Tag Archives: ease

Diplomatic Efforts Fail to Ease Humanitarian Crisis – Newser

  1. Diplomatic Efforts Fail to Ease Humanitarian Crisis Newser
  2. Diplomats Race to Ease Gaza Crisis Amid Fears of Spreading Conflict The New York Times
  3. Israel-Gaza latest: Thousands at risk as hospital power running out ‘within 24 hours’ – as US warns Israel against Gaza ‘mistake’ Sky News
  4. Israel-Hamas war latest: Thousands at risk as hospital power running out ‘within 24 hours’ – as Biden warns Israel against ‘big mistake’ Sky News
  5. Israel-Gaza latest: ‘There’s no humanitarian crisis in Gaza,’ says Israeli ambassador – as US warns Israel against ‘big mistake’ Sky News
  6. View Full Coverage on Google News

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Diplomats Race to Ease Crisis as Israel Plans Gaza Invasion: Live News – The New York Times

  1. Diplomats Race to Ease Crisis as Israel Plans Gaza Invasion: Live News The New York Times
  2. Foreign officials raise alarm over lack of humanitarian aid in Gaza as Israel prepares for ground operation Fox News
  3. ‘It’s hard to conceive of this as anything other than like a death march’: Local experts decry forced displacement of Gazans The Boston Globe
  4. Western capitals urge restraint in private discussions with Israel Financial Times
  5. ‘This is no doubt psychological warfare;’ Metro residents react to war in Israel as death toll rises WSB Atlanta
  6. View Full Coverage on Google News

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Luis Castillo shuts down Pirates with ease as Mariners coast to victory – The Seattle Times

  1. Luis Castillo shuts down Pirates with ease as Mariners coast to victory The Seattle Times
  2. Luis Castillo strikes out 10 as Seattle Mariners beat Pirates 5-0 Seattle Sports
  3. Mariners come into game two against the Pirates with cannons loaded, striking down and striking back to a shu… Lookout Landing
  4. Luis Castillo strikes out 10 as Seattle Mariners beat Pittsburgh Pirates 5-0 Houston Chronicle
  5. Seattle Mariners fans praise Luis Castillo for his one-hit shutout against the Pittsburgh Pirates: “He’s the ace for a reason” “What a stud!” Sportskeeda
  6. View Full Coverage on Google News

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Silky Arsenal ease to victory at Fulham, keep title bid on track – soccer.nbcsports.com

  1. Silky Arsenal ease to victory at Fulham, keep title bid on track soccer.nbcsports.com
  2. Arsenal cruise past Fulham via Trossard hat trick of assists ESPN
  3. Arsenal enjoy a lovely stress-free afternoon by the river idly dreaming of Premier League glory Football365
  4. Mikel Arteta reveals Leandro Trossard beat injury scare to make Premier League history & welcomes Gabriel Jesus’ ‘smile’ back to Arsenal’s squad Goal.com
  5. Gabriel Jesus’ Arsenal return is welcome but coping without him shows how far they’ve come The Athletic
  6. View Full Coverage on Google News

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Support From Others in Stressful Times Can Ease Impact of Genetic Depression Risk

Summary: Social support during stressful times helps reduce the risk of those with genetic predispositions to depression from developing symptoms.

Source: University of Michigan

Reaching out to support a person when they’re under stress is always a good idea. But a new study suggests that support could be especially important for someone whose genetic makeup makes them more likely to develop depression.

The study shows the importance of social support in buffering the risk of developing depression symptoms in general, using data from two very different groups of people under stress: new doctors in the most intense year of training, and older adults whose spouses recently died.

But the largest effect was seen in those who had the most genetic variation that raised the risk of depression.

The paper uses a measure of genetic risk called a polygenic risk score, which is based on decades of research about what tiny variations in specific genes are linked to depression risk.

Compared to individuals in the study who had low depression polygenic risk scores, the doctors and widows with higher risk scores had higher rates of depression after they lost social support, but also had lower rates of depression when they gained social support during stressful times.

The study, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry by a University of Michigan team, suggests that more could be done to target social support to those who can most benefit.

Genes, stress and social connection

“Our data show wide variability in the level of social support individuals received during these stressful times, and how it changed over time,” said first author Jennifer Cleary, M.S., a psychology doctoral student at U-M who is doing her research with senior author Srijan Sen, M.D., Ph.D., of the U-M Medical School.

“We hope these findings, which incorporate genetic risk scores as well as measures of social support and depressive symptoms, illuminate the gene-environment interactions and specifically the importance of social connection in depression risk.”

Sen, who is the director of the Eisenberg Family Depression Center and a professor of psychiatry and neuroscience, adds that even as genetic research reveals more of the DNA variation related to depression vulnerability, learning how that variation leads to depression is crucial.

“Further understanding the different genetic profiles associated with sensitivity to loss of social support, insufficient sleep, excessive work stress and other risk factors could help us develop personalized guidance for depression prevention,” he said.

“In the meantime, these findings reaffirm how important social connections, social support and individual sensitivity to the social environment are as factors in well-being and preventing depression.”

Different populations, similar patterns

The new study used data from two long-term studies that both capture genetic, mood, environment and other data from populations of participating individuals.

One is the Intern Health Study, which enrolls first-year medical residents (also called interns) around the United States and beyond, and which Sen directs.

The other is the Health and Retirement Study, based at the U-M Institute for Social Research.

The data for the new paper came from 1,011 interns training at hospitals across the country, nearly half of whom were female, and from 435 recently widowed individuals, 71% of them women, who had data available from surveys conducted before and after their spouses died.

In the interns, as Sen and his team have shown in previous work, depressive symptoms increased dramatically (126%) during the stressful year of training that includes long and irregular work hours—often in environments far from friends and family.

In the widows and widowers, depressive symptoms increased 34% over their pre-widowhood scores. This correlates with past research showing loss of a spouse can be one of the biggest stressors in a person’s life, Cleary said.

A crossover effect

Then, the researchers factored together the depression symptom findings with each person’s polygenic risk score for depression, and their individual responses to questions about connections with friends, family and other social supporters.

