The markets rebounded during the midday with the Dow climbing 71 points to 20,732. Nasdaq gained 15 points to 5,837.
Approximately 17,000 AT&T workers represented by the Communications Workers of America union are on strike in California and Nevada. The employees are protesting a change to some job duties without union agreement. Landline technicians who install cable are now being asked to perform other jobs that are higher paid.
Johnson & Johnson has joined a growing list of advertisers who have suspended their digital advertising campaigns on YouTube. Companies do not want their ads to be displayed with YouTube videos that promote anti-Semitic, anti-LGBTQ or other offensive content. YouTube owner Google announced advertising and hate speech policy changes yesterday to combat offensive and derogatory content.
Ford Motor warned of a sharp 50% plunge in profits for the current quarter due to global pressures. The automaker's struggling European Operations finally posted a profit in 2016 after recording billion in losses over the last few years but will now be negatively impacted by Brexit. The Asia-Pacific region is also expected to decline.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 4 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 3 to 1 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 index gained 7 points to 2,356. Bitcoin climbed $22 to $1,059.
