The markets extended its gains during the midday with the Dow advancing 51 points to 18,581. Nasdaq climbed 24 points to 5,237.
For the third quarter in a row, U.S. productivity fell. Analysts expected employee output per hour to rise 0.4% in the second quarter. Instead, worker productivity dropped 0.5%.
NBCUniversal announced a deal with Warner Bros. for the rights to all eight "Harry Potter" films and the upcoming "Fantastic Beasts" films. The movies will be telecast on NBC's broadcast and cable channels beginning in July 2018. The deal includes the extended director cuts of the first two "Harry Potter" movies as well as the documentary "When Harry Left Hogwarts" which provides an insider view during production of the last two films.
For the second day in a row, Delta has cancelled hundreds of flights as the airliner struggles to recover from a power outage early yesterday morning. The outage caused a computer system failure which grounded flights for more than six hours early Monday morning. Refunds are being offered to passengers whose flights were cancelled or flights that have been delayed for more than three hours.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of 10 to 9 on both the NYSE and on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 added 2 points to 2,183. Bitcoin slipped $2 to $585.