Most of the interns lost social support from their pre-internship days—which fits well with the common experience of leaving the place where they attended medical school and going to a new environment where they may not know anyone.

Interns who had the highest polygenic risk scores and also lost social support had the highest scores on measures of depression symptoms later in the stressful intern year.

Those with the same high level of genetic risk who gained social support, though, had much lower depressive symptoms. In fact, it was lower than even their peers with low genetic risk, no matter what happened to their social support. The researchers call this a “crossover effect.”

Unlike the interns, some widowed individuals reported an increase in social support after the loss of their spouse, potentially as friends and family reached out to offer help or just a listening ear.

But the crossover effect was visible in them, too. Widows with high genetic risk for depression who gained social support showed a much smaller increase in depressive symptoms than their peers with similar genetic risk who lost social support after losing a spouse.

But the largest effect was seen in those who had the most genetic variation that raised the risk of depression. Image is in the public domain

There were also some widows who lost social support or didn’t experience a change in support, and whose depressive symptoms didn’t change. Cleary notes that in future work, it will be important to look at this group’s history in light of any caregiving they may have done for a spouse with a long-term illness.

See also

The team also hopes that other researchers will study this same interaction of genetic risk, stress and social support in other populations.

In the meantime, Cleary and Sen say, the message for anyone going through stressful times, or watching a friend or relative go through stressful times, is to reach out and maintain or strengthen social connections.

Doing so can have benefits both for the person under stress, and the person reaching out to them, they note.

Reducing the level of ongoing stress that the person is facing, whether it’s at work, school, after a personal loss or in family situations can be critical.

And even though the study did not examine the role of professional mental health help, individual and group therapy is an important option for those who have developed depression or other mental health concerns.

About this genetics and depression research news

Author: Press Office
Source: University of Michigan
Contact: Press Office – University of Michigan
Image: The image is in the public domain

Original Research: Closed access.
“Polygenic Risk and Social Support in Predicting Depression Under Stress” by Jennifer L. Cleary et al. American Journal of Psychiatry


Abstract

Polygenic Risk and Social Support in Predicting Depression Under Stress

Objective:

Despite substantial progress in identifying genomic variation associated with major depression, the mechanisms by which genomic and environmental factors jointly influence depression risk remain unclear. Genomically conferred sensitivity to the social environment may be one mechanism linking genomic variation and depressive symptoms. The authors assessed whether social support affects the likelihood of depression development differently across the spectrum of genomic risk in two samples that experienced substantial life stress: 1,011 first-year training physicians (interns) in the Intern Health Study (IHS) and 435 recently widowed Health and Retirement Study (HRS) participants.

Methods:

Participants’ depressive symptoms and social support were assessed with questionnaires that were administered before and after the life stressor. Polygenic risk scores (PRSs) for major depressive disorder were calculated for both samples.

Results:

Depressive symptom scores increased by 126% after the start of internship in the IHS sample and by 34% after widowing in the HRS sample. There was an interaction between depression PRS and change in social support in the prediction of depressive symptoms in both the IHS sample (incidence rate ratio [IRR]=0.96, 95% CI=0.93, 0.98) and the HRS sample (IRR=0.78, 95% CI=0.66, 0.92), with higher depression PRS associated with greater sensitivity to changes in social support. Johnson-Neyman intervals indicated a crossover effect, with losses and gains in social support moderating the effect of PRS on depressive symptoms. (Johnson-Neyman interval in the IHS sample, −0.02, 0.71; in the HRS sample, −0.49, 1.92).

Conclusions:

The study findings suggest that individuals with high genomic risk for developing increased depressive symptoms under adverse social conditions also benefit more from nurturing social environments.

Read original article here

Stocks stage first big rally of 2023 as hope grows that inflation will ease, Dow closes up 700 points

Stocks close day, week higher

A Friday rally on the back of new economic data left stocks positive on the both the day and week when markets closed.

The Dow ended up 2.1% on the day and 1.5% on the week.

Meanwhile, the S&P 500 gained 2.3% Friday and 1.5% in the week.

The Nasdaq posted the biggest daily win, adding 2.6%. But it had the smallest weekly gain at 1%.

— Alex Harring

Where the 11 S&P 500 sectors stand with 30 minutes left in trading

All 11 S&P 500 sectors traded up as stocks rallied Friday afternoon.

Materials posted the biggest gain, adding 3.4%. Health care lagged the other 10 sectors, but was still up 1%.

All but one sector were on pace to close the week higher than where each started. Communication services was poised for the biggest gain despite trailing Friday, on track to finish the week up 3.8%. Health care was the sole sector on pace to close the week lower, at 0.1% down.

— Alex Harring

Biogen extends gains after drug approval

Shares of Biogen resumed trading shortly after 3 p.m. and extended their gains.

The biotech stock trading was up by more than 5.2% after the FDA granted accelerated approval to a new Alzheimer’s drug. The stock was up about 3.6% before it was halted at 2 p.m.

— Jesse Pound

Stocks trade up entering final hour of trading

The three major indexes all traded up as investors entered the final hour of trading.

The Dow gained 726 points, or 2.2%. The S&P 500 added 2.4%, while the Nasdaq rose 2.7%.

All three indexes are also on pace to end the week up. The Dow and S&P 500 are each on track to gain 1.5% for the week, while the Nasdaq is poised for a 1.1% advance.

— Alex Harring

Party City falls 50% on report of imminent bankruptcy

Party City‘s stock hit a 52-week low Friday, dropping approximately 50% after the Wall Street Journal reported the retailer was planning to file for bankruptcy within weeks.

A share of Party City stock traded around 17 cents at 2 p.m. That’s a 97% drop from the $6.55 price the stock closed at on Jan. 6, 2022.

The stock lost 93.4% of its value in 2022. Its share price has dropped for each of the past five years besides 2020, when it leapt up 162.8% as the pandemic prompted an unexpected shift in consumer spending to goods.

Trading halted in Biogen as FDA approves Alzheimer’s drug

Shares of Biogen have been halted for pending news as the Food and Drug Administration announced the accelerated approval of lecanemab, an Alzheimer’s drug developed by Biogen and Japanese firm Eisai.

