NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / February 13, 2017 / The markets continued to climb to new highs Friday as investors were encouraged by President Trump's statement that an announcement regarding a "phenomenal" tax policy was imminent. The S&P 500 Index gained 0.36 percent to close at 2,316.10, up 0.82 for the week marking its third consecutive weekly gain. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.48 percent to close at 20,269.37, up 0.99 percent for the week, while the Nasdaq rose 0.33 percent to close at 5,734.13, up 1.17 percent for the week.

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"Politics is playing a much larger role in the day-to-day and week-to-week market than it ever has before," Brian Nick, Chief Investment Strategist at TIAA Investments, told the WSJ. "It's not the euphoria we've had since the election, but until we have something happen to throw a wrench in the market in terms of fiscal policy, investors are optimistic about the future."

Approximately 70 percent of the S&P 500 has reported results so far this earnings season. Fourth quarter share-weighted earnings for the S&P 500 are on pace to grow by 8.4 percent, which would be the largest gain since the third quarter of 2014, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

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Activision Blizzard's shares surged 18.88 percent to close at $47.23 a share on Friday. The stock traded between $44.93 and $47.64 on volume of 51.70 million shares traded. The company reported GAAP net revenues of $2.01 billion for the fourth quarter of 2016, an increase of 49 percent when compared to GAAP revenues of $1.35 billion in the fourth quarter of 2015 and above the most recent guidance of $1.86 billion. Digital revenues soared 98.5 percent year-over-year to an all-time record of $1.45 billion in the fourth quarter of 2016.

The company has reported 447 million monthly active users for the fourth quarter, including record monthly active users in the Blizzard division. The company's Board of Directors has approved repayment of up to $500 million of company's outstanding debt during 2017 and announced a new 2-year stock repurchase program worth up to $1 billion.

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Under Armour's shares declined 1.35 percent to close at $19.04 a share on Friday. The stock traded between $18.86 and $19.56 on volume 6.25 million shares traded. The company has received a number of downgrades recently after reporting earnings that fell short of expectations. Under Armour reported sales of $1.31 billion for the fourth quarter of 2016, which fell short of consensus estimates of $1.41 billion, according to FactSet.

"In the fourth quarter, slower traffic caused significant promotional activities, earlier, deeper and broader than expected," Chief Executive Officer Kevin Plank, said on the call with analysts, according to a FactSet transcript. "This in addition to higher demand for more lifestyle silhouettes caused us to be out of balance with our assortment. So we lost top line volume as we [worked] to adapt through our mix and pricing."

Additionally, some of the company's top athletes have criticized the company after CEO Kevin Plank publicly praised President Trump on CNBC.

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Today's Features Includes:

Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI)

Under Armour Inc. (NYSE: UA)

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