Japan, Britain Trade Deal     10/23 06:08

   

   TOKYO (AP) -- Japan and Britain signed a bilateral free trade deal Friday in 
the the first such major post-Brexit deal, reducing tariffs on Yorkshire lamb 
sold in Japan, as well as auto parts for Japan's Nissan plant.

   "How fitting it is to be in the Land of the Rising Sun to welcome in the 
dawn of a new era of free trade," British International Trade Secretary Liz 
Truss told reporters at a signing ceremony in Tokyo.

   Appearing with Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, Truss called the 
agreement a "landmark" as the first major trade deal for Britain as it becomes 
once again an independent trading nation.

   The deal, expected to boost British trade with Japan by 15 billion pounds 
($19.5 billion) annually, also will make it easier for British companies to 
operate in Japan.

   Financial services are Britain's biggest export to Japan, now at 28%. 
English sparkling wine, made-in-Britain coats and shoes, Stilton cheese, pork, 
lamb and biscuits will become cheaper in Japan.

   Motegi said the bilateral deal ensures continuity with the earlier European 
agreement and adds new areas for cooperation such as e-commerce and financial 
services.

   Japan's existing free trade agreement with the European Union includes 
Britain only until the end of this year, as it exits the EU.

   Parliamentary approval is needed in both nations before the agreement takes 
effect from the beginning of next year. It's expected in Japan next week, as 
the ruling party controls both houses of parliament.

   Japan already exports about 1.5 trillion yen ($14 billion) of goods to 
Britain each year, mostly autos, auto parts and other machinery. It imports 
nearly 1 trillion yen ($9.5 billion) from Britain, including pharmaceuticals, 
medical products and cars, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

   Tariffs on Japanese autos will be removed gradually and won't become 
eliminated until 2026. That matches Japan's arrangement with the EU.

   Japan has repeatedly expressed concern about the likely impact of Brexit on 
Japanese businesses in Britain, which include Hitachi, with plants making 
railway cars for East Coast trains, and Nissan Motor Co., employing several 
thousand workers at its Sunderland auto plant.

   Motegi visited Britain in August, his first overseas trip amid the 
coronavirus pandemic, and stressed the importance for reaching a trade deal 
quickly.

Russian Hackers Target US     10/23 06:12

   

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. officials said that Russian hackers have targeted 
the networks of dozens of state and local governments in the United States in 
recent days, stealing data from at least two servers. The warning, less than 
two weeks before the election, amplified fears of the potential for tampering 
with the vote and undermining confidence in the results.

   The advisory from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security's 
cybersecurity agency describes an onslaught of recent activity by a Russian 
state-sponsored hacking group against a broad range of networks, some of which 
were successfully compromised. The alert released Thursday functions as a 
reminder of Russia's potent capabilities and ongoing interference in the 
election even as U.S. officials publicly called out Iran on Wednesday night.

   The advisory does not identify by name or location those who were targeted, 
but officials say they have no information that any election or government 
operations have been affected or that the integrity of elections data has been 
compromised.

   "However, the actor may be seeking access to obtain future disruption 
options, to influence U.S. policies and actions, or to delegitimize (state and 
local) government entities," the advisory said.

   U.S. officials have repeatedly said it would be extremely difficult for 
hackers to alter vote tallies in a meaningful way, but they have warned about 
other methods of interference that could disrupt the election, including 
cyberattacks on networks meant to impede the voting process. The interference 
could continue during or after the tallying of ballots if Russians produce 
spoofed websites or fake content meant to confuse voters about election results 
and lead them to doubt the legitimacy of the outcome.

   A broad concern, particularly at the local government level, has been that 
hackers could infiltrate a county network and then work their way over to 
election-related systems unless certain defenses, such as firewalls, are in 
place. This is especially true for smaller counties that don't have as much 
money and IT support as their bigger counterparts to fund security upgrades.

   Officials have nonetheless sought to stress the integrity of the vote, with 
FBI Director Christopher Wray saying Wednesday, "You should be confident that 
your vote counts. Early, unverified claims to the contrary should be viewed 
with a healthy dose of skepticism."