Clinical trials of the new drug showed that it slowed cognitive decline in people with mild symptoms from Alzheimer’s disease. Biogen and Esai were also behind another Alzheimer’s treatment called Aduhelm which was controversially approved by the FDA last year.

The stock was up 3.56% on the day when it was halted at 2 p.m.

—Jesse Pound

Bond prices surge, yields fall as economic data signals cooling inflation

Bond prices rallied with stocks, sending yields down, after two key economic reports signaled inflation my be cooling off as the Fed raises interest rates.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury was down by 16.2 basis points at 3.56%. The 2-year Treasury yield fell 18.9 basis points to 4.264%. The yield on the 30-year Treasury was down 11.8 basis points at 3.68%.

The spread between the 10-year Treasury and the 3-month Treasury, a key inversion that signals a recession, is the largest since 1982.

Yields and prices move in opposite directions. One basis point equals 0.01%.

—Carmen Reinicke

Stocks making the biggest moves midday

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.

  • World Wrestling Entertainment — The wrestling entertainment stock surged 21% after WWE announced that founder Vince McMahon is returning to its board of directors and that the company is exploring strategic moves. McMahon stepped down as CEO last year after an investigation into sexual misconduct, but has remained majority shareholder. The Wall Street Journal reported that McMahon is returning to pursue a potential sale of the business.
  • R1 RCM — Shares of the healthcare technology firm soared more than 11% after the company raised its revenue outlook for 2023. The company also reaffirmed its projection for full-year 2022.
  • Costco Wholesale — Shares of the big-box retailer jumped more than 6% after it reported solid sales numbers for December. Costco posted net sales of $23.8 billion in December 2022, marking an increase of 7% year-over-year. Evercore ISI also added Costco to its “fab five” list, saying it’s a defensive stalwart.

Read the full list here.

— Sarah Min

First week of year signals volatility ahead for stocks, Goldman Sachs says

Investors may not want to get too excited about Friday’s rally.

“This first week of 2023 (and January) has come with the usual raft of major economic data points which on net point to the unusual post-pandemic era combination of a resilient labor market set against eroding business sentiment across the economy,” analysts at Goldman Sachs wrote in a Friday note. “Even as Corporate America continues to hire over 200,000 net new workers a month and post over 10mn job openings, both the Manufacturing and Service sector feels like things are getting worse.”

Of course, things getting worse is relative to one of the best GDP expansions the U.S. has seen, according to the note. This was partially fueled by pandemic stimulus through 2021.

“But this unusual combination we are now seeing of slow growth, high inflation, and elevated stock market valuations is likely to make for an uneven trading landscape in the year ahead,” Goldman said. That’s likely to mean modest returns for stocks this year.

—Carmen Reinicke

Tesla reverses slump, trades higher

Tesla reversed a more than 5% slump Friday following news that the electric vehicle maker would lower prices on some models of cars in China.

Later in the day, however, Tesla rose with the broader market. It was up 1.85% at midday.

Fed’s Barkin says rate hikes can be done ‘more deliberately’ now

Richmond Federal Reserve President Thomas Barkin said Friday the central bank has to keep working to bring down inflation but can do so with a little less intensity.

“We still have work to do,” the central bank official said in prepared remarks. “Inflation is too high, and we will need to stay on the case until it is sustainably back to our 2% target. We have forecasted additional rate increases this year.”

Policymakers indicated in December that they’re likely to take rates up another percentage point or so before pausing. Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic earlier in the day told CNBC he expects the central bank’s benchmark funds rate rising past 5%, from its current 4.25%-4.5% target range.

Barking did not specify how high he thinks the rate should go. However, he said the Fed now can move “more deliberately” after raising rates aggressively seven times in 2022.

—Jeff Cox

Health care, hospitality lead December job gains

Health care and social services was the top category for job growth in December, followed by leisure and hospitality, as the U.S. labor market continues to show strength despite the Federal Reserve’s aggressive rate hikes.

Meanwhile, two sectors that had been struggling in recent months — retail and transportation and warehousing — snapped back to growth in December.

Bank of America downgrades Chevron as oil prices cool

As oil prices cool, Bank of America is expecting Chevron won’t outperform as much as it did in 2022.

The firm expects a modest 9% upside after gaining more than 50% in share value last year. Analyst Doug Leggate also downgraded the stock to neutral from buy, citing limited upside as oil prices stabilize following the jump prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Put simply we see CVX as a victim of its own success – but with <10% upside to our estimate of fair value, we believe the appropriate rating vs North American peers is Neutral," Leggate said in a note to clients Friday.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more about Leggate’s call here.

— Alex Harring

Goldman’s Hatzius says jobs numbers consistent with ‘soft landing’

December’s employment report helps add to the narrative that the U.S. may be able to avoid a recession, Goldman Sachs chief economist Jan Hatzius said Friday.

“We’re growing at a below-trend pace that’s necessary to rebalance the economy. Wage growth is gradually decelerating, price inflation is pretty quickly decelerating,” Hatzius said on CNBC’s “Squawk of the Street.” “I think that should be encouraging for a soft landing.”

He spoke after the Labor Department reported a 223,000 increase in nonfarm payrolls and a 4.6% annual rise in average hourly earnings, the slowest pace for the latter metric since August 2021.

—Jeff Cox

Wells Fargo upgrades Lululemon

Wells Fargo analyst Ike Boruchow upgraded shares of Lululemon to overweight, calling the athletics apparel retailer a “rare name with momentum.”

“LULU’s top-line resilience in the past few years has been nothing short of stunning, with 2022E’s topline expected to be essentially double 2019 levels,” he said, expecting continued resilience in 2023.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read the full story here.

— Samantha Subin

Stocks typically rebound massively following big yearly losses

History shows that the stock market typically rebounds drastically following a year of big losses, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Since 1936, of the nine prior years with double-digit losses, seven of those years experienced double-digit gains the following year (an average of 18%), according to the firm. The S&P 500 lost 19.4% in 2022, suffering its worst year since 2008.

Stocks rally on slower wage growth but are ignoring other message in jobs data

The December jobs report shows the economy is still adding jobs at a strong rate, but investors focused on the fact that wage growth is slowing, suggesting inflation may be ebbing.

