Stocks rally

worldwide

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks rushed higher worldwide, and oil prices eased as hopes built that the war with Iran could end soon. That’s even though some of the signals investors saw as hopeful on Wednesday are already under dispute. The S&P 500 rose 0.7% and added to its leap from the day before, which was its best since last spring.

That followed even bigger gains for markets across Europe and Asia, including an 8.4% surge in South Korea, which were catching up to Wall Street’s rally from Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite jumped 1.2%.

Death linked

to Bundy

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah sheriff’s office says DNA testing has definitively linked the unsolved death of a Utah teenager in 1974 to the infamous serial killer Ted Bundy. Laura Ann Aime, 17, went missing Halloween night 51 years ago after she left a party alone.

About a month later, her body was found on the side of a highway, bound, beaten and a without clothing. Investigators long suspected that Bundy was responsible. he was one of the nation’s most prolific serial killers, with at least 30 women and girls’ deaths linked to him in several states in the 1970s.

Russia claims

Luhansk region

(AP) — Russia’s Defense Ministry claims its forces have taken control of the entire Luhansk region in Ukraine. However, a Ukrainian military official denies this, stating that small areas are still held by Ukrainian forces.

Russia has previously made false claims of advances. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is preparing for talks with U.S. envoys trying to mediate an end to the conflict.

A Russian drone strike killed four people in Ukraine’s Cherkasy region on Wednesday. Ukraine’s air force says it downed 298 drones in overnight attacks.

SpaceX may

go public

NEW YORK (AP) — Elon Musk’s space exploration company has filed preliminary paperwork to sell shares to the public, according to two sources familiar with the filing, a blockbuster offering that is likely to rank as the biggest ever and make its founder the world’s first trillionaire.

A SpaceX IPO promises to be one of the biggest Wall Street events of the year with several investment banks lining up to help raise tens of billions to fund Musk’s ambitions to set up a base on the moon and possibly one day send a man to Mars. The sources spoke on anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly about the confidential registration.