   On Thursday, Chris Krebs, the head of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and 
Infrastructure Security Agency, said officials don't have reason to believe 
that hackers were looking for election infrastructure or election-related 
information, and aren't aware of any activity "that would allow them to come 
anywhere near a vote." He said the alert was issued in regard to the scanning 
of county networks for vulnerabilities, not specifically to the targeting of 
elections.

   "The election-related risk is the fact that they were in or touching an 
election system," he said.

   The threat from the Kremlin was mentioned but not especially emphasized 
during a hastily called news conference on Wednesday night, when officials said 
Russia and Iran had obtained voting registration information --- though such 
data is sometimes easily accessible. But most of the focus was on Iran, which 
officials linked to a series of menacing but fake emails that purported to be 
from a far-right group and were aimed at intimidating voters in multiple 
battleground states.

   John Ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence, said the operation 
was aimed at harming President Donald Trump, though he didn't elaborate on how.

   On Thursday, the Treasury Department announced sanctions against five 
Iranian entities, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, for 
attempting to influence U.S. elections.

   Despite Iran's activities, Russia is widely regarded in the cybersecurity 
community as the bigger threat to the election. The U.S. has said that Russia, 
which interfered in the 2016 election by hacking Democratic email accounts and 
through a covert social media effort, is interfering again this year in part 
through a concerted effort to denigrate Trump's Democratic opponent, Joe Biden.

   U.S. officials attribute the recent activity to a state-sponsored hacking 
group variously known as DragonFly and Energetic Bear in the cybersecurity 
community. The group appears to have been in operation since at least 2011 and 
is known to have engaged in cyberespionage on energy companies and power grid 
operators in the U.S. and Europe, as well as on defense and aviation companies. 
Aviation networks are among the entities that officials say were recently 
targeted, according to Thursday's advisory.

   According to the advisory, the hackers have obtained user and administrator 
credentials to enter the networks and moved laterally inside to locate what 
they felt would be "high-value" information to steal. In at least one breach, 
officials say, the hackers accessed documents related to network configurations 
and passwords, IT instructions and vendors and purchasing information.

   As of Oct. 1, the advisory said, the hackers have exfiltrated data from at 
least two servers.

   John Hultquist, the director of threat intelligence at FireEye, said 
Energetic Bear moved to the top of his worry list when the cybersecurity firm 
observed it breaking into state and local governments in the U.S. that 
administer elections, due to it having targeted election systems in 2019.

   Hultquist said he does not think Energetic Bear has the ability to directly 
affect the U.S. vote but fears it could disrupt local and state government 
networks proximate to the systems that process votes.

   "The disruption may have little effect on the outcome. It may be entirely 
insignificant to the outcome -- but it could be perceived as proof that the 
election outcome is in question," he said. "Just by getting access to these 
systems they may be preying on fears of the insecurity of the election."

China : No Arms to Taiwan     10/23 06:16

   China has vowed to retaliate if the U.S. proceeds with the sale of advanced 
weaponry to Taiwan worth more than a billion dollars.

   BEIJING (AP) -- China has vowed to retaliate if the U.S. proceeds with the 
sale of advanced weaponry to Taiwan worth more than a billion dollars.

   The statement from China's defense ministry gave no specifics, but the 
development marks a further deterioration in ties between Beijing and 
Washington that have hit their lowest ebb in decades.

   The statement issued late Thursday night demanded the cancellation of the 
sale and an end to all interactions between the U.S. and Taiwanese militaries 
in order to "avoid serious repercussions for relations between China and the 
U.S. and their armed forces and peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait."

   Failure to do so would "compel the Chinese side to fight back resolutely," 
the statement said.

   The State Department on Wednesday announced it had greenlighted the sale of 
135 precision land attack missiles, associated equipment and training to Taiwan 
to improve its defense capabilities. The package is worth just over a billion 
dollars, it said in a statement. The missiles are made by Boeing.