Stocks rallied after the 8:30 a.m. ET employment report showed 223,000 jobs were created in December. Average hourly wages grew at an annual pace of 4.6%, less than the 5% expected by economists.

“The big move was the fact that average hourly earnings came in lower than expected. That suggests that investors are focused intently on inflation, and whether that inflation is moving toward the Fed’s target,” said Michael Arone, chief investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors.

But he also cautioned that the data could be double-edged, since it suggests the economy and employment are still strong. That could help keep inflation elevated and keep the Fed hiking more than markets might expect.

The Fed next meets Jan. 31 and Feb. 1. While some economists anticipate a half point hike after that meeting, traders in the futures market put greater odds on a smaller, 25 basis point hike. A basis point equals 0.01 of a percentage point.

“Data like today suggests the Fed could do 50 basis points,” said Arone. A more aggressive Fed could create more market volatility.

The Fed has been trying to slow the economy and the hot labor market through its rate hiking, which has taken the fed funds target rate range to 4.25% to 4.50%.

 Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at Bleakley Financial Group said market expectations did not change after the jobs report, and the fed funds futures contract for February was pricing in another 32 basis points of hikes.

“It’s pricing 100% chance of a 25 basis point hike, and a 30% chance for an additional 25. Peak fed funds is still at 5%” for July, he said. “The market is still expecting the Fed to go another 60, almost 70 basis points,” he said. Boockvar said the end point for the Fed matters more than if it raises by 25 basis points or 50 when it next meets.

–Patti Domm

KeyBanc says Bed Bath & Beyond shares can fall to 10 cents amid bankruptcy warning

KeyBanc is expecting shares of Bed Bath & Beyond to fall to 10 cents as the beaten down retailer warns it could seek bankruptcy protection.

Analyst Bradley Thomas reiterated his underweight rating on shares, while slashing his price target to 10 cents from $2. That implies 94% downside from Thursday’s close.

Read more on the call from KeyBanc here.

— Samantha Subin

Services sector contracted in December, ISM survey shows

The services sector contracted in December amid a pullback in new orders and production, the Institute for Supply Management reported Friday.

The ISM Services index fell to 49.6% for the month, well below the Dow Jones estimate for a 55.1% reading. The gauge measures the percentage of businesses reporting expansion, with a reading below 50% indicating contraction.

New orders fell 10.8 percentage point while business activity and production dropped 10 points. Prices fell 2.4 points to 67.6%, still a high number but representative of some softening in inflation. Employment also fell, moving down 1.7 points to 49.8% and into contraction territory.

—Jeff Cox

Morgan Stanley says banks’ 4Q results hit by higher loan loss reserves and expenses

Jane Fraser speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., on Monday, April 29, 2019.

Kyle Grillot | Bloomberg via Getty Images

Banks reporting fourth-quarter results next week will miss earnings estimates because they’ll need to plow money into loan loss reserves ahead of an expected downturn, according to Morgan Stanley analysts led by Betsy Graseck.

The companies will likely “incorporate a more severe economic outlook” into their scenarios for loan defaults this year, forcing them to set aside more than expected in reserves, Graseck wrote in a note published Friday.

On top of that, banks are likely to disclose bigger-than-expected increases to 2023 expense guidance because of wage inflation, Graseck wrote. She expects the median big bank to guide to about 4% expense growth, above the consensus of 3%.

Her pessimistic view on banks is shared by Deutsche Bank analyst Matt O’Connor, who cut his recommendation on Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase shares to hold from buy on Friday.

For her part, Graseck cut her price targets for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup shares by 7.3% and 8.9% respectively, thanks in part to her thesis.

On the other hand, she favors Wells Fargo, JPMorgan and Northern Trust heading into earnings because each bank could surprise to the upside on revenue and expenses, Graseck wrote.

—Hugh Son

Tesla falls to fresh 2-year low

Tesla shares reached their lowest level in about two years Friday after the electric car maker cut its Model 3 and Model Y vehicles. The stock traded 5.6% lower, dragging down the Nasdaq Composite.

Jobs report boosted expectations for soft landing, but recession clock is ticking, Shah says

Investors cheered Friday’s jobs report as signaling that a soft landing – a scenario in which the Federal Reserve tames inflation but doesn’t push the economy into a recession – is more likely.

“A lower unemployment rate and weaker average hourly earnings growth is certainly going to get equity market bulls’ attention,” Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management said in a Friday note. “Indeed, expectations for a soft landing in the economy have likely been boosted in light of today’s jobs report.”

Still, investors may not want to cheer the news too much as it likely won’t change the Fed’s actions in the coming months.

“Yet, with the unemployment rate back to the historic low of 3.5%, how realistic is it to expect wage growth to move meaningfully lower? The Fed will likely be skeptical,” she said. “And so, with the record low unemployment rate indicating that there is still so much work ahead of them, Fed policy rates are set to rise above 5% within just a few months and a hard landing looks to be the most likely outcome this year. The recession clock is ticking.”

—Carmen Reinicke

Stocks open higher after better than expected jobs report

U.S. stocks opened higher Friday after investors cheered the December jobs report, which showed the labor market remains resilient but that wages aren’t gaining as much as expected amid the Fed’s interest rate hikes to tame inflation.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 255 points, or 0.77%. The S&P 500 gained 0.68%, while the Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.44%.

—Carmen Reinicke

Wages improve but jobs report keeps Fed on track to raise rates

Wage growth in December was less than the 5% annual pace expected by economists, but it should not influence the Federal Reserve’s rate hiking path when it meets in February.

Some economists expect the Fed will raise rates by a half percentage point, while traders in the futures market have been betting on a quarter point hike.

“This is steady as she goes for the Fed. There’s no reason to stop raising rates at this time,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG. “They still have wages growing at 4.6%, which is above the 3% to 4% they think is necessary to bring inflation down to their 2% target. The trend is the right direction for the Fed. Average hours worked continued to tick down.”

The economy added 223,000 jobs in December, more than the 200,000 expected by economists. Average hourly wages increased 0.3% on a monthly basis.

