AP Business Digest

Here are the AP's top business stories that have moved or are planned to move today. All times U.S. Eastern. For up-to-the minute information on AP's coverage, visit AP Newsroom's Coverage Plan.

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UPCOMING

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US TRUMP TARIFFS VERMONT

DESCRIPTION: U.S. Sen Peter Welch, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, will hold a roundtable with Vermont and Canadian business leaders to discuss tariffs on Canada.

UPCOMING: By 03/18/2025 2:00 p.m. EDT, Video, Photo, Text

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NVIDIA-GTC HUANG

DESCRIPTION: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will take the stage at the chip maker's developers conference to talk about what's next in agentic AI, robotics and accelerated computing.

UPCOMING: By 03/18/2025 3:30 p.m. EDT, Video, Photo, Text

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NEW AND DEVELOPING

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FINANCIAL MARKETS

Stock market today: Back down goes Wall Street as Big Tech resumes its slide

SUMMARY: U.S. stocks are back to falling, and Big Tech is again leading the way. The S&P 500 fell 1.1% Tuesday, coming off a dizzying ride where it tumbled 10% from its record and then rallied for two straight days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 211 points, and the Nasdaq composite tumbled 1.9%. Tesla and AI stocks were again some of the heaviest weights on the market. They've been among the hardest hit in the sell-off amid uncertainty created by President Donald Trump's trade war. Treasury yields were holding relatively steady ahead of the Federal Reserve's announcement on interest rates coming Wednesday.

WORDS: 649 - MOVED: 03/18/2025 10:28 a.m. EDT

https://newsroom.ap.org/home/search?query=itemid:2a6f0aec0eff2a7408d893ddbe1033aa&mediaType=text

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CHINA-BYD

China's BYD launches EV charging system it says works nearly as fast as a fill up

SUMMARY: China's energy and auto giant BYD has announced a super fast EV charging system that it says is nearly as quick as a fill up at the pumps. BYD said its flash-chargers can provide a full charge for its latest EVs within five to eight minutes. Charging times and limited ranges have been a major factor constraining the switch from gas and diesel vehicles to EVs. BYD says it will roll out its new charging system across China. The news gave Tesla a jolt on Monday, as its share price sank 4.8%. BYD, which stands for build your dreams, began pre-sales of its Han L and Tang L models, which are upgraded versions of earlier models.

WORDS: 518 - MOVED: 03/18/2025 10:26 a.m. EDT

https://newsroom.ap.org/home/search?query=itemid:63280ec09317d2c0a8e70449fd0e4a95&mediaType=text

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US--GOOGLE-WIZ

Alphabet to buy cybersecurity startup Wiz for $32 billion

SUMMARY: Google owner Alphabet has agreed to buy cybersecurity startup Wiz for $32 billion. The all-cash deal is set to boost Alphabet's profile in the cloud computing market, a space currently led by Amazon and Microsoft. Once the transaction is closed, the company says Wiz will join Google Cloud. Google has had its eyes on Wiz for some time. The purchase price announced Tuesday surpasses a reported $23 billion buyout proposal that Wiz rejected last July.

WORDS: 313 - MOVED: 03/18/2025 9:20 a.m. EDT

https://newsroom.ap.org/home/search?query=itemid:e50fb41b9a84a1056a116f963e6efed0&mediaType=text

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CLIMATE-CLEAN PORTS

America's ports have labored to clean up pollution. Will that continue?

SUMMARY: America's ports have long struggled with dirty air that chokes nearby neighborhoods and jeopardizes the health of people living there. The landmark climate law championed by former President Joe Biden earmarked $3 billion to boost efforts to clean up that air, largely by pursuing electrification of port operations and equipment. Some of the people who live near U.S. hubs now worry that President Donald Trump's administration could seek to cancel or claw back some of that money.

