The daily business briefing: July 11, 2016

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1. Global stocks rise on expectations of new stimulus measures
2. Nintendo stock soars on 'Pokemon Go' popularity
3. UFC reportedly sold for $4 billion
4. Tesla's Elon Musk promises master-plan update
5. The Secret Life of Pets scores biggest weekend debut for an original film

published 11 July 2016

1. Global stocks rise on expectations of new stimulus measures

Stocks rose in Europe and Asia on Monday, boosted by Friday's strong U.S. jobs report and expectations of new economic stimulus measures in other countries — including Japan, where Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered new stimulus measures after his coalition scored a big win in upper house elections. Japanese stocks jumped by nearly four percent. In the U.S., the S&P 500 starts the week within a point of a record high thanks to a Friday surge after the release of the report on June's employment gains. Earnings reports from big banks are expected to influence the market's direction this week.

Nintendo shares have surged by 25 percent since last week's release of its "Pokemon Go" smartphone app. The gains added more than $7 billion to the market value of the maker of Super Mario and Zelda games. The new app lets users track down virtual Pokemons near them, then train them for battle. Players have been going to great lengths — and traveling great distances — to find hard to reach "pocket monsters." The game has topped free-to-download app charts for Apple in the U.S. and Australia since it first became available on July 7.

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Ultimate Fighting Championship, the Las Vegas-based mixed martial arts organization, has sold itself to talent giant WME-IMG group for about $4 billion, UFC is expected to announce as soon as Monday. Private equity heavyweights Silver Lake, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, and the investment firm of billionaire Michael Dell reportedly backed the deal, the largest such acquisition in sports history. Brothers Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, who purchased UFC for $2 million in 2000 and own 80 percent, will keep a small stake in the league, in which contestants batter each other in an octagonal cage.

Tesla co-founder and CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Sunday that he hoped to release the electric-car company's "top secret Tesla Masterplan Part 2" this week. Musk did not provide a hint of the contents of the new plan, a follow-up to a 2006 blog post in which he described his vision for the eventual rollout of the Tesla Roadster, the Model S sedan, and the coming launch of the lower-priced Model 3 sedan. That plan was titled "The Secret Tesla Motors Master Plan."

The Secret Life of Pets smashed the record opening-weekend box-office haul for an original film, bringing in $103 million in ticket sales in the U.S. and Canada. The previous record of $90 million was set by Inside Out. The comedy from Illumination Entertainment and Universal Pictures was the sixth-biggest ever for an animated film, and the second biggest ever for a film by Illumination, behind last year's Minions. It was also Universal's highest-grossing debut of the year so far.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.