“We’ve got 4.5 million new pay checks for the year. That’s the second strongest year on record,” said Swonk. She said 2022 was second to 2021, when there were 6.7 million jobs created. “The only thing close was 1946 when soldiers returned to civilian work after World War II.”

December jobs report should add investor confusion, market volatility

Investors are so far cheering the December jobs report, which showed wage gains may have moderated, signaling progress in the fight against high inflation. Still, it’s likely to lead to choppy markets.

“While the easing of wage pressures may initially be cheered by markets, workers are still not keeping up with inflation, therefore pressuring consumption trends,” said John Lynch, Chief Investment Officer for Comerica Wealth Management.

“This report should add to investor confusion and heighten market volatility in the weeks ahead,” he added. “It also complicates the Fed’s battle against inflation, though the minutes from the December monetary policy meeting reiterate the committee’s resolve.”

“A 50-basis point move is back on the table for the next FOMC meeting in a few weeks,” he said.

—Carmen Reinicke

U.S. economy adds more jobs than expected in December

The U.S. economy added 223,000 jobs last month, slightly more than a Dow Jones consensus forecast for a 200,000 gain. This is yet another sign that the economy remains strong even as the Federal Reserve tries to tame inflation through higher rates. However, wages grew at a slightly slower-than-expected pace, increasing 0.3% versus an estimate of 0.4%.

— Fred Imbert

Stocks making the biggest premarket moves

Southwest projects fourth-quarter loss after mass flight cancelations

Last month’s operational meltdown was a costly one for Southwest, the airline said Friday.

The airline released guidance for its fourth quarter results that projected a net loss for the period, due in part to charges of between $725 million and $825 million from flight cancelations. Between $400 million and $425 million was lost revenue from the flights, while the rest comes from reimbursements to customers, premium pay to employees and other factors.

Shares of Southwest were down 2.7% in premarket trading.

— Jesse Pound

Citi downgrades U.S. equities, saying valuations are expensive

Citi has cut its rating on U.S. equities to underweight heading into the new year, partially due to the dollar’s strength waning.

“We are no longer dollar bulls, which helped keep us Overweight in 2022,” Robert Buckland wrote in a Friday note. “Valuations remain expensive compared to elsewhere.”

He also noted that earnings expectations look too optimistic, especially given the 2023 recession that Citi economists are forecasting.

He also downgraded Japan, noting that it “remains a highly cyclical stock market and is vulnerable to an appreciation in the yen.”

—Carmen Reinicke

JPMorgan downgrades Silvergate Capital

JPMorgan downgraded crypto bank Silvergate Capital, citing concern around the company’s huge fourth-quarter withdrawals.

“While the challenging backdrop for the crypto settlement business was a factor in the worse than expected results being released, we also believe that concerns voiced by short-sellers (on Twitter) likely also contributed to Silvergate’s customers withdrawing deposits from the platform at a greater than anticipated level,” JPMorgan said. “The implications to the company’s business from the significant reduction in client deposits has near- as well as longer-term impacts,” 

Shares fell more than 15% in the premarket after plunging more than 40% on Thursday.

— Sam Subin

Tesla shares fall after EV maker cuts China prices again

Tesla fell 5% in the premarket after the Elon Musk-led company lowered prices for its Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in China. The EV maker said the cars would now be priced at 229,900 yuan (about $33,374) and 259,900 yuan, respectively.

Reuters calculations show these prices are 13%-24% from four months ago. Tesla had lowered prices in October in an effort to prop up sales against rivals in China such as BYD.

— Fred Imbert, Jihye Lee

Deutsche Bank downgrades Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase

Deutsche Bank analyst Matt O’Connor downgraded Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase to hold from buy, citing a weakening macro outlook.

“In some ways, it’s tempting to get more positive given stocks are already down sharply, inflation seems to be slowing and Fed rate hikes may be coming to an end,” he said. “But our gut is that stocks will set new lows and fully (or close to it) price in a US recession suggesting there’s more risk from here.”

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Sam Subin

European markets mixed ahead of key euro zone inflation data

European markets were cautious on Friday morning ahead of key inflation data for the euro zone, which is expected to show a further slowdown in consumer price increases.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index hovered just above the flatline in early trade, with basic resources adding 1.2% while utilities fell 0.4%.

Flash euro zone consumer price index inflation figures are due late morning. After France, Germany and Italy all reported better-than-expected slowdowns over the course of the week, investors are hopeful that inflation has passed its peak across the 20-member common currency bloc.

WWE shares rise in extended trading

— Rebecca Picciotto, Sarah Min

Leon Cooperman says new bull market isn’t coming anytime soon

Billionaire investor Leon Cooperman said he’s still holding a cautious view on stocks and the economy, but he’s finding cheap stocks to buy after the recent correction.

“I would basically take the position that we’re in a market of stocks rather than a stock market,” Cooperman said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell Overtime” Thursday. “I think anybody looking for a new bull market anytime soon is looking the wrong way.”

CNBC Pro subscribers can read the full story here.

— Yun Li

Where the major averages stand this week

Stocks are set to close out the first trading week of the year with losses. As of Thursday’s close, here are where the major averages stand:

  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 0.66% week to date, on pace for its fourth negative week in five.
  • The S&P is down 0.82% week to date, on pace for its fifth negative week in a row for the first time since its 7-week streak ending 5/20/2022.
  • The NASDAQ is down 1.54% week to date, on pace for its fifth negative week in a row for the first time since its 7-week streak ending 5/20/2022.   

— Chris Hayes, Sarah Min

Stock futures open higher

U.S. stock futures opened higher Thursday night after the major averages declined on the back of strong jobs data that could point to further rate hikes, and as investors looked ahead to the December jobs report Friday.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose by 21 points, or 0.06%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 0.13% and 0.19%, respectively.

— Sarah Min

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Inflation euro zone December 2022 drops as energy costs ease

Inflation in Europe has been impacted by higher energy prices and supply shortages. Analysts question how far central banks will go to bring inflation under control.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Inflation in the euro zone dropped for a second consecutive month in December, but analysts do not expect it to spark a change in tone from the European Central Bank.

