
Ticker: World’s largest battery plant burns; Apple pulls error-prone AI news; Wall Street rallies
A fire at the world’s largest battery storage plant in Northern California that sent plumes of toxic smoke into the atmosphere, leading to the evacuation of up to 1,500 people, smoldered Friday. The blaze also shook up the young battery storage industry.
The fire at the Vista Energy battery plant in Moss Landing generated huge flames and significant amounts of smoke Thursday but had diminished significantly by Friday morning, Fire Chief Joel Mendoza of the North County Fire Protection District of Monterey County said. Vistra is based in Texas.
Apple pulls error-prone AI-generated news summaries
Apple is suspending an error-prone feature that used artificial intelligence to deliver bogus news alerts to some iPhone owners.
The decision was disclosed Thursday as part of a test version for the next software release, iOS 18.3. The beta version is only available to a relatively small group of iPhone users and developers, but the same features are usually released in an update available to all users several weeks after the testing begins.
Wall Street rallies to its best week since Trump’s election
U.S. stock indexes rallied to close out their best week in two months. The S&P 500 rose 1% Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.8%, and the Nasdaq composite gained 1.5%. SLB helped lead the market after the provider of oilfield services said it will deliver more cash to its shareholders through dividends and a stock buyback. Big Tech also lifted the market amid hopes the Federal Reserve may cut interest rates later this year.