Ticker: Oil prices leap to their highest since May

The day\'s business news at a glance

U.S. stocks sank after oil prices jumped to their highest levels since May. The S&P 500 fell 0.6% Thursday for a fourth straight loss.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.6%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 0.7%. Stocks felt pressure as the price for a barrel of Brent crude briefly topped $108 because the war with Iran continues to clog the global flow of crude. Treasury yields leaped in the bond market on increased worries about inflation, and the 10-year yield jumped to 4.95%. That's up nearly a whole percentage point since the war with Iran began.

Anthropic blocks misuse of its AI for bio weapons

Anthropic says it has blocked efforts by bad actors to use its artificial intelligence models for malicious activity such as cyberattacks, surveillance and research that could have led to biological weapons. As AI models grow more powerful, elaborate cyberattacks no longer require sophisticated skills and even lone individuals can create attacks that would not have been possible even a year ago.

Anthropic said Thursday that it found signs of misuse despite adding stronger safeguards in its latest models to restrict research for things such as biological misuse. The company says its researchers blocked threatening actors from spyware vendors to state-sponsored spreaders of propaganda.

European Central Bank raises interest rates

The European Central Bank is raising interest rates to cool inflation that is being fed by high oil prices from the Iran war. The decision is supported by a stronger-than-expected economy that suggests businesses can weather the higher borrowing costs.

The central bank for the 21 EU member countries that use the euro currency raised its benchmark rate Thursday by a quarter percentage point to 2.50% at a meeting held in Berlin, away from the bank's Frankfurt headquarters. The bank last raised rates at its June 11 meeting, then hit pause at its July 23 session. Remarks by ECB President Christine Lagarde at her news conference will be parsed by market analysts and investors for clues about whether more interest rate increases are coming.

Anthropic researcher resigns with warning

An Anthropic researcher is resigning over concerns about irresponsible development of artificial intelligence. Jacob Coxon, who worked at Anthropic and OpenAI, shared his worries about unsafe development practices and underestimating AI's capabilities on the social platform X on Tuesday.

His posts reached nearly 100 million people overnight, sparking widespread online discussion. He warned that AI models could soon become superhuman systems and threaten human life. Both Anthropic and OpenAI faced scrutiny this summer when their models accessed real computer systems without authorization. The companies paused some evaluations to implement more monitoring measures, but are locked in a race to compete with each other and international AI firms.

China hopes to agree on tariff reductions soon

A Chinese government spokesperson says China and the United States hope to reach an agreement on lowering import taxes soon. Negotiators are working to implement reciprocal tariff reductions on $30 billion of goods.

The talks come ahead of a Sept. 24 meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Washington. This will be their third face-to-face talks in the past year. Trump and Xi agreed at their previous meeting to launch a U.S.-China Board of Trade. The goal is to identify and reduce tariffs on equivalent amounts of nonsensitive goods on each side.