By DAMIAN J. TROISE, Associated Press Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks fell in morning trading on Wall Street Monday and oil prices fell to a four-year low as the OPEC+ group announced plans to boost output.

The S&P 500 fell 0.7%. The benchmark index is coming off of its ninth straight gain.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 164 points, or 0.4% as of 9:56 a.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.8%.

The losses were broad. Roughly 75 percent of stocks and every sector within the S&P 500 lost ground.

Berkshire Hathaway fell 5.5% for one of the market’s bigger losses. Legendary investor Warren Buffett announced over the weekend that he would step down as CEO by the end of the year after six decades at the helm. He will remain chairman of the board of directors.

The OPEC+ group of eight oil producing nations announced over the weekend that it will raise its output by 411,000 barrels per day as of June 1. U.S. benchmark crude oil fell as much as 4% overnight before moderating.

U.S. crude oil prices fell 1.5% to $57.42 per barrel. Many producers can no longer turn a profit once oil falls below $60. Prices are down sharply for the year over worries about an economic slowdown. Energy companies fell. Exxon Mobil lost 2.4%.

Markets are coming off another winning week as they absorb the shock of tariffs and a growing trade war. President Donald Trump has imposed tariffs on a wide range of imports, sparking global retaliation. Many of the more severe tariffs that were supposed to go into effect in April were delayed by three months, with the notable exception of tariffs against China.

The delays have provided some relief to Wall Street, though uncertainty about the impact from current and future tariffs continues to hang over markets and the economy. That uncertainty will overshadow the Federal Reserve’s meeting this week.

The Fed is expected to hold its benchmark interest rate steady on Wednesday. It cut the rate three times in 2024 before taking a more cautious stance. The central bank was concerned that inflation, while easing, was still stubbornly hovering just above its target rate of 2%. Concerns about inflation reigniting have only grown amid the global trade war sparked by Trump’s tariff policy.

Trump’s rapidly shifting policies on trade have kept the central bank and markets on edge. Tariffs have been imposed, only to be pulled or delayed, sometimes on a daily basis. The on-again-off-again approach has left businesses, households and economists at a loss in trying to forecast where the economy might be headed and to plan accordingly.

Treasury yields were relatively stable. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.32% from 4.31% late Friday.

AP business writers Jiang Junzhe and Matt Ott contributed to this story.

St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter faces two declared challengers in the November election, which also will feature a ballot question on giving city officials the authority to issue administrative citations.

Meanwhile, a declared candidate has dropped out of this summer’s race for the Ward 4 seat on the city council.

One thing St. Paul voters can’t count on this summer? Political endorsements from the St. Paul DFL, which has no plans to host caucuses or a Ward 4 endorsing convention this year, according to party treasurer Rick Varco.

The St. Paul DFL is in the midst of rebuilding its leadership roster and discussing how to adjust its constitution in advance of the city’s upcoming shift to even-year municipal elections, a change that city voters approved at ballot last November, and won’t be devoting resources to caucuses and conventions this summer.

Other parties may weigh in. Twin Cities DSA, a chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, has already endorsed Cole Hanson in the Ward 4 race, well in advance of campaign filings.

Carter announced in January he would seek a third term. The mayor, whose progressive agenda has included college savings accounts for St. Paul newborns and a new sales tax to support roads and parks, won both of his previous four-year terms on the first ballot of each ranked-choice election.

In 2021, Carter received more than 61% of the vote in an eight-way race.

Two mayoral challengers

Those numbers haven’t stopped declared challengers Yan Chen, a biophysicist at the University of Minnesota, and Mike Hilborn, who runs a power-washing and snowplowing company.

Yan Chen. (Courtesy of the candidate)

Chen, who previously ran for the Ward 1 seat on the St. Paul City Council, has released a series of videos on her campaign website, yanchenmn.com, analyzing what she describes as the unsustainable course of the city’s finances and rising property taxes.

She also plans videos criticizing the mayor’s decision to endorse rent control before the policy was approved at public ballot in 2021, as well as his handling of the citywide garbage contract. A landlord, she rents out five single-family homes in St. Paul.

Mike Hilborn. (Courtesy of the candidate)

Hilborn, who previously ran for state representative representing the downtown area, lists a series of one-sentence campaign promises on his website, hilbornforstpaul.com, pledging without further elaboration that he can cut the city’s property taxes by 50% while doubling the size of the city’s police force. He also lists among his priorities “no boys in girls sports” and that he supports “school choice/school vouchers.”

The filing period for the mayoral election is July 29 to Aug. 12, and additional candidates may yet join the pool. The election will be ranked choice, meaning there will be no political primary to whittle down the field, and voters will be allowed to choose more than one candidate in order of preference.

As a result of a petition drive led by financial analyst Peter Butler, the Nov. 4 ballot will also feature a question regarding amending the city charter to allow administrative citations, or non-criminal fines for violations of city ordinances.

Carter and the city council have called for giving the council the power to create various fine schedules for ordinance infractions, as other cities in the metro already do to varying degrees. Butler and other critics have questioned whether the city will attempt to raise badly-needed revenue for the city budget through excess enforcement.

Ward 4 race tightens

The race for the open Ward 4 seat on the city council has already tightened, even though the filing period doesn’t open until later this month.

Cristen Incitti, president and chief executive officer of Habitat for Humanity Minnesota, has pulled out of the Ward 4 contest and endorsed fellow candidate Molly Coleman, a nonprofit founder and daughter of former mayor Chris Coleman.

Also running are school board member Chauntyll Allen and Hanson, a public health worker who previously served as chair of the Hamline-Midway Coalition. The ward, which centers around the Midway, spans all or parts of St. Anthony Park, Hamline-Midway, Como, Merriam Park and Macalester Groveland.

