Stocks Jumped on Merkel Comments, Cisco Report

U.S. stocks posted their best day in nearly two weeks on Thursday, following comments from German Chancellor Angela Merkeland as Cisco Systems led gains in the tech sector after a dividend hike. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 85.33 points, or 0.65 percent, to 13,250.11. The S&P 500 Index gained 9.98 points, or 0.71 percent, to 1,415.51. The Nasdaq Composite added 31.46 points, or 1.04 percent, to 3,062.39.

Dish Network must seek a partner to enter the mobile broadband market and is not likely to build a network from scratch because of delays from U.S. regulators, company Chairman Charlie Ergen told two Denver publications this week.

Macy’s Inc took its legal battle over its agreement to exclusively sell certain Martha Stewart items directly to J.C. Penney Co Inc on Thursday, accusing the rival department store chain of interfering with its contract with the home goods designer.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday fined Oracle Corp. $2 million for allegedly violating the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by failing to prevent a division of the business from “secretly” putting aside money off of the company’s books that was later used to make “unauthorized” payments to purportedly phony vendors in India.

Facebook Inc.’s shares tumbled to a record low on Thursday as the post-initial public offering lockup on about 271 million shares expired, making them available for insiders to sell on the open market.