The markets traded mixed during the midday with the Dow adding 6 points to 22,022 while Nasdaq lost 18 points to 6,344.
A lawsuit alleging that Alibaba encourages the sale of counterfeit products on its e-commerce platforms has been dropped. Luxury brands group Kering will create a joint task force with Alibaba and Alipay to take appropriate action against counterfeiters. Gucci, Bottega Veneta, Yves St. Laurent and Alexander McQueen are all part of Kerning.
The European Commission has been investigating Visa for the interregional interchange fees that it charges merchants. Merchants in the European Economic Area (EEA) are charged a fee when customers pay with a Visa that was issued outside of the EEA. Visa has two months to respond to the charge sheet that was issued by the Commission.
The Labor Department reported that first time applications for unemployment benefits fell by 5,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 240,000, which is just below the expected 242,000. Jobless claims have now remained below the healthy labor market threshold of 300,000 for 126 weeks in a row. The nation's unemployment rate is at 4.4%.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 5 to 4 on the NYSE and by 4 to 3 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 fell 5 points to 2,471. Bitcoin soared $43 to $2651.