   China regards Taiwan as its own territory to be annexed by force if 
necessary and Washington maintains only unofficial relations with Taipei in 
deference to Beijing. However, U.S. law requires the government to ensure 
Taiwan can maintain a credible defense and recent years have seen an increase 
in both the quality and quantity of defensive arms sold to the island.

   Those come as China has increased military activity around Taiwan in what it 
calls a deliberate attempt to force political concessions from the 
pro-independence administration of President Tsai Ing-wen. The increase in 
Chinese incursions into Taiwanese airspace and military exercises seen as 
targeting U.S. and Taiwanese assets add to Beijing's years-long campaign of 
exerting economic and diplomatic pressure on the island, which has left it with 
just 15 formal diplomatic allies.

   In a separate statement issued late Thursday, the Chinese Cabinet's Taiwan 
Affairs Office demanded Tsai's Democratic People's Party end its "plotting" 
with the U.S. to "refuse unification through arms."

   "This can only seriously undermine peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait 
and bring down a terrible disaster on the Taiwanese people," the statement said.

    

Walmart Sues US Government    10/23 06:22

   

   NEW YORK (AP) -- Walmart is suing the U.S. government in a pre-emptive 
strike in the battle over its responsibility in the opioid abuse crisis.

   The government is expected to take civil action against the world's largest 
retailer, seeking big financial penalties, for the role its pharmacies may have 
played in the crisis by filling opioid prescriptions.

   But on Thursday, Walmart filed a lawsuit saying that the Justice Department 
and the Drug Enforcement Administration are blaming the company for the 
government's own lack of regulatory and enforcement policies to stem the crisis.

   Walmart says it is seeking a declaration from a federal judge that the 
government has no lawful basis for seeking civil damages from the company. It 
is also seeking to clarify its legal rights and duties under the Controlled 
Substance Act.

   Walmart operates more than 5,000 pharmacies in its stores around the country.

   "Walmart and its pharmacists find themselves in an untenable position," the 
company based in Bentonville, Arkansas, says in the lawsuit filed in the U.S. 
District Court in the Eastern District of Texas. "Under defendants' sweeping 
view, Walmart and its pharmacists may be held liable -- perhaps even criminally 
-- for failing to second-guess DEA-registered doctors and refuse their 
prescriptions. But if pharmacists do so, they may face the wrath of state 
medical boards, the medical community at large, individual doctors, and 
patients."

   Walmart says in the suit that the Justice Department identified hundreds of 
doctors who have written problematic prescriptions that Walmart's pharmacists 
allegedly should not have filled. But nearly 70% continue to have active 
registrations with the DEA, the lawsuit says.

   "In other words, defendants want to blame Walmart for continuing to fill 
purportedly bad prescriptions written by doctors that DEA and state regulators 
enabled to write those prescriptions in the first place and continue to stand 
by today," the suit says.

   The lawsuit names the Justice Department and Attorney General William Barr 
as defendants. It also names the DEA and its acting administrator, Timothy Shea.

   In the suit, Walmart describes a government probe of the company that began 
in December 2016 and calls it a "misguided criminal investigation" conducted by 
the U.S. Attorney's office for the Eastern District of Texas. Walmart says it 
fully cooperated with the probe.

   In the spring of 2018, the office advised that it intended to indict the 
company. In August 2018, Walmart said that officials at the Department of 
Justice recognized that there was no plausible basis for a criminal indictment, 
and the department formally declined to prosecute Walmart. But the civil 
investigation continued.

   The initial investigation was a subject of a story in ProPublica published 
in March. ProPublica reported that Joe Brown, then U.S. attorney for the 
Eastern District of Texas office, spent years pursuing a criminal case against 
Walmart for its opioid prescription practices, only to have it stymied after 
the retail giant's lawyers appealed to senior officials in the Justice 
Department.

   Two months later, Brown resigned. He didn't give a reason for his departure 
except to say he would be "pursuing opportunities in the private and public 
sectors" and "some of those will become apparent in the coming days. Brown went 
into private practice in the Dallas area

   A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Texas that handled the 
investigation referred questions to the Justice Department in Washington. The 
Justice Department declined to comment.

