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A boost to Chinese stocks helped lift American markets Thursday.

The rally stemmed from Beijing’s indication that it is willing to deploy hundreds of billions in economic stimulus, plus the country’s central bank said Wednesday it would slash interest rates by the steepest amount ever.

The 20 largest Chinese companies dually listed on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq tacked on $71 billion of market capitalization in the U.S., led by e-commerce giants Alibaba and Temu parent Pinduoduo.

It marks a shift as the Chinese government brings out the “big guns” to spur growth, hedge fund billionaire David Tepper told CNBC’s Squawk Box.

A boat washed ashore as storm surge affects Gulfport, Florida.

Hurricane Helene made landfall southeast of Tallahassee as a Category 4 storm late Thursday, with maximum sustained wind speeds of 140 mph—the most powerful storm to strike the Florida Big Bend region. The storm barrelled into Georgia early on Friday as a Category 1, as authorities warned of life-threatening winds, heavy rains and catastrophic storm surges. More than 2 million homes and businesses are without power.

Healthcare software company Epic Systems is facing an antitrust lawsuit from startup Particle Health, which helps retrieve and analyze medical records, alleging it is a “monopolist” in the electronic health records market. Epic, which generated $4.9 billion in revenue in 2023, is the dominant player in the hospital EHR market, still, experts say it’s a hard case to win and there won’t be a “smoking gun.”

Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers

Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, the granddaughter of the founder of L’Oreal, became the world’s richest woman Thursday, with her net worth increasing by $5.5 billion amid a spike in........

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