WORDS: 1216 - MOVED: 03/18/2025 10:06 a.m. EDT

https://newsroom.ap.org/home/search?query=itemid:657086fe5f8dc90fd989d032332d0871&mediaType=text

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CB--PUERTO RICO-US-ENERGY

A new deal will increase amount of liquefied natural gas delivered to Puerto Rico in face of outages

WORDS: 157 - MOVED: 03/18/2025 8:25 a.m. EDT

https://newsroom.ap.org/home/search?query=itemid:2bbb03867fc6ad28f31d44b666ba91b9&mediaType=text

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EU--GERMANY-POLITICS

Germany's likely next leader seeks approval for huge defense and infrastructure package

SUMMARY: Germany's would-be next chancellor, Friedrich Merz, is asking lawmakers to allow the country to put "whatever it takes" into defense and to authorize an enormous fund for investment in its creaking infrastructure. The outgoing parliament is set to meet Tuesday for a final time to vote on the plans. Merz's center-right Union bloc is still working to put together a governing coalition with the center-left Social Democrats of outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz after winning last month's election. The plans will need a two-thirds majority in the Bundestag.

WORDS: 736 - MOVED: 03/18/2025 7:16 a.m. EDT

https://newsroom.ap.org/home/search?query=itemid:6744e76078d220b105e42c94cb128d0a&mediaType=text

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AS--HONG KONG-PANAMA PORTS

Hong Kong's leader swipes at Trump but avoids criticism of tycoon's deal to sell Panama Port assets

SUMMARY: Hong Kong's leader says his government opposes coercion by foreign governments, an allusion to comments by U.S. President Donald Trump, but stopped short of criticizing a prominent local conglomerate's decision to sell its Panama Canal port assets to a consortium including American investment bank BlackRock Inc. John Lee was speaking during a news briefing after Beijing's Hong Kong affairs office reposted newspaper commentaries critical of the deal between the constortium and CK Hutchison Holdings, built by the city's richest man Li Ka-shing. The controversy highlights how tensions between Beijing and Washington can leave the Chinese financial center's business leaders caught in the middle.

WORDS: 721 - MOVED: 03/18/2025 4:15 a.m. EDT

https://newsroom.ap.org/home/search?query=itemid:308c6310a3e85500d0e62057e8d81e8a&mediaType=text

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US--CALIFORNIA-WATER-SALMON

Boat tours and ash scatterings help beleaguered California salmon fleet stay afloat

SUMMARY: With salmon fishing barred off the California coast for two years, fishermen have been running historic boat tours, party cruises, and scattering the ashes of the deceased to try to stay afloat. Now, sport and commercial fishing fleets are gearing up for what could be a third consecutive year of salmon closures in the Golden State due to dwindling stocks. Salmon fishermen say the closures are endangering not only the fish but their livelihoods and stem from years of drought and state and federal water policies. The Trump administration has been pushing to send less water through some California waterways to aid farmers in a move that salmon fishermen say could further worsen their lot.

WORDS: 699 - MOVED: 03/18/2025 12:33 a.m. EDT

https://newsroom.ap.org/home/search?query=itemid:6c0e369f744a2b7131ad14c1987fd88a&mediaType=text

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US--GAS TAX-TRANSPORTATION BUDGET WOES

Electric vehicle owners don't buy gas. States look for other ways to pay for roads and bridges.

SUMMARY: States with aggressive climate goals like Oregon are facing a conundrum. Electric vehicles can help reduce emissions in the transportation sector, the nation's largest source of greenhouse gas emissions; but they also mean less gas tax revenue in government coffers. Revenues from gas taxes paid by drivers at the pump are projected to decrease as more people adopt electric and fuel-efficient cars. That's forcing officials nationwide to look for new ways to fund transportation infrastructure. According to the National Association of Budget Officers, motor fuel taxes are the largest source of transportation revenue for states. But the money they bring in has fallen.

WORDS: 853 - MOVED: 03/18/2025 12:03 a.m. EDT

https://newsroom.ap.org/home/search?query=itemid:ff272cb05722343b259681044c5023f4&mediaType=text

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EU--RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR-FROZEN FUNDS

The $300 billion question: What to do with Russia's frozen central bank money?

SUMMARY: With U.S. support for Ukraine in doubt, Kyiv's European allies are weighing whether to seize $300 billion in frozen Russian assets. Some of Ukraine's allies have argued for seizing the money and using it to compensate Ukraine, support its military and rebuild. But so far the Group of Seven democracies have held off. Opponents of seizure warn that the move could violate international law and destabilize financial markets. They also fear that countries and investors would hesitate to use European financial institutions if they are afraid assets could be seized. That could undermine the euro's role as an international currency for state reserves.

WORDS: 1121 - MOVED: 03/18/2025 12:01 a.m. EDT

https://newsroom.ap.org/home/search?query=itemid:cba91ee73056a79449f2acca85b5e584&mediaType=text