On The Fly: Top stock stories for Tuesday

With all eyes on the special election in Alabama, and its potential implications for the power dynamics between Republicans and Democrats in the Senate, stocks finished a rather quiet day of trading with the major averages mixed. The Dow, powered by Boeing (BA), rose to a new record while the Nasdaq struggled and closed a bit lower. In addition to political headlines tomorrow, the Fed will be a newsmaker in the afternoon when its concludes its last rate setting meeting of the year. While nearly all parties expect the central bank to hike rates tomorrow, the big question will be whether it also signals that it will pick up its pace of further tightening. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., the headline Producer Prices Index rose 0.4% in November, with the core PPI rate up 0.3% from the prior month, both of which were a little hotter than expected. The Treasury posted a $138.5B budget deficit in November, close to expectations and only slightly larger than the $136.7B from the same month of last year. COMPANY NEWS: Shares of Boeing rose 2.4% after the commercial jet maker and defense contractor authorized a 20% increase to its quarterly dividend and replaced the existing share repurchase program with a new $18B authorization... Meanwhile, 3M (MMM) shares slid about 1% after the company gave an updated FY17 outlook and provided its initial FY18 guidance at its annual financial meeting... Comcast (CMCSA) shares rose almost 3% after the media giant told Reuters last night that it has abandoned its bid for most of the assets of 21st Century Fox (FOXA). After that report, CNBC said this morning that Disney (DIS) and Fox are expected to announce a deal on Thursday. According to the business news network, Fox believes that any assets not sold to Disney as part of any agreement will be worth at least $10 per share. CNBC's David Faber also noted that Fox's assets going to Disney were valued at roughly $28 per share earlier in the negotiations, and that the price has likely gone higher from there. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was GlycoMimetics (GLYC), which jumped 15% after it reported improvements in median overall survival in its early stage trial of acute myeloid leukemia treatment GMI-1271. Also higher was Seagate (STX), which gained 4% after it announced a restructuring plan, under which the company will cut roughly 500 jobs. Additionally, Taubman Centers (TCO) rose 6.5% following Unibail-Rodamco's announcement that it is acquiring mall owner Westfield for $15.7B. Among the notable losers was Oasis Petroleum (OAS), which fell 17% and was downgraded to Hold at SunTrust after the company's near $1B investment in Delaware Basin assets. Also lower was Juno Therapeutics (JUNO), which slid 9% after Wells Fargo downgraded the stock to Market Perform from Outperform, saying the current valuation already reflects dominant market positioning of JCAR017 over Gilead's (GILD) Yescarta. INDEXES: The Dow rose 118.77, or 0.49%, to 24,504.80, the Nasdaq fell 12.76, or 0.19%, to 6,862.32, and the S&P 500 advanced 4.12, or 0.15%, to 2,664.11.