The markets advanced during the midday with the Dow adding 2 points to 20,942. Nasdaq climbed 45 points to 6,092.
Tyson Foods will stop using antibiotics in their chicken by the end of the year. Many restaurant chains including Burger King, Chipotle, McDonald's, Panera and Wendy's have already transitioned to antibiotic free meat in response to customer demand. Tyson expects expenses to increase as the company implements different strategies to maintain a healthy flock of chickens but will not pass the higher costs onto customers.
After a dismal 2016, Target cut the compensation package of chief executive Brian Cornell. Target fell approximately $623 million short of its $5.74 billion 2016 incentive EBIT goal and missed its adjusted sales goal of $71.62 billion by $2.13 billion. Cornell received no bonus for 2016 and saw his cash and stock pay slashed by approximately one third to $11.3 million.
In a Bloomberg News interview, President Donald Trump discussed a potential increase to the federal gas tax. The current federal gas tax is 18.4 cents per gallon of gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon of diesel. The additional revenue would be used to pay for infrastructure projects.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of 7 to 5 on both the NYSE and on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 index climbed 7 points to 2,391. Bitcoin soared $54 to $1384.