FDA Oks 1st COVID-19 Drug     10/23 06:26

   U.S. regulators on Thursday approved the first drug to treat COVID-19: 
remdesivir, an antiviral medicine given through an IV for patients needing 
hospitalization.

   (AP) -- U.S. regulators on Thursday approved the first drug to treat 
COVID-19: remdesivir, an antiviral medicine given through an IV for patients 
needing hospitalization.

   The drug, which California-based Gilead Sciences Inc. is calling Veklury, 
cut the time to recovery by five days -- from 15 days to 10 on average -- in a 
large study led by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

   It had been authorized for use on an emergency basis since spring, and now 
becomes the first drug to win full Food and Drug Administration approval for 
treating COVID-19. President Donald Trump received it when he was sickened 
earlier this month.

   Veklury is approved for people at least 12 years old and weighing at least 
88 pounds (40 kilograms) who need hospitalization for their coronavirus 
infection. For patients younger than 12, the FDA will still allow the drug's 
use in certain cases under its previous emergency authorization.

   The drug works by inhibiting a substance the virus uses to make copies of 
itself. Certain tests are required before starting patients on it. And the 
label warns against using it with the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, because 
that can curb its effectiveness.

   "We now have enough knowledge and a growing set of tools to help fight 
COVID-19," Gilead's chief medical officer, Dr. Merdad Parsey, said in a 
statement.

   The drug is either approved or has temporary authorization in about 50 
countries, he noted.

   Its price has been controversial, given that no studies have found it 
improves survival. Last week, a large study led by the World Health 
Organization found the drug did not help hospitalized COVID-19 patients, but 
that study did not include a placebo group and was less rigorous than previous 
ones that found a benefit.

   Gilead charges $2,340 for a typical treatment course for people covered by 
government health programs in the United States and other developed countries, 
and $3,120 for patients with private insurance. The amount that patients pay 
out of pocket depends on insurance, income and other factors.

   Only one treatment -- steroids such as dexamethasone -- has been shown so 
far to cut the risk of dying of COVID-19. The FDA also has given emergency 
authorization to using the blood of survivors and two companies are currently 
seeking similar authorization for experimental antibody drugs.

Cease-Fire Signed in Libya    10/23 06:30

   

   GENEVA (AP) -- The United Nations said Friday that the two sides in Libyan 
military talks had reached a "historic achievement" with a permanent cease-fire 
agreement across the war-torn North African country.

   After mediation this week led by U.N. envoy for Libya Stephanie Turco 
Williams, the 5+5 Joint Military Commission reached what the U.N. called an 
"important turning point towards peace and stability in Libya."

   Details were not immediately available, but the two sides were taking part 
in a signing ceremony in Geneva on Friday morning.

   Libya is split between a U.N.-supported government in the capital, Tripoli, 
and rival authorities based in the east. The two sides are backed by an array 
of local militias as well as regional and foreign powers. The country was 
plunged into chaos after the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed 
longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

   "The road to a permanent cease-fire deal was often long and difficult," 
Williams, a former U.S. State Department official, said in Arabic at the 
signing ceremony.

   "Before us is a lot of work in the coming days and weeks in order to 
implement the commitments of the agreement," she said. "It is essential to 
continue work as quickly as possible in order to alleviate the many problems 
due to this conflict facing the Libyan people."

   "We have to give people hope of a better future," Williams added. She 
expressed hope the agreement will succeed "in ending the suffering of Libyans 
and allowing those displaced by the conflict to return to their homes."

   Ali Abushahma, the head of the delegation and a field commander for the 
U.N.-supported administration in Tripoli, said: "We have had enough suffering, 
enough bloodshed ... We hope we will change the suffering on all the 
territories of Libya, especially in the south."

   "I appeal to all Libya: Be one hand," he said, warning about polarization by 
factions.

   The meetings this week mark the fourth round of talks involving the Joint 
Military Commission under Williams' watch. The Geneva-based military talks come 
ahead of a political forum in Tunisia in November. That forum aims to "generate 
consensus on a unified governance framework and arrangements that will lead to 
the holding of national elections," the U.N. mission said.

