Dow soars toward best four-day point gain in 8 years

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is soaring 264 points in afternoon trade toward a record close, as it stretched its win streak to four sessions. The Dow has now run up 967 points during this win streak, which would be the best four-day point gain since it climbed 1,174 points in the four-session stretch ending Nov. 26, 2008. Back then, the rally had followed a two-day plunge of 872 points to a 5 1/2-year low. The current stretch of gains immediately followed a seven-day losing streak–a loss of 311 points–to four-month low. The 2008 streak equated to a percentage gain of 15.5%; the current gain is just 5.4%.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

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From:: Stock Market News

Trump camp interested in J.P. Morgan’s Jamie Dimon for Treasury secretary, report says

Advisors to President-elect Donald Trump have floated the possibility of naming J.P. Morgan boss Jamie Dimon for Treasury Secretary, CNBC reported Thursday. Citing two people familiar with the matter, the report added that Dimon said he would not be interested in the role. Billionaire investor Warren Buffett had suggested in the past that Dimon would make a good Treasury secretary. Dimon’s name was previously mentioned as a possible replacement for Timothy Geithner. Dimon has ruled himself out in the past, saying he was not interested in the job. There are reports that Trump wants to appoint Steven Mnuchin, his finance chair and a former Goldman Sachs banker, to the post.

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From:: Stock Market News

Trump and Dodd-Frank

The election of Donald J. Trump as president of the United States could have a huge impact on the regulation of financial services and the mortgage industry.

Trump has pledged to dismantle much of the landmark Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act of 2010. Few mortgage lenders are likely to oppose this.

And with the recent appellate court ruling in PHH Corp.’s lawsuit against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency’s director could be removed.


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From:: Financing

Fitbit stocks rallies on unconfirmed takeover offer

Shares of Fitbit Inc. rose more than 3% Thursday following an unconfirmed SEC filing of a potential takeover bid. According to the filing, which was listed on Fitbit’s website, ABM Capital LTD, whose address is listed in Shanghai, China, offered to buy all of Fitbit’s Class A common shares for $12.50 each. The phone number for ABM listed in the filing did not work, and MarketWatch could not reach the financial company for comment. Fitbit didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, and a spokesperson for the SEC would not comment on whether the filing was legitimate. Shares of Fitbit traded around $8.73 in recent trade, bucking a broader tech-market sell-off, with the Nasdaq Composite falling by 1%, or more than 55 points. Fitbit has been beaten down in recent quarters by weak sales. Its shares have fallen 42% in the past three months and more than 75% in the past year, vastly underperforming both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 .

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

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From:: Stock Market News

Tech stocks plunge for second straight day after Trump win

Tech stocks sold off sharply for the second consecutive day Thursday following the Republican sweep of the White House and Congress. The heavily tech-weighted NASDAQ Composite dropped nearly 80 points, or 1.7%, while the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund , whose biggest holdings include Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc. , fell 2.6%, and the PowerShares QQQ Trust , another popular tech-sector ETF, fell 2.5%. Those declines came despite an 80-point rally for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and a 9-point decline for the S&P 500 . Among the biggest decliners were Google, down 4%; Apple, down 3.2%; and Microsoft Corp. , down 3.5%. Shares of Tesla Motors Inc. , Advanced Micro Devices Inc. , Netflix Inc. and Qualcomm Inc. all fell around 5%. President-elect Donald J. Trump warned of a tech bubble during his general-election campaign, and said that he would force companies that manufacture most of their goods in China – especially common among electronics makers – to move business back to the U.S.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

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From:: Stock Market News

Consumers’ holiday spend will be about the same this year as last year, survey says

U.S. households intend to spend an average of $563 this year on gifts, down slightly from $576 last year, according to The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Survey. “Continued job and wage growth, and a confident consumer are likely to make this another good holiday season for retailers,” said Lynn Franco, director of economic indicators at The Conference Board. Still, more than 60% of consumers expect at least a quarter of their purchases to be discounted. More than 75% say at least some of their gifts will be purchased online. The SPDR S&P Retail ETF is up 1.2% for the year so far.

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From:: Stock Market News

Natural-gas futures extend losses after EIA reports bigger-than-expected rise in U.S. supplies

Natural-gas futures fell further Thursday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that supplies of the commodity rose 54 billion cubic feet for the week ended Nov. 4. That was above the 51 billion-cubic-foot rise expected by analysts polled by S&P Global Platts. Total stocks now stand at 4.017 trillion cubic feet, up 47 billion cubic feet from a year ago and 189 billion cubic feet above the five-year average, the government said. December natural gas fell 9.7 cents, or 3.6% from Wednesday’s settlement to $2.593 per million British thermal units. It traded at $2.611 before the data.

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From:: Stock Market News

AmerisoureBergen raises dividend, stock surges

AmerisourceBergen Corp. said Thursday it will raise its quarterly dividend by 7% to 36.5 cents a share from 34 cents. The new dividend will be payable Dec. 5 to shareholders of record on Nov. 21. The drug sourcing and distribution company’s stock rallied 4.1% to $78.69 in morning trade. Based on that price, the new annual dividend rate would imply a dividend yield of 1.86%, compared with the aggregate S&P 500 dividend yield of 2.13%, according to FactSet. AmerisourceBergen’s stock has tumbled 24% year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 6.6%.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

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From:: Stock Market News

Dow hits record high as stocks rally for 4th day

The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a record high as stocks rallied for a fourth session as investors hold out hope that Donald Trump’s presidency will focus on traditional Republican policy objectives like tax cuts. The blue-chip gauge gained 115 points, or 0.6%, to 18,708. The S&P 500 gained 10 points, or 0.5%, to 2,173. The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 30 points, or 0.6%, to 5,280.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

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From:: Stock Market News