Headline inflation, which includes food and energy costs, came in at 9.2% year-on-year in December, according to preliminary data Friday from the European statistics agency, Eurostat. It follows November’s headline inflation rate of 10.1%, which represented the first slight contraction in prices since June 2021.

The euro area economy has come under immense pressure in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with energy and food costs soaring last year. In an effort to battle rising prices, the European Central Bank increased interest rates four times in 2022 and said it is likely to continue doing so this year. The bank’s main rate currently sits at 2%.

Despite further signs that inflation is easing, analysts say it is too early to celebrate and do not expect a pivot from the region’s central bank.

Interest rates will “get to 3(%) and probably have to hold that all through the year even as the recession becomes more and more evident,” Hetal Mehta from Legal & General Investment Management told CNBC’s “Street Signs” Thursday.

It comes after ECB President Christine Lagarde struck a particularly hawkish tone in December: “We’re not pivoting, we’re not wavering, we are showing determination.” She added that the bank has “more ground to cover.”

The ECB cannot and will not base its policy decisions on highly volatile energy prices.

Carsten Brzeski

global head of macro, ING Germany

Speaking earlier this week, ECB Governing Council member and French Central Bank Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau said interest rates might peak by this summer.

The ECB also said in December that it will start reducing its balance sheet in March at a pace of 15 billion euros ($15.8 billion) per month until the end of the second quarter. This step is also expected to address some of the region’s inflationary pressures.

At the time, the central bank forecast an average inflation rate of 8.4% for 2022, 6.3% for 2023 and 3.4% for 2024. The bank’s mandate is to work toward a headline inflation figure of 2%.

Earlier this week, data out of Germany showed inflation dropping from 10% in November to 8.6% in December.

Carsten Brzeski, global head of macro at ING Germany, said these numbers “are not a relief, yet, only a reminder that euro zone inflation is still mainly an energy price phenomenon.”

Energy costs have dropped in Europe in recent months. Natural gas prices, for instance, traded at around 72.42 euros per megawatt hour on Friday — sharply lower than their peak of 349.90 euros per megawatt hour in August.

Among inflation components, energy continued to represent the biggest driver in December, but came off from previous levels. Energy costs dropped from 34.9% in November to an estimated 25.7% in December, according to the latest figures.

“The ECB cannot and will not base its policy decisions on highly volatile energy prices. Instead, the central bank will, in our view, hike interest rates at the next two meetings by a total of 100 basis points,” Brzeski said in a note.

Claus Vistesen, chief euro zone economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, also said in a note this week that he sees “little relief” in the inflation data, “which will keep the ECB on alert at the start of the year.” He expects two rate hikes of 50 basis points in the first quarter.

In terms of national breakdown, the Baltic nations once again registered the highest jumps in inflation, with a rate of about 20%.

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California is being inundated with rain. Will it ease the drought?

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One month ago, California’s Sonoma County came closer than ever to a water crisis: the level of its primary reservoir sunk to an all-time low after three taxing years of severe drought.

This week, as a parade of atmospheric rivers bringing torrents of rain pummels much of the state, the county in the heart of wine country is grappling with the opposite problem: too much water, way too fast.

But even in a time of abundance, when Lake Sonoma is slowly refilling and the Russian River could soon spill its banks, water managers and scientists are not ready to declare an end to the drought.

“We had such a big hole to dig out of to begin this,” said Grant Davis, Sonoma Water’s general manager, as rain soaked Santa Rosa, the county seat. “We are as water managers dealing with something we call weather whiplash — that means extremes on the dry end and extremes on the wet end.”

Californians braced for another massive winter storm Jan. 4 by setting up sandbags and staying indoors. (Video: Julie Yoon/The Washington Post)

Scientists say the apparent paradox of dangerous flooding amid historic drought shows how climate change has amplified California’s intense climate — making the dry spells drier and the wet periods wetter, without either season fully counteracting the other’s effects.

Even though California has improved its water management system in recent years, it wasn’t built to cope with such intense storms, experts say. Even if every drop can be captured and stored in a reservoir, it will take a lot more rainfall to erase the state’s years-long water deficit. And rain is just one part of the equation.

“We are in a flood emergency while we still have an active drought emergency,” Karla Nemeth, the director of California’s Department of Water Resources, said in an interview. “That pretty much says it all about the new normal we have with climate change.”

Human greenhouse gas emissions, mostly from burning fossil fuels, have increased California’s average air temperatures by about 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the state Environmental Protection Agency. These warmer conditions increase water evaporation from vegetation and soil and deplete the mountain snowpack the state relies on for 30 percent of its water storage.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, there hasn’t been a week when some part of California wasn’t abnormally dry or worse since 2011. Last year was exceptionally bad: Wells were parched, and cities became dependent on bottled water as the state saw its second-driest year on record.

“We’re starting off from a position of a really severe deficit,” said Noah Diffenbaugh, a climate scientist at Stanford’s Doerr School of Sustainability. “If you don’t get paid for several months, and then your employer gives you one normal monthly paycheck, most people are not going to feel their bank account is back to normal.”

When rain does fall, climate change has made it much more intense and destructive, studies show — and in turn, harder for water systems to absorb. The atmosphere holds 7 percent more moisture for every degree Celsius increase in temperature, which means any given storm will be much wetter in a warmer world.

If forecasts for the next two weeks hold up, 22 trillion gallons of water could fall on California in the next 15 days, according to meteorologist Michael Snyder’s calculations. That’s enough to fill Lake Mead more than twice over.

“We’re now in a climate where we’re much more likely to have severe water deficits punctuated by wet conditions,” Diffenbaugh said.

Rising temperatures mean more of that precipitation falls as rain instead of snow. Rather than accumulating on mountain peaks, where it will gradually melt into waterways and ecosystems, the water is immediately flushed into rivers and streams. This can overwhelm water systems that weren’t designed to handle such sporadic, severe rainfall, Diffenbaugh said. In a 2019 study in the journal Water Resources Research, he and his colleagues found that flood risk becomes exponentially worse as precipitation shifts from snow to rain.

