Movers & Shakers: Aug. 16, 2019

Stocks are set to soar into the weekend. The stock market is set to continue its volatile week Friday with big gains at the open. The major averages have been whipped around this week amid renewed U.S.-China trade tensions and the fears the inversion of the yield curve is signaling a recession is on the horizon.

Trump says the markets would’ve crashed if he didn’t win the election. The S&P 500 has surged 32% since President Trump’s election victory, but Trump says there would’ve been a far different outcome if he didn’t win. “If for some reason I wouldn’t have won the election, these markets would have crashed,” he told supporters at campaign rally in New Hampshire.

Disney is having a record-setting year at the box office. Disney has had five movies that have grossed at least $1 billion in 2019 ("Toy Story 4," "Captain Marvel," "Avengers: Endgame," "The Lion King" and "Aladdin"), making it the first studio to accomplish such a feat, Deadline reports. That record is expected to grow to seven, as "Frozen 2" and "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" are due out later this year.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. survived a fiery plane crash. The legendary NASCAR driver and his family were passengers in a 10 seat, twin-engine Cessna Citation Latitude that skidded off a Tennessee runway and caught fire. The Earnhardt’s were transported to a local hospital for further evaluation, according to a tweet from Dale’s sister, Kelley Earnhardt.

Jeffrey Epstein’s gal pal was spotted for the first time since his death. Ghislaine Maxwell, the alleged recruiter for the late Jeffrey Epstein, was seen at an In-N-Out Burger in Los Angeles, the New York Post reports. She was reportedly reading “The Book of Honor: The Secret Lives and Deaths of CIA Operatives.”