The markets continued to rise during the midday with the Dow gaining 24 points to 21,556. Nasdaq added 5 points to 6,266.
J.C. Penney will open toy shops at all of its department store locations in order to attract more customers. The shops will feature a wide range of items from popular brands such as Fisher Price, Hasbro and Mattel. The department store has already doubled the number of toys available for purchase on its online store.
Minnesota has filed a consumer fraud suit against CenturyLink. The telecommunications services provider has been accused of quoting customers a low monthly fee then charging a much higher rate on the customer's monthly bill. Seven states including Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Washington have already filed class action suits against the telecom for engaging in unlawful billing practices.
AT&T plans to transfer all of its video offerings to the cloud. Using a cloud based platform allows developers to quickly innovate and improve their products. Customers will soon be able to record content, pause live TV shows and utilize parental controls.
In the broad market, advancing issues were on par with decliners on the NYSE while decliners outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 5 to 4 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 rose 4 points to 2,447. Bitcoin dropped $22 to $2321.
