On The Fly: Top stock stories for Thursday

Stocks opened little changed and remained that way throughout the morning. The averages gained a bit of upside momentum during the afternoon, with the Nasdaq the best performing equity index, but the gains for the day were fairly mild. Bitcoin, however, had a wild day of trading, spiking in value overnight and then again during the day. The cryptocurrency briefly surpassed $19,000 on one of its major exchanges after bitcoin had just topped $10,000 for the first time last week. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., initial jobless claims dipped 2,000 to 236,000 in the first week of December. Consumer credit grew by $20.5B in October, compared to the consensus growth view of $17.3B. COMPANY NEWS: GE (GE) announced that it plans to reduce its global headcount in its Power division by approximately 12,000 positions. While Power "will remain a work in progress in 2018," GE Power president and CEO Russell Stokes said the plan "will position us for 2019 and beyond." MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Sage Therapeutics (SAGE), which surged 70% after it reported "positive" top-line results from its Phase 2 clinical trial of SAGE-217 for the treatment of major depressive disorder. Also higher was Entellus Medical (ENTL), which rallied 50% to $23.99 after it agreed to be acquired by Stryker (SYK) for $24 per share in cash. Among the notable losers after reporting quarterly results were Duluth Holdings (DLTH), Verint (VRNT), and Ciena (CIEN), which fell 17%, 6%, and 2%, respectively. INDEXES: The Dow rose 70.57, or 0.29%, to 24,211.48, the Nasdaq gained 36.47, or 0.54%, to 6,812.84, and the S&P 500 advanced 7.71, or 0.29%, to 2,636.98.