The Ward 4 filing period is May 20 through June 2, and the special election will be held Aug. 12.

Previous Ward 4 Council Member Mitra Jalali resigned her seat in February, and the mayor appointed Matt Privratsky as her interim replacement last month after the council failed to muster enough votes to choose someone on their own.

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By BERNARD CONDON AND JOSH FUNK, Associated Press Business Writers

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Billionaire Warren Buffett will remain with Berkshire Hathaway as chairman of the board when vice chairman Greg Abel takes over as CEO to begin 2026.

The board of directors at the cash-rich conglomerate voted Sunday to keep the legendary 94-year-old investor as head of the board, a decision likely to relieve investors worried about Berkshire’s remarkable winning streak as the U.S. and global economies are beset by tariff shocks, financial turmoil and a growing risk of recession.

The board in the same meeting also approved Buffett’s chosen successor as CEO, veteran Berkshire executive Greg Abel, 62. In a surprise announcement Saturday, Buffett said he would step down from that top spot at the end of the year.

FILE – Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Greg Abel is seen at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Neb., on May 5, 2018. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)

Berkshire Class B shares fell almost 6% at the opening bell Monday after hitting an all-time high on Friday.

Macrae Sykes, portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds, praised the transparent way Buffett announced the transition at the meeting and believes investors can have confidence that he isn’t going anywhere.

“Retaining the position of Chairman means he can continue to mentor Greg and the Berkshire leaders, while also providing additional intellectual capacity when the inevitable time for more major capital allocation occurs,” Sykes said.

In six decades at the helm, Buffett turned a Massachusetts textile company into a sprawling but nimble conglomerate that owns everything from Daily Queen and See’s Candies to BNSF Railway and giant insurers. As the company grew, Warren’s reputation grew with it as shares of Berkshire Hathaway climbed steadily, exceeding major indexes by wide margins and returning an average 19.9% each year versus 10.4% for the Standard & Poor’s 500.

The decision to continue with the Oracle of Omaha, as Buffet is known, as head of the board differs from the succession plan laid out for after Buffett’s death. The billionaire has long said that Howard Buffett, the second-born of the investor’s three children, should become chairman when he is gone to protect Berkshire’s culture.

FILE – Berkshire Hathaway shareholders line up to take selfies with Greg Abel Friday, May 3, 2024, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Josh Funk, File)

A current vice-chairman, Abel, will take over as CEO as big questions hover over the company, but he has already been managing all of Berkshire’s non-insurance businesses since 2018. Buffett himself has said President Donald Trump’s tariffs were a big mistake. There are also worries that Berkshire might not able to avoid the fate of most conglomerates—forced to break up to recapture focus.

Then there is Berkshire’s $348 billion in cash.

Buffett says he doesn’t see many bargains to invest that money in now, not even Berkshire’s own stock, but assured some of the estimated 40,000 attendees of the company’s celebratory weekend annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, that one day the company would be “bombarded with opportunities.”

Abel, a low-key Canadian with a love a hockey, has already shown he is a more hands-on manager than Buffett by asking managers tough questions and encouraging them to collaborate with other subsidiaries when it makes sense. He will now take on oversight of the insurance businesses and responsibility for investing the company’s cash, but Vice Chairman Ajit Jain will stay on for now to help manage the insurance businesses that include Geico and masfsive reinsurers like General Re.

Buffett endorsed Abel by saying he would keep all of his shares that give him control of 30% of Berkshire Hathaway and praised Abel during the shareholder meeting..

“It’s way better with Greg than with me because I didn’t want to work as hard as he works and I can get away with it because we’ve got a basically good business — a very good business — and I wasn’t in danger of you firing me by virtue of the ownership and the fact that we could do pretty well,” Buffett said. “But the fact that you can do pretty well doesn’t mean you couldn’t do better, and Greg can do better at many things.”

Buffett has always delegated the decisions about how to distribute his fortune, worth nearly $170 billion today, to others by giving shares annually to the Gates Foundation and four family foundations run by his children.

The Gates Foundation has received the biggest donations worth more than $40 billion since he started giving away his fortune in 2006.

He said last summer that his three children will decide how to distribute his remaining fortune after his death but that the Gates Foundation won’t get any more donations at that point.

Howard, 70, has his own foundation through which he has donated billions to humanitarian and food security causes, including helping coffee farms in El Salvador and war-torn Ukraine. Howard Buffett’s foundation expects to top $1 billion in gifts to Ukraine — more than most countries — later this year.

Tributes to Buffett came tumbling in over the weekend praising his investment savvy and folksy management style.

“There’s never been someone like Warren, and countless people, myself included, have been inspired by his wisdom,” Apple CEO Tim Cook posted on X. “It’s been one of the great privileges of my life to know him.”

JP Morgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon said Buffett represented “everything that is good about American capitalism and America itself,” and praised his “integrity, optimism and common sense.”

AP Business writer Bernard Condon is in New York City. AP Business Writer Michelle Chapman contributed to this report from New York City.

Skechers is being acquired for $9 billion and taken private by the investment firm by 3G Capital.

The board of Skechers unanimously approved the deal, the companies said Monday.

The offer of $63 per share represents a premium of 30% to Skechers’ 15-day volume-weighted average stock price, the companies said.

Following completion of the transaction, the company will continue to be led by Skechers Chairman and CEO Robert Greenberg and his management team.

The company headquarters will also remain in Manhattan Beach, California where it was founded more than three decades ago.

The deal is expected to close in the third quarter this year.