The markets extended its gains during the midday with the Dow soaring 124 points to 18,619 as crude oil prices continued to rise. Nasdaq climbed 24 points to 5,229.
Chinese e-commerce juggernaut Alibaba Group reported an impressive 59% surge in first quarter revenue to $4.8 billion even as economic growth in the world's most populous country slowed. China's gross domestic product expanded by a modest 6.7% increase in the second quarter. To address the challenge of a slowing economy, Alibaba has broadened its business beyond online shopping to cloud computing services, online gaming, video streaming, and food delivery.
For the fifth time in a year, animal rights activists infiltrated Tyson Foods' chicken processing facilities to record mistreatment of chickens. Compassion Over Killing released a video that shows employees throwing, kicking, and running over chickens with forklifts. Tyson has fired ten workers from the facilities and declared their actions inexcusable.
Brick and mortar retailers continue to suffer as more consumers shop online. Kohl's reported a 1.8% drop in same store sales in the second quarter as earnings fell 2%. Comparable store sales dropped 2% for Macy's. Online sales surged to $341.7 billion in 2015, accounting for 7.3% of all retail sales.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 2 to 1 on the NYSE and by more than 2 to 1 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 climbed 10 points to 2,186. Bitcoin slipped $2 to $588.
