The Dow was up about 23.87 points or 0.08% to 28,645.26, while the S&P 500 was unchanged at 3,240.02, notching its fifth straight week of gains. Three major averages all hit new intraday highs in the session. A year-end rally in December has already ushered the U.S. equity indexes to historic levels and within reach of the market’s best calendar year in more than two decades. The S&P 500, up already 29.3% in 2019, is inches away from reaching historic proportions. The benchmark will post its bes

LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner participates in a question-and-answer interview during the seventh annual Washington Ideas Forum at the Harman Center for the Arts October 1, 2015 in Washington, DC. Others are still on the way, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner told CNBC in an interview this fall at his office in Sunnyvale, California. “Satya has made good on every single thing we talked about prior to the acquisition,” Weiner said. Following the loss, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff suggested Microsoft’s plans to b

The grizzled radio man was best known for his outsized cowboy hat and penchant for making controversial, often offensive, statements. The controversial morning personality’s last day on the radio was on March 29 of last year. Radio shock jock Don Imus, one of the early pioneers of his genre, died Friday less than two years after retiring, according to a family statement given to NBC New York. In 2007 MSNBC dropped its simulcast of the “Imus in the Morning” radio program after he described the mo

WASHINGTON — Russia’s defense minister on Friday declared a new hypersonic weapon, which is said to be capable of striking the United States, ready for war. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in a conference call with Russian military leaders that the first missile unit equipped with the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle entered combat duty. Avangard can travel at least five times the speed of sound, or about one mile per second. It was one of the six new weapons that Russian President

Nakhorn Yuangkratoke / EyeEm | EyeEm | Getty ImagesDon’t underestimate that $20 bill your child got in a holiday card this year. You’ll need to open a separate 529 account for each child, Kantrowitz said. “Delayed gratification is a difficult concept for adults, much less kids,” Kantrowitz said. Different banks and credit card companies have different minimum ages for authorized users, Schulz said. Kids can be especially vulnerable to identity theft, Schulz said, because criminals know their rec

SDI ProductionsStudent loan borrowers who want to repay the balance owed with their 529 college savings plan should think twice. In addition to changing the way you save for retirement, the legislation also allows you to use up to $10,000 from your 529 college savings plan to repay your qualified education loans. A 529 plan allows families to save after-tax dollars for educational costs. Here is where taxpayers can get tripped up: While the federal government has blessed using your 529 plan to r

Shares of Michaels surged 15% Friday after the arts and crafts retailer said it was replacing its new CEO Mark Cosby with Walmart executive Ashley Buchanan as part of a leadership shuffle. Cosby served as an interim chief executive starting in February before officially being named CEO on Oct. 21. Before joining Michaels, Cosby was president of Office Depot’s North America business. Buchanan, who joined Walmart in 2007, moved from chief merchandising officer at Sam’s Club to become chief merchan

Protests against controversial India citizenship proposal continue3 Hours AgoProtests against a controversial citizenship proposal in India continued The law would fast-track citizenship for non-Muslims from neighboring countries India saw two massive demonstrations break out in Bengaluru and Kolkata. However, the proposal has sparked protests nationwide in recent weeks. Protesters say the proposal jeopardizes India’s secular constitution.

Sen. Warren’s fundraising efforts lagCNBC’s Brian Schwartz reports on Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s, fundraising efforts, which are lagging.

Are dealers fudging the numbers for auto loans? Ben Eisen, The Wall Street Journal, reports on a WSJ investigation that found some car dealers are fudging loan applications and putting people in cars they can’t afford.

Jonathan Ernst | ReutersAs stocks close out 2019 with potentially the best gain in decades, strategists expect Wall Street’s bull market to continue in 2020 as long as it appears President Donald Trump will be re-elected. “Since World War II, the average gain in the fourth year of a presidential term is 6.3%, and it’s up 78% of the time,” said Sam Stovall, chief investmentt strategist at CFRA. There could be some hiccups when the Democratic field is narrowed depending on who the candidate is in

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading:Amazon — Shares of Amazon rose another 1.4% a day after posting its best day since January on a record holiday shopping season. American Airlines — Shares of American slid 3.4% on Friday, giving up gains from earlier in the week as major airline stocks ticked lower. Wolfe Research said in a note that American and Spirit Airlines were unlikely to meet “aggressive” guidance for next year. Rite Aid – Shares of the pharmaceutical chain surge

Damage from explosion at a Beechcraft plant in east Wichita, Kansas. A liquid nitrogen explosion at a Textron Aviation plant near Wichita, Kansas, injured 11 people on Friday, potentially setting back the introduction of a new aircraft under development, county and company officials said. Emergency medical services took 11 people to the hospital, one of them suffering potentially serious injuries, Dr. John Gallagher, director of Sedgwick County EMS, told a news conference. Injuries were limited

Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before the House Financial Services Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill October 23, 2019 in Washington, DC. Zuckerberg testified about Facebook’s proposed cryptocurrency Libra, how his company will handle false and misleading information by political leaders during the 2020 campaign and how it handles its users’ data and privacy. Facebook’s Libra project has failed in its current form and needs reworking to be appro

A cardinal ousted from the Roman Catholic Church paid dozens of clerics, some of whom were involved in evaluating claims of his sexual misconduct, more than $600,000 over nearly two decades, according to The Washington Post. The Vatican removed McCarrick from public ministry in June 2018 amid allegations of sexual abuse decades earlier involving a teenage altar boy. It was revealed at that time that he had been accused over the years of sexual misconduct by three others. Clerics who received che

U.S. and international companies helped finance a “Taliban-led terrorist insurgency” in Afghanistan that killed or hurt American service members and civilians, according to a new lawsuit filed Friday. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., alleges that the “large Western companies” made protection payments to the Taliban because they had “lucrative businesses in post-9/11 Afghanistan, and they all paid the Taliban to refrain from attacking their business interests.” “Those p

The Federal Reserve may need to continue its efforts to calm the overnight lending market in the new year, former Atlanta Fed president Dennis Lockhart told CNBC on Friday. The market, which banks use to fill short-term funding needs, suffered a sharp rise in rates in September. The repo market is a key part of the financial system where banks can receive short-term loans to fund themselves. Quantitative easing refers to the Fed’s program of buying mortgage backed securities and other assets aft

Spotify has become the latest tech company to enter the conversation around political ads, announcing Friday it will suspend them at the beginning of 2020. Twitter has pursued the most extreme approach to political ads, announcing in October that it would ban them entirely. Facebook has taken the opposite approach, refusing to remove or fact-check ads from candidates even when they contain false information. Snap said it fact-checks political ads. The company is allowing political ads but limiti

But when it comes to productivity, success and health, getting a solid night’s sleep is just as important. Tobias Lutke, founder and CEO of the e-commerce company Shopify, said in a tweet Thursday that he has to sleep a full night in order to be successful at work. “I need 8ish hours of sleep a night,” Lutke wrote. Indeed, it’s recommended that adults get seven or more hours of sleep a night, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Lutke’s tweet was in response to a debate on Twitte

The goal: “Save more money””Save more money” was the top resolution cited in Fidelity’s study, with 53% of respondents saying it’s their top priority for 2020. How to improve it: That goal won’t work for many people, because it needs to be more clearly defined, according to research into goal setting and achievement. Make the goal as specific as possible: “Save $4,000 over 12 months,” not “save more money.” Make the goal as specific as possible: “Save $4,000 over 12 months,” not “save more money