In California this week, the downpours have soaked soils and caused drought-stressed trees to collapse. Officials fear that landscapes recently scorched by fire may melt into soggy debris flows. Water managers who were once worried about critically low reservoirs are now contemplating releases to stave off dangerous floods.

Though dangerous, the recent spate of storms has helped ease the state’s long-running water shortages.

The Sierra Nevada snowpack is almost 180 percent of its normal volume for this point in the season — the highest level in 10 years. Scientists are hoping California’s weather doesn’t warm up too quickly in the months ahead. That would allow the snow to slowly melt and trickle down to communities into the summer.

As of Jan. 3, the U.S. Drought Monitor classified the entire state as “abnormally dry.” California’s more than 200 reservoirs are about 33 percent below their historic average levels. Monitoring wells show that the state’s underground aquifers, which account for more than half of the state’s water supply during drought years, contain just two-thirds of their normal amount of water.

Now, some parts of the state are seeing as much as an inch of rain per hour. But instead of slowly percolating through ecosystems and soils, the rain rushes over saturated ground in a destructive flood. Rather than replenishing depleted groundwater, the deluge exceeds the limited capacity of rivers and reservoirs, causing overflows.

This forces water managers in flood-prone areas into a delicate balancing act. Water is the state’s most precious resource, and managers need to hang on to as much of it as possible. But repeated heavy storms mean they also need to reserve room to absorb floodwater.

Those facing the most severe drought conditions have other issues. In early December, Lake Sonoma’s account was drawn painfully low, Davis said. The reservoir was below 40 percent of its capacity, just under 100,000 acre-feet in volume. As of this week, it was pushing past 120,000, a good sign, but only about half of what the lake can comfortably hold.

Facing unprecedented challenges, Davis said that he is nonetheless optimistic and that the state is “better prepared than we’ve ever been” to handle the weather extremes. One source of his hope is a pilot program that uses improved forecasting and modeling to make decisions about retaining or releasing water from reservoirs.

Sonoma has used the system, known as forecast informed reservoir operations, in one of its smaller reservoirs, and Davis credited it with saving thousands of acre-feet of water.

“It’s going to be the way water managers make it through these extreme events,” he said.

Meanwhile, a wet December and early January are no guarantee that all this water will last until spring. Look no further than last year’s weather, said Ellen Hanak, director of the Water Policy Center at the Public Policy Institute of California. The state saw similar winter storms, before an extraordinarily warm and dry stretch obliterated most of the snowpack.

“Last year was not a good year, even though we started out wet,” Hanak said.

California’s traditional rainy season runs from October to April, so much will turn on the coming months.

“We have a few months that still need to play out here,” Hanak said. “But this is a welcome start.”

A key factor to navigating long-term drought conditions — and ensuring the state’s well-being — will be finding new ways to harness the floodwater from future megastorms, effectively using one climate disaster to mitigate another.

Hanak and other experts see promise in underground water storage, which has been used in some parts of the state but could become increasingly popular as snowpacks become less reliable.

Jane Dolan, the president of the Central Valley Flood Protection Board, has been pushing state and local governments to expand floodways and restore wetlands as a way to guard against heavy storms and recharge groundwater basins. California’s recent storms show the urgent need to do both, she said.

“We pay now to make things more resilient and protect people’s lives and property, or we’re going to pay later by fixing the massive damages that occur,” Dolan said from Chico, the state’s largest city north of Sacramento, where she has spent decades in local government.

“Water is the number one issue in California,” she said. “We either have too much of it, or not enough.”



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Airlines cancel 17,000 flights due to severe winter weather but disruptions ease

Aircraft are deiced at General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee

Reuters

Flight cancellations eased further on Monday but disruptions from severe winter weather across the U.S. lingered at the tail end of Christmas weekend.

Airlines have canceled more than 17,000 U.S. flights since Wednesday, according to FlightAware, as storms brought snow, ice, high winds and bitter cold around the country, derailing air travel from coast to coast. Those conditions slowed down ground crews as they faced severe conditions at airports.

Carriers are likely to detail the costs of the disruptions when they report results next month, if not earlier.

Southwest Airlines was especially hit hard by the winter storms over the holiday travel period, along with other issues including unexpected fog in San Diego and staffing shortages at a fuel vendor in Denver, the carrier’s chief operating officer told staff.

Southwest had been canceling many flights proactively in an effort to stabilize its operation, COO Andrew Watterson said. From Wednesday through Saturday, about a quarter of Southwest’s flights were canceled, and two-thirds were delayed, according to FlightAware data.

The airline apologized to employees for the chaos, which left many struggling to get a hold of crew scheduling services, making it harder to get reassignments or make other changes, or get hotel rooms. Southwest also offered flight attendants working over the holiday extra pay.

“Part of what we’re suffering is a lack of tools,” Southwest CEO Bob Jordan said in a message to staff on Sunday. “We’ve talked an awful lot about modernizing the operation, and the need to do that. And Crew Scheduling is one of the places that we need to invest in. We need to be able to produce solutions faster.”

Airlines often cancel flights proactively during bad weather to avoid having planes, crews and customers out of place, problems that can make recovery from a storm more difficult.

Carriers also planned smaller schedules for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day compared with the days leading up to the holidays, making it harder for them to rebook travelers on other flights, and bookings had spiked.

Passengers check in at the Delta counter at Detroit Metro Airport in Romulus, Michigan, on December 22, 2022. 

Jeff Kowalsky | AFP | Getty Images

On Monday, more than 1,700 flights were canceled and 2,200 more were delayed, down from nearly 3,200 canceled flights and 7,700 delayed U.S. flights on Sunday.

Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, United Airlines, JetBlue Airways and Alaska Airlines were among the other carriers affected by the weather.

An American Airlines spokeswoman said the “vast majority of our customers affected by cancellations were able to be reaccommodated.”

Delta is “seeing steady recovery in our operations, and expect the improvements to continue over the next several hours,” a spokesman said Monday.

Passengers also faced delayed luggage, however.

Bill Weaver, 41, said he, his wife and five children drove from Wichita, Kansas to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport for a Friday flight to Cancun after their connecting flight into the American Airlines hub was canceled. The American Airlines flight to Cancun arrived on time but their luggage didn’t get to in Cancun until Monday, and hadn’t made it to their hotel by mid-morning, so they had to spend hundreds of dollars to buy clothing and other essentials at their hotel.

