The markets traded mixed during the midday with the Dow falling 42 points to 19,784. Nasdaq added 3 points to 5,542.
JPMorgan Chase will pay $55 million to settle allegations of racial discrimination against mortgage customers. The Justice Department has accused the bank of allowing brokers to charge minorities with the same credit profile as white borrowers higher rates. JPMorgan has denied any wrongdoing.
The Federal Trade Commission has sued Qualcomm for antitrust violations. The chipmaker is accused of using its position as the holder of industry standard chip technology to maintain a monopoly on cell phone processors. Qualcomm allegedly forced cell phone makers to pay elevated royalties and forced manufacturers to use Qualcomm's baseband processors.
An appeals court will allow the Federal Desposit Insurance Corp. to sue five banks for securities law violations. Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, HSBC Holdings, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS are all accused of misrepresenting mortgage backed securities that they sold to Citizens National Bank and Strategic Capital Bank in 2007 and 2008.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of 5 to 4 on both the NYSE and on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 index edged up a fraction to 2,268. Bitcoin dropped $29 to $868.
