Abortion amendment to be decided in November, and Harris moves up in latest FAU poll.

Florida voters to decide on abortion issue in November

In November, Floridians will not only vote on who the next president will be, they will also decide if the right to an abortion should be enshrined in the state constitution.

Former President Donald Trump has not yet said how he will vote on that issue, saying last week that he’ll announce his decision soon.

Trump has previously said he believes abortion is a decision that should be left to the states.

Vice President Kamala Harris, on the other hand, has made clear that if elected, she would seek to restore the federal protections of Roe v. Wade — which is essentially what Florida’s ballot initiative would do.

Right now, a six-week abortion ban is currently in effect.

If Amendment 4 passes, it would ensure Floridians have access to abortion up to the point of viability, or to protect the health of the patient.

It will require 60% support from voters to pass. 

Another Florida poll puts Harris within striking distance of Trump

One day after a USA TODAY/Suffolk University/WSVN-TV poll showed Vice President Kamala Harris within striking distance of former President Donald Trump in Florida, another survey of the Sunshine State suggested a close race in the once-swingy state.

A new survey from the Florida Atlantic University Political Communication and Public Opinion Research Lab and Mainstreet Research USA released Wednesday shows Trump leading Harris 50-47 in a head-to-head race, and 47-45 in a race with third-party candidates involved, with independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. garnering 5% support.

“The narrowing gap between Trump and Harris is consistent with the tightening we have seen in other states,” Kevin Wagner, Ph.D., professor of political science and co-director of the PolCom Lab, said in a release. “If this trend holds, we may see a competitive race in Florida.”

Harris reduces President Joe Biden's gap in the state from 8% in an April survey to just 3%. The vice president leads among women (53-43) and voters age 18-49 (50%) and Black voters (77%), while Trump is preferred by voters 50 and over (53%) and men (56-39). Hispanic voters were evenly split at 49%. The survey also gave Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris' running mate, 44% approval.

The survey also polled the state's U.S. Senate race, showing Republican Sen. Rick Scott leading Democratic challenger Debbie Mucarsel-Powell 47-43, among likely voters, and showed the state's high-profile ballot initiatives on recreational cannabis and abortion each with 56% support, just shy of the 60% they need to be enacted into the state's constitution.

The poll was conducted from Aug. 10-11 and surveyed 1,055 registered Florida voters aged 18 and older. It was conducted in both English and Spanish.

Wall Street holds firm after inflation data clears the path for cuts to rates

Wall Street is holding relatively steady Wednesday after the latest update on inflation came in almost exactly as economists expected.

The S&P 500 was edging up by 0.1% in afternoon trading, coming off one of its best days of the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up by 178 points, or 0.5%, as of 12:53 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% lower.

Treasury yields were also easing a bit in the bond market after initially wavering when the U.S. government said consumers paid prices that were 2.9% higher last month for gasoline, food, shelter and other things than a year earlier.

The data should keep the Federal Reserve on track to cut its main interest rate at its next meeting in September, a move that Wall Street has long been looking forward to. The Fed has been keeping rates at an economy-crunching level in hopes of stifling inflation that topped 9% two years ago, and lower rates would ease the pressure on both the economy and on prices for investments.

The only question is how big the first cut to rates since the 2020 COVID crash will be: the traditional quarter of a percentage point, or a more dramatic half point?

Wednesday's reading on inflation at the consumer level wasn't as cool as the prior day's update on inflation at the wholesale level, but it likely doesn't change much, according to Chris Larkin, managing director, trading and investing, at E-Trade from Morgan Stanley.

If most of the data over the next few weeks points to a slowing economy, he said the Fed may cut more aggressively. That includes a report coming up Thursday about how much U.S. shoppers spent at retailers.

While the economy is still growing, and many economists see a recession as unlikely, worries have risen about its strength after a worse-than-expected month of hiring by U.S. employers in July.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 3.82% from 3.85% late Tuesday. It's been coming down since topping 4.70% in April, as expectations have built for coming cuts to interest rates.

The two-year yield, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed, was steady at 3.94%, where it was late Tuesday, as traders weigh whether September's anticipated cut will be the traditional or jumbo-sized move.

On Wall Street, Kellanova rose 7.7% after Mars said it would buy the company behind Pringles, Cheez-Its and Kellogg's for $83.50 per share in cash. The companies put the deal's total value at $35.9 billion, including debt. Kellanova was created when the Kellogg Co. split into three companies in the summer of 2022.

Cardinal Health rose 4.1% after joining the parade of companies that have reported stronger profit for the spring than analysts expected.

On the losing end was Brinker International, the company behind Chili's and Maggiano's restaurants. It fell 12.4% after reporting weaker profit for the latest quarter than expected. That was despite strengthening sales trends at Chili's, which got a boost from higher prices, increased traffic and the launch of its "Big Smasher" burger. Expectations were high coming into the report for Brinker International, whose stock is still up nearly 43% for the year so far.

Starbucks fell 4.5% to give back some of its big gain from the prior day after it said it had lured Brian Niccol away from Chipotle Mexican Grill to become its CEO.