Dow Jones industrial average

Investors are betting on at least two more years of divided government, spurring the best weekly stock gains in months.

Analysts like to say that the stock market is not the economy. But a bear market reflects concerns and anxieties about the economy, and at times a bear market is accompanied by a recession.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Monday fell 2.9 percent to 21,792.20 — its worst Christmas Eve performance. It Broke the 1918 record. U.S. stocks are on track for their worst year since 2008.

As recently as 2005, according to Reuters, General Electric was the most valuable publicly traded company in the United States. It will be replaced by the parent company of Walgreens pharmacies.