   On Wednesday, Williams had said the two warring factions agreed on issues 
that "directly impact the lives and welfare of the Libyan people," citing 
agreements to open air and land routes in the country, to work to ease 
inflammatory rhetoric in Libyan media, and to help kickstart Libya's vital oil 
industry.

   Libya's prized light crude has long featured in the country's civil war, 
with rival militias and foreign powers jostling for control of Africa's largest 
oil reserves.

   Last month, the two sides reached preliminary agreements to exchange 
prisoners and open up air and land transit across the country's divided 
territory. This breakthrough also accompanied the resumption of oil production 
after a months-long blockade by powerful tribes allied with military commander 
Khalifa Hifter, the leader of the eastern-based forces.

   Hifter's forces launched an offensive in April 2019 to try and capture 
Tripoli, the seat of the U.N.-supported government in the west. But his 
campaign collapsed in June.

   Fighting has since died down amid international pressure on both sides to 
avert an attack on the strategic city of Sirte, the gateway to Libya's major 
oil export terminals.

Last Debate: Virus, Climate,  10/23 06:33

   President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden fought over how 
to tame the raging coronavirus during the campaign's closing debate, largely 
shelving the rancor that overshadowed their previous face-off in favor of a 
more substantive exchange that highlighted their vastly different approaches to 
the major domestic and foreign challenges facing the nation.

   NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger 
Joe Biden fought over how to tame the raging coronavirus during the campaign's 
closing debate, largely shelving the rancor that overshadowed their previous 
face-off in favor of a more substantive exchange that highlighted their vastly 
different approaches to the major domestic and foreign challenges facing the 
nation.

   The Republican president declared the virus, which killed more than 1,000 
Americans on Thursday alone, will "go away." Biden countered that the nation 
was heading toward "a dark winter."

   "Anyone who is responsible for that many deaths should not remain as 
president of the United States of America," Biden said.

   With less than two weeks until the election, Trump portrayed himself as the 
same outsider he first pitched to voters four years ago, repeatedly saying he 
wasn't a politician. Biden, meanwhile, argued that Trump was an incompetent 
leader of a country facing multiple crises and tried to connect what he saw as 
the president's failures to the everyday lives of Americans, especially when it 
comes to the pandemic.

   The president, who promised a vaccine within weeks, said the worst problems 
are in states with Democratic governors, a contention at odds with rising cases 
in states that voted for Trump in 2016. Biden, meanwhile, vowed that his 
administration would defer to scientists on battling the pandemic and said that 
Trump's divisive approach on suffering states hindered the nation's response.

   "I don't look at this in terms of the way he does -- blue states and red 
states," Biden said. "They're all the United States. And look at all the states 
that are having such a spike in the coronavirus -- they're the red states."

   After a first debate defined by angry interruptions, the Thursday event 
featured a mostly milder tone. And in a campaign defined by ugly personal 
attacks, the night featured a surprising amount of substantive policy debate as 
the two broke sharply on the environment, foreign policy, immigration and 
racial justice.

   When Trump repeatedly asked Biden if he would "close down the oil industry," 
the Democratic standardbearer said he "would transition from the oil industry, 
yes," and that he would replace it by renewable energy "over time." Trump, 
making a direct appeal to voters in energy producing states like Texas and the 
vital battleground of Pennsylvania, seized upon the remark as "a big statement."

   Perhaps sensing that the comment could soon appear in Trump campaign ads, 
Biden did a little clean-up boarding his plane after the debate, declaring, 
"We're not going to ban fossil fuels. We'll get rid of the subsidies of fossil 
fuels but not going to get rid of fossil fuels for a long time."

   As the debate swept to climate change, Trump explained his decision to pull 
the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord negotiated in 2015, declaring it was 
an unfair pact that would have cost the country trillions of dollars and hurt 
businesses.

   Trump repeatedly claimed Biden's plan to tackle climate change and invest in 
green industries was developed by "AOC plus three," referring to New York Rep. 
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Biden chuckled during much of Trump's answer and 
said, "I don't know where he comes from."

