tumbling. First Solar slid more than 7%, while Sunrun lost nearly one-third of its value. Energy technology company Enphase Energy fell 15%.

Health care stocks were also falling early Thursday after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said it was immediately expanding its auditing of Medicare Advantage plans. UnitedHealth Group fell 3.5% and Humana was down 4.8%.

U.S. markets are coming off significant losses from a day earlier over concerns about the cost of the bill and the U.S.’s already mounting debt. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the tax provisions would increase federal deficits by $3.8 trillion over the decade.

Treasury yields ticked up on Thursday after spiking the day before when the U.S. government released the results for its latest auction of 20-year bonds. Such bonds help to pay government bills and the auction had to offer a yield of more than 5% to attract enough buyers.

The yield on the 10-year was at 4.62% early Thursday, up from 4.51% two days ago, a significant move in the bond market.

Rising yields for U.S. Treasury bonds are a canary in the coal mine, Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.

“The U.S. still has the biggest markets, the deepest liquidity, and the dollar’s inertia working in its favor. But even inertia can’t outrun compound interest and structural deficits forever,” he wrote.

The declining U.S. dollar weighed on Asian regional markets, according to some analysts, because some Asian nations have significant holdings in dollars. It also affects Asian exporters, such as Japanese automakers and electronics companies, by reducing the value of their overseas earnings when they are converted into yen.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar fell to 143.35 Japanese yen from 143.68 yen. It had been trading at 150 yen levels a year ago. The euro slid to $1.1312.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 shed 0.8% to finish at 36,985.87.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.2% to 23,544.31, while the Shanghai Composite edged down 0.2% to 3,380.19.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.5% to 8,348.70. South Korea’s Kospi dropped 1.2% to 2,593.67.

In Europe at midday, France’s CAC 40 slipped 1.1%, while Germany’s DAX declined 1%. Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.8%.

The price of oil fell on media reports that OPEC+ was considering another production increase. Benchmark U.S. crude lost 94 cents to $60.63 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 99 cents to $63.92 a barrel.

By MICHAEL R. SISAK and LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Rapper Kid Cudi is set to testify Thursday at the New York sex trafficking trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs after one of the music mogul’s ex-aides finishes telling the jury about the threatening world he recalls encountering when he worked for Combs.

Cudi’s turn on the witness stand will come immediately after George Kaplan, a former personal assistant to Combs, finishes his testimony. A prosecutor said testimony by Cudi, whose legal name is Scott Mescudi, was not expected to be lengthy.

R&B singer Cassie testified last week that Combs threatened to blow up Cudi’s car and hurt him after he learned she was dating the rapper and actor.

Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and racketeering charges lodged against him after he was arrested in September at a Manhattan hotel.

The criminal federal probe of Combs began in November 2023, a day after Cassie sued him in Manhattan federal court, alleging years of sexual and physical abuse. The lawsuit was settled by Combs for $20 million the following day.

In four days of testimony last week, Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, said Combs subjected her to abuse through most of the nearly 11 years she was with him from 2007 through 2018.

She said she developed a relationship with Cudi in late 2011 that she ended within weeks after Combs learned about it when he looked at her phone during a drug-laced “freak-off” sexual performance, one of hundreds she said she endured over the years.

Related Articles

Here’s what we know about the DC shooting where 2 staff members of the Israeli Embassy were killed

Today in History: May 22, strongest earthquake recorded strikes Chile

2 staff members of Israeli Embassy killed in shooting near Jewish museum in DC

Survivors of clergy sexual abuse turn up calls for reforms from new pope’s American hometown

Lincoln’s blood-stained gloves from the night of his assassination among 144 artifacts on auction

Cassie’s mother, Regina Ventura, testified on Tuesday that she received an email from her daughter shortly before the holidays in 2011 saying Combs was going to release sex tapes of her and arrange for Cassie and Cudi to be physically harmed.

She said Combs then contacted her directly and demanded $20,000 for the money he’d spent on Cassie. Regina Ventura said she drained a home equity account to send the money, but Combs returned it days later.

Cudi is to follow Kaplan to the witness stand after the personal assistant to Combs from 2013 to 2015 finishes telling about what he experienced during 80- to 100-hour work weeks.

