Stocks are mostly lower on Wall Street in afternoon trading Wednesday, giving back some of their gains from a record-setting climb a day earlier.

Gripped by the accelerating viral outbreak, the U.S. economy is under pressure from persistent layoffs, diminished income and nervous consumers, whose spending is needed to drive a recovery from the pandemic.

SAUGERTIES, N.Y. – Rocky the stowaway owl is back in the wild.

Will social distancing weaken my immune system? In short, no. Some worry a lack of contact with others will weaken their immune system by reducing its active contact with germs. But even when we’re staying 6 feet from others or spending most of our time at home, our bodies are continuously responding to bacteria.

Cannabis stocks are flying high after voters in New Jersey, Arizona and three other states cleared the way for expanding legal sales of marijuana.

German media giant Bertelsmann said Wednesday that its Penguin Random House division is buying rival Simon & Schuster, in a mega deal that will likely reshape the U.S. publishing industry.

NEW YORK – Cleaning wipes are harder to find on store shelves, and businesses are reassuring customers with stepped up sanitation measures. In New York, the subway system is shut down nightly for disinfecting.

With coronavirus cases spiking in the U.S. and Europe, the financial outlook of the world’s airlines is getting worse.

NEW YORK – Don’t even think of putting the mask away anytime soon.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 30,000 points for the first time Tuesday as progress in the development of coronavirus vaccines and news that the transition of power in the U.S. to President-elect Joe Biden will finally begin kept investors in a buying mood.

European regulators on Tuesday took a step closer to letting the Boeing 737 Max fly again, publishing a proposed airworthiness directive that could see the aircraft cleared within weeks after being grounded for nearly two years over deadly crashes.

BARCELONA, Spain – When Marina Gómez and her fellow mortuary worker enter a room at a nursing home to remove the body of a COVID-19 victim, they work methodically and in silence.

LOS ANGELES – Champion Ken Jennings is going to succeed the late Alex Trebek as “Jeopardy!” host – at least in the short term. Jennings will be the first in a series of “interim guest hosts” of the classic game show when it resumes production Nov. 30, the show announced Monday. Those episodes will air the week of Jan. 11.

State and local officials nationwide are imposing new coronavirus restrictions and pleading with the public in an increasingly desperate attempt to stop the explosive spread of the disease as many Americans resist calls to limit gatherings and travel heading into the holidays.

NEW YORK — Former Watergate sleuth Carl Bernstein took to Twitter to list the names of 21 Republican senators who he says have “repeatedly expressed contempt” for Donald Trump and his fitness to be president.

WASHINGTON — All those warnings from public health officials begging Americans to limit gatherings this holiday season amid a surge in coronavirus cases aren't stopping the White House from planning a host of festivities and holiday parties in the midst of a pandemic.

MEXICO CITY – Mexico’s Roman Catholic Church announced the cancellation Monday of what’s considered the world’s largest Catholic pilgrimage, for the Virgin of Guadalupe, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.