   On race, Biden called out Trump's previous refusals to condemn white 
supremacists and his attacks on the Black Lives Matter movement, declaring that 
the president "pours fuel on every single racist fire."

   "You know who I am. You know who he is. You know his character. You know my 
character," Biden said. The rivals' reputations for "honor and for telling to 
truth" are clear, he said.

   Trump countered by pointing out his efforts on criminal justice reform and 
blasting Biden's support of a 1990s Crime Bill that many feel 
disproportionately incarcerated Black men. Staring into the crowd, he declared 
himself "the least racist person in this room."

   Turning to foreign policy, Biden accused Trump of dealing with a "thug" 
while holding summits with the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un. And closer 
to home, the former vice president laced into the Trump administration's policy 
of separating children from their parents trying to illegally cross the 
southern border.

   Biden said that America has learned from a New York Times report that Trump 
paid only $750 a year in federal taxes while holding "a secret bank account" in 
China. The former vice president then noted he's released all of his tax 
returns going back 22 years and challenged the president to release his 
returns, saying, "What are you hiding?"

   Trump said he closed his former account in China and claimed his accountants 
told him he "prepaid tens of millions of dollars" in taxes. However, as he has 
for the past four years after promising to release his taxes, he declined to 
say when he might do so.

   Trump said that when it comes to health care, he would like "to terminate" 
the Obama-era Affordable Care Act, even amid a pandemic, and come up "with a 
brand new beautiful health care," that protects coverage for preexisting 
conditions. Biden said the president has been talking about making such a move 
for years but "he's never come up with a plan."

   He also denounced Trump's claim that Biden wanted to socialize medicine, 
creating daylight between himself and the more liberal members of his party 
whom he defeated in the Democratic primaries.

   "He thinks he's running against somebody else," the former vice president 
said. "He's running against Joe Biden. I beat all those other people because I 
disagreed with them."

   It remained to be seen if Trump, who is trailing in the race, managed to 
change the trajectory of the campaign. More than 47 million votes already have 
been cast, and there are fewer undecided voters than at this point in previous 
election years.

   The debate, moderated by NBC's Kristen Welker, was a final chance for each 
man to make his case to a television audience of tens of millions. And 
questions swirled beforehand as to how Trump, whose hectoring performance at 
the first debate was viewed by aides as a mistake that turned off viewers, 
would perform amid a stretch of the campaign in which he has taken angry aim at 
the news media and unleashed deeply personal attacks on Biden and his adult son.

   When he feels cornered, Trump has often lashed out, going as negative as 
possible. In one stunning moment during the 2016 campaign, in an effort to 
deflect from the release of the "Access Hollywood" tape in which he is heard 
boasting about groping women, Trump held a press conference just before a 
debate with Hillary Clinton during which he appeared with women who had accused 
Bill Clinton of sexual assault. He then invited them to watch as audience 
members.

   In a similar move, Trump's campaign held another surprise pre-debate news 
conference, this time featuring Tony Bobulinski, a man who said he was Hunter 
Biden's former business partner and made unproven allegations that the vice 
president's son consulted with his father on China-related business dealings.

   Trump made similar, if vague, accusations from the debate stage, but 
exchanges about Hunter Biden did not dominate the night as aides on both 
campaigns thought might happen. Biden declared the discussion about family 
entanglements "malarkey" and accused Trump of not wanting to talk about the 
substantive issues.

   Turning to the camera and the millions of people watching at home, Biden 
said, "It's not about his family and my family. It's about your family, and 
your family is hurting badly."

US Stocks End Mostly Higher            10/23 16:04

   U.S. stock indexes are mixed in early trading Friday as Wall Street weighs 
another batch of corporate results from the summer earnings period.

   (AP) -- U.S. stock indexes closed mostly higher Friday, though the S&P 500 
posted its first weekly loss in four weeks.

   The benchmark index eked out a 0.3% gain after another day of wobbly 
trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished with a small loss. Gains in 
communication services, health care and other sectors outweighed a decline in 
technology and energy companies. Treasury yields remained near their highest 
levels since June.