Weaver, who works in software sales, said he used to travel frequently.

“I’m used to missing bags and things happen but this is by far the worst I’ve ever seen,” he said.

Extreme cold and high winds slowed ground operations at dozens of airports. More than half of U.S.-based airlines’ flights arrived late from Thursday through Saturday, with delays averaging 81 minutes, according to FlightAware.

“Temperatures have fallen so low that our equipment and infrastructure have been impacted, from frozen lav systems and fuel hoses to broken tow bars,” said United Airlines message to pilots on Saturday. “Pilots have encountered frozen locks when trying to re-enter the jet bridge after conducting walk arounds.”

The FAA said it had to evacuate its tower at United hub Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey because of a leak on Saturday.

JetBlue, meantime, offered flight attendants triple pay to pick up trips on Christmas Eve due to staffing shortages.

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Poor Gut Health May Drive Multiple Sclerosis, but a Better Diet May Ease It

Summary: Researchers found significantly higher levels of Lcn-2 levels in the stools of patients with multiple sclerosis. This marker correlated with reduced bacterial diversity and increases in other markers of intestinal inflammation. Bacteria that ease inflammatory bowel disease were also reduced in MS patients with high fecal levels of Lcn-2 levels.

Source: Rutgers University

Researchers from Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School’s Department of Neurology have traced a previously observed link between microscopic organisms in the digestive tract—collectively known as the gut microbiome—and multiple sclerosis (MS).

Their study in genetically altered mice and people supports the belief that dietary adjustments such as increased fiber may slow MS progression, and they are already working to test the effect of dietary interventions in MS patients.

“Unhealthy dietary habits such as low fiber and high fat consumption may have contributed to the steep rise of MS in the US,” said Kouichi Ito, an associate professor of neurology and senior author of the study published in Frontiers in Immunology. “In nations where people still eat more fiber, MS is far less common.”

MS is a degenerative condition in which the body’s immune system attacks the protective covering of nerves in the brain, spinal cord and eyes. According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, it affects nearly 1 million adults in the United States.

Several previous studies have differentiated the microbiomes of MS patients and healthy subjects, but, Ito said, they all noted different abnormalities, so it was impossible to tell what change, if any, was driving disease progression.

The Rutgers study, which was led by research associate Sudhir Kumar Yadav, used mice engineered with MS-associated genes to trace the link between alterations in the gut bacteria and an MS-like condition called experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE).

As these mice matured—and simultaneously developed EAE and a gut inflammatory condition called colitis—the researchers observed increased recruitment of inflammatory cells (neutrophils) to the colon and production of an anti-microbial protein called lipocalin 2 (Lcn-2).

MS is a degenerative condition in which the body’s immune system attacks the protective covering of nerves in the brain, spinal cord and eyes. Image is in the public domain

The study team then looked for evidence that the same process occurred in people with MS and found significantly elevated Lcn-2 levels in patient stool. This marker correlated with reduced bacterial diversity and increased levels of other markers of intestinal inflammation. Additionally, bacteria that seem to ease inflammatory bowel disease were reduced in MS patients with higher levels of fecal Lcn-2.

The study suggests that fecal Lcn-2 levels may be a sensitive marker for detecting unhealthy changes in the gut microbiome of MS patients. It also provides further evidence that high-fiber diets, which reduce gut inflammation, may help fight MS.

Rutgers is looking to test that hypothesis soon. Suhayl Dhib-Jalbut, a co-senior author of the paper who heads the medical school’s neurology department, is recruiting patients with MS for a trial that will determine how their microbiomes and immune systems are affected by a high-fiber supplement developed by Rutgers Microbiologist Liping Zhao.

About this multiple sclerosis and microbiome research news

Author: Press Office
Source: Rutgers University
Contact: Press Office – Rutgers University
Image: The image is in the public domain

Original Research: Open access.
“Fecal Lcn-2 level is a sensitive biological indicator for gut dysbiosis and intestinal inflammation in multiple sclerosis” by Sudhir K. Yadav et al. Frontiers in Immunology


Abstract

Fecal Lcn-2 level is a sensitive biological indicator for gut dysbiosis and intestinal inflammation in multiple sclerosis

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) has been reported to be associated with intestinal inflammation and gut dysbiosis.

To elucidate the underlying biology of MS-linked gut inflammation, we investigated gut infiltration of immune cells during the development of spontaneous experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) in humanized transgenic (Tg) mice expressing HLA-DR2a and human T cell receptor (TCR) specific for myelin basic protein peptide (MBP87-99)/HLA-DR2a complexes.

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Strikingly, we noted the simultaneous development of EAE and colitis, suggesting a link between autoimmune diseases of the central nervous system (CNS) and intestinal inflammation.

Examination of the colon in these mice revealed the infiltration of MBP-specific Th17 cells as well as recruitment of neutrophils.

Furthermore, we observed that fecal Lipocalin-2 (Lcn-2), a biomarker of intestinal inflammation, was significantly elevated and predominantly produced by the gut-infiltrating neutrophils.

We then extended our findings to MS patients and demonstrate that their fecal Lcn-2 levels are significantly elevated compared to healthy donors (HDs).

The elevation of fecal Lcn-2 levels correlated with reduced bacterial diversity and increased levels of other intestinal inflammation markers including neutrophil elastase and calprotectin.

Of interest, bacteria thought to be beneficial for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) such as Anaerobutyricum, Blautia, and Roseburia, were reduced in fecal Lcn-2-high MS patients.

We also observed a decreasing trend in serum acetate (a short-chain fatty acid) levels in MS Lcn-2-high patients compared to HDs. Furthermore, a decrease in the relative abundance of Blautia massiliensis was significantly associated with a reduction of acetate in the serum of MS patients.

This study suggests that gut infiltration of Th17 cells and recruitment of neutrophils are associated with the development of gut dysbiosis and intestinal inflammation, and that fecal Lcn-2 level is a sensitive biological indicator for gut dysbiosis in multiple sclerosis.

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