The daily business briefing: November 17, 2016

1. Dow snaps seven-day post-election winning streak

The Dow Jones Industrial Average snapped a seven-day post-election winning streak on Wednesday, closing down by 0.3 percent as financial stocks sank. The S&P 500 dropped by 0.2 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index rose by 0.4 percent. Analysts said the shift was a predictable breather after days of broad stock gains attributed to relief after the end of a scary election season, and President-elect Donald Trump's promise of infrastructure spending to boost the economy. U.S. stock futures edged up early Thursday as investors waited to see whether inflation data and comments from Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen would give the post-election rally new energy.

MarketWatch

2. Target surges, Walmart sinks

Target reported quarterly profit that crushed Wall Street's expectations on Wednesday, thanks to strong back-to-school sales and a large jump in online sales. The retail giant also gave an optimistic forecast for the crucial holiday season. Target shares jumped by nearly 8 percent on Wednesday, after dropping by almost 2 percent this year before the report. "Although Target's performance has improved, it would be wrong to say that it is now a company firing on all cylinders," said Neil Saunders, chief executive officer of research firm Conlumino. Walmart shares fell by 1.8 percent in pre-market trading Thursday after the larger big-box rival retailer reported quarterly sales that fell just short of expectations.

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Reuters MarketWatch

3. Univision cuts 250 jobs in restructuring

Univision Communications is cutting about 250 jobs, or about 6 percent of its workforce, as it adjusts to a changing media landscape, the Spanish-language media company announced Wednesday. The decision came after last week's election ended a campaign season that brought in less political ad money than expected, with Univision reporting a third quarter net loss of $30.5 million after a $109.8 million profit in the same period last year. Univision is trying to expand its reach with millennials through its Fusion news outlet. Univision is moving Fusion and The Root into Gizmodo Media Group, the former Gawker sites it bought last summer, as part of a restructuring.

Los Angeles Times

4. Wholesale inflation flat in October

U.S. producer prices were unchanged in October, surprising analysts who had predicted an increase of 0.3 percent. Higher costs for natural gas and gasoline were offset by falling food prices, and lower costs for such services as financial guidance and hospital outpatient care. Still, the data indicated that inflationary pressure was building. Leaving out volatile factors such as food and energy, so-called core producer prices have risen by 1.6 percent in the last 12 months. That's the fastest pace in two years, and just shy of the Federal Reserve's target rate of 2 percent.

MarketWatch

5. Facebook users engaged more with fake pre-election stories than real news

The most viral fake news stories outperformed top stories from such sources as The New York Times and The Washington Post in the three months before last week's presidential election, according to a BuzzFeed News analysis. The 20 top-performing posts from hoax sites and "hyperpartisan blogs" generated 8,711,000 shares, reactions, and comments on Facebook during the period, compared to 7,367,000 shares, reactions, and comments for the 20 best performers from 19 major news websites. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said he is working to get fake news off the social network but that it was "extremely unlikely" the posts influenced the vote.

BuzzFeed