   The indexes bounced between small gains and losses after a sluggish start as 
investors weighed another batch of corporate results from the summer earnings 
period. The up-and-down moves have been a familiar pattern recently as traders 
keep an eye on the ongoing negotiations between Republican and Democractic 
leaders in Washington over more economic aid for the pandemic-stricken economy.

   "It's generally been a little more of a selling market, and a lot of that 
has to do with waiting to see whether or not we get a fiscal stimulus package 
before the election," said Sal Bruno, chief investment officer at IndexIQ. "The 
odds of that are getting lower and lower the closer we get to the election."

   The S&P 500 rose 11.90 points to 3,465.39, it's second straight gain. The 
Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 28.09 points, or 0.1%, to 28,335.57. The 
Nasdaq composite, which is heavily weighted with technology stocks, gained 
42.28 points, or 0.4%, to 11,548.28. The index had been down 0.6%.

   Small company stocks continued to best the rest of the market. The Russell 
2000 index rose 10.25 points, or 0.6%, to 1,640.50. The index ended the week 
with a 0.4% gain, while the major U.S. indexes fell.

   Stocks have been mostly pushing higher this month after giving back some of 
their big gains this year in a sudden September swoon. Before this week, the 
S&P 500 had notched a weekly gain three weeks in a row. It's now up 3% for the 
month heading into the final week of October.

   Investors are hoping for another round of government aid for businesses and 
millions of people who have lost their jobs during the coronavirus pandemic. 
The last round of supplemental aid for unemployed Americans expired at the end 
of July.

   While House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have 
been negotiating daily this week on a possible aid package. On Thursday, Pelosi 
said that progress is still being made, but any compromise will likely face 
stiff resistance from Republicans in the Senate.

   Wall Street is worried that if an agreement on more economic aid isn't 
reached before the Nov. 3 election, it could leave the matter in limbo should 
there be a protracted delay in sorting out the outcome of the voting.

   "You have political incentives going on right now to try and get something 
done," Bruno said. "Once the election has passed, depending on the outcome, 
maybe some of those political incentives shift. It scrambles the deck quite a 
bit."

   In their debate late Thursday, President Donald Trump and his Democratic 
challenger Joe Biden managed a more substantive exchange than during their 
first raucous clash several weeks ago. There were no major market-moving 
surprises.

   "The final U.S. presidential debate was less chaotic than the first but 
offered little new information to inform the result for markets," Stephen Innes 
of Axi said in a commentary. "Meanwhile, discussion relevant to the 
post-election economic outlook was limited, particularly from President Trump."

   Uncertainty over whether Uncle Sam will provide more support for the economy 
was overshadowing solid earnings reports from big companies. While many have 
reported profits for the summer that took a hit from the coronavirus-caused 
recession, their results have been mostly not as bad as feared.

   Barbie maker Mattel jumped 9.6% after its latest earnings blew past 
analysts' forecasts. Capital One Financial gained 1.6% after turning in robust 
results.

   Some companies' results didn't live up to Wall Street's expectations. 
American Express fell 3.6% and chipmaker Intel sank 10.6%, the biggest decline 
in the S&P 500, after reporting weakness in its data center business. Intel's 
drop helped pull the Dow into the red.

   Drugmaker Gilead rose 0.2% after U.S. regulators gave formal approval to its 
antiviral drug remdesivir to treat patients hospitalized with COVID-19.

   Treasury yields dipped but remain near their highest levels since June. The 
10-year Treasury yield slipped to 0.84% from 0.87% late Thursday.

   The recent pickup in bond yields follows recent encouraging data on 
residential construction, homebuying and retail sales. It also suggests bond 
investors are more optimistic that the economy will receive more aid from 
Washington.

   "The fact that (bond yields) have been moving up is not just in support of 
actual data, but that the data will continue getting better moving forward, 
which depends to a large extent on getting a stimulus package," Bruno said.

   Markets in Europe closed higher, and Asian markets mostly rose.