1. Record rally: Wall Street looks set to end the year on a high.
U.S. stock futures are pointing up again after the Dow Jones industrial average on Thursday recorded its highest ever close.
The Dow is up an impressive 25.7% in 2017. That’s its best annual performance since 2013.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq are close to all-time highs as well.
2. Global winners: Many stock market indexes around the world have outperformed the U.S. by a wide margin.
Case in point: Argentina’s Mervel index is up 77% this year, while the main Turkish index has surged 46%.
But the final day of the year is looking mixed.
European markets are mostly negative in early trading Friday, but the majority of Asian markets ended the day with gains.
3. Apple’s apology: Apple has apologized to customers for how it rolled out an update that can slow down older iPhones. It is offering cheaper battery replacements to make up for it.
The tech company upset many users with a software update that deliberately slowed down older phones in some situations to extend battery life. Some thought it was a ploy to get people to upgrade to new devices. A number of people have filed lawsuits over the feature and are seeking class action status.
4. Riding with Uber: Japanese tech conglomerate SoftBank has reached a deal to invest more than $7 billion in Uber for a 15% stake in the ride-hailing startup, according to sources familiar with the deal.
The vast majority of that investment comes from SoftBank buying up shares held by existing Uber shareholders, including employees and earlier investors.
5. Coming this week:
Friday — Russia expected to report latest quarterly GDP