He testified Wednesday that he got a taste of what the job would be like in his first week when Combs sent him to a grocery store to get a gallon container of water and berated him when he returned with two half-gallon containers instead.

“He told me I did not bring him what he asked for. He was angry. He was very close to my face,” Kaplan said.

He said his job was threatened monthly by Combs. Cassie was asked, when she testified, if any Combs employee ever quit after witnessing Combs’ abuse. She said Kaplan did.

By JON GAMBRELL, Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s top diplomat warned Thursday that his country would take “special measures in defense of our nuclear facilities” if Israel continues to threaten Tehran’s atomic sites, raising the stakes further ahead of a new round of talks with the United States.

The comments by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi offered no specifics on what Tehran would do, but already, international inspectors have seen their access limited to Iran’s program. That’s even as Tehran enriches uranium to 60% purity, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.

Related Articles

Today in History: May 22, strongest earthquake recorded strikes Chile

The UN says no aid that has entered Gaza this week has reached Palestinians

Putin visited Russia’s Kursk region for first time since Moscow said it drove out Ukrainian forces

Trump confronts South African leader with baseless claims of the systematic killing of white farmers

Two of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza are encircled by Israeli forces, staff say

“I have called on the international community to take effective preventive measures against the continuation of Israeli threats, which if unchecked, will compel Iran to take special measures in defense of our nuclear facilities and materials,” Araghchi wrote on the social platform X after apparently sending letters to United Nations officials.

“The nature, content, and extent of our actions will correspond and be proportionate to preventive measures taken by these international bodies in accordance with their statutory duties and obligations.”

Araghchi’s remarks follow a CNN report Tuesday that described the U.S. as having “new intelligence suggesting that Israel is making preparations to strike Iranian nuclear facilities.” Israel has not acknowledged any preparations, though officials up to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have repeatedly threatened to strike Iran’s nuclear sites to prevent it from being able to obtain a nuclear weapon, should it choose to pursue one.

Araghchi’s warning come as the U.S. and Iran are due to meet Friday in Rome for their fifth round of negotiations over a possible deal that would see Tehran limit or end its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Israel and Iran have been archrivals in the Mideast for decades.

Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.

By LISA MASCARO, KEVIN FREKING and LEAH ASKARINAM, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans stayed up all night to pass their multitrillion-dollar tax breaks package, with Speaker Mike Johnson defying the skeptics and unifying his ranks to muscle President Donald Trump’s priority bill to approval Thursday.

With last-minute concessions and stark warnings from Trump, the Republican holdouts largely dropped their opposition to salvage the “One Big Beautiful Bill” that’s central to the GOP agenda. The House launched debate before midnight and by dawn the vote was called, 215-214, with Democrats staunchly opposed. It next goes to the Senate.

“To put it simply, this bill gets Americans back to winning again,” said Johnson, R-La.

The outcome caps an intense time on Capitol Hill, with days of private negotiations and public committee hearings, many happening back-to-back, around-the-clock. Republicans insisted their sprawling 1,000-page-plus package was what voters sent them to Congress — and Trump to the White House — to accomplish. They believe it will be “rocket fuel,” as one put it during debate, for the uneasy U.S. economy.

Trump himself demanded action, visiting House Republicans at Tuesday’s conference meeting and hosting GOP leaders and the holdouts for a lengthy session Wednesday at the White House. Before the vote, the administration warned in a pointed statement that “failure to pass this bill would be the ultimate betrayal.”

Central to the package is the GOP’s commitment to extending some $4.5 trillion in tax breaks they engineered during Trump’s first term in 2017, while temporarily adding new ones he campaigned on during his 2024 campaign, including no taxes on tips, overtime pay, car loan interest and others.

To make up for some of the lost tax revenue, the Republicans focused on changes to Medicaid and the food stamps program, largely by imposing work requirements on many of those receiving benefits. There’s also a massive rollback of green energy tax breaks from the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act.

Additionally, the package tacks on $350 billion in new spending, with about $150 billion going to the Pentagon, including for the president’s new “ Golden Dome” defense shield, and the rest for Trump’s mass deportation and border security agenda.

All told, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates 8.6 million fewer people would have health care coverage and 3 million less people a month would have SNAP food stamps benefits with the proposed changes.

President Donald Trump and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., speak to reporters after departing a House Republican conference meeting, Tuesday, May 20, 2025, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

The CBO said the tax provisions would increase federal deficits by $3.8 trillion over the decade, while the changes to Medicaid, food stamps and other services would tally $1 trillion in reduced spending. The lowest-income households in the U.S. would see their resources drop, while the highest ones would see a boost, it said.

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York read letters from Americans describing the way the program cuts would hurt them. “This is one big ugly bill,” he said.

As the minority, without the votes to stop Trump’s package, Democrats instead offered up impassioned speeches and procedural moves to stall its advance. As soon as the House floor reopened for debate, the Democrats forced a vote to adjourn. It failed.

In “the dark of night they want to pass this GOP tax scam,” said Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif.

Other Democrats called it a “big, bad bill” or a “big, broken promise.”

Pulling the package together and pushing it to passage has been an enormous political lift for Johnson, with few votes to spare from his slim GOP majority whose rank-and-file Republicans have conflicting priorities of their own.

Conservatives, particularly from the Freedom Caucus, held out for steeper spending cuts to defray costs piling onto the nation’s $36 trillion debt.

At the same time, more moderate and centrist GOP lawmakers were wary of the changes to Medicaid that could result in lost health care for their constituents. And some worried the phaseout of the renewable energy tax breaks will impede businesses using them to invest in green energy projects in many states.

One big problem had been the costly deal with GOP lawmakers from New York and other high-tax states to quadruple the $10,000 deduction for state and local taxes, called SALT, to $40,000 for incomes up to $500,000, which was included in the final product.

For every faction Johnson tried to satisfy, another would roar in opposition.

Late in the night, GOP leaders unveiled a 42-page amendment with a number of revisions.

The changes included speedier implementation of the Medicaid work requirements, which will begin in December 2026, rather than January 2029, and a faster roll back of the production tax credits for clean electricity projects, both sought by the conservatives.

Also tucked into the final version were some unexpected additions — including a $12 billion fund for the Department of Homeland Security to reimburse states that help federal officials with deportations and border security.

And in a nod to Trump’s influence, the Republicans renamed a proposed new children’s savings program after the president, changing it from MAGA accounts — money account for growth and advancement — to simply “Trump” accounts.

Rep. Erin Houchin, R-Ind., said Americans shouldn’t believe the dire predictions from Democrats about the impact of the bill. “We can unlock the ‘Golden Age’ of America,” she said, echoing the president’s own words.

By early morning hours, the chief holdouts appeared to be falling in line. Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., said they “got some improvements.”

But two Republicans voted against the package, including Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a deficit watcher who had been publicly criticized by Trump, remained unmoved. “This bill is a debt bomb ticking,” he warned.

Related Articles

Things to know about ‘no tax on tips,’ Trump’s tax pledge that’s included in GOP budget bill

Cuomo’s comeback faces a new challenger: Donald Trump’s Justice Department

Most books pulled from Naval Academy library are back on the shelves in latest DEI turn

Federal judge orders pretrial detention for man accused of stealing Kristi Noem’s purse

$365M slated for solar projects in Puerto Rico will be diverted to power grid, sparking outcry

And Rep. Andy Harris, the chairman of the Freedom Caucus who wanted more time, voted present. Some others did not vote.

Final analysis of the overall package’s costs and economic impacts are still being assessed.

Along with extending existing tax breaks, it would increase the standard income tax deduction, to $32,000 for joint filers, and boost the child tax credit to $2,500. There would be an enhanced deduction, of $4,000, for older adults of certain income levels, to help defray taxes on Social Security income.

To cut spending, those seeking Medicaid health care, who are able-bodied adults without dependents, would need to fulfill 80 hours a month on a job or in other community activities.

Similarly, to receive food stamps through SNAP, those up to age 64, rather than 54, who are able-bodied and without dependents, would need to meet the 80 hours a month work or community engagement requirements. Additionally, some parents of children older than 7 years old would need to fulfill the work requirements.

Republicans said they want to root out waste, fraud and abuse in the federal programs.

Associated Press writers Matt Brown and Joey Cappelletti contributed to this report.