Yahoo Puts Alibaba Proceeds to Buyback; Markets Recover Midday

Stocks attempted to break the week’s decline with the major benchmarks posting modest gains at midday Friday. Dow Chemical (DOW) traded higher on news it is spinning off part of its chlorine business to merge it with Olin (OLN). Shares of Olin jumped 21% on the $5 billion deal. Cruise stocks moved upstream, Carnival (CCL) rose after posting better than expected earnings results. Royal Caribbean Cruises (RCL) was also up more than 5%. Earlier this week, it announced plans to add ships in China. Yahoo (YHOO) said it’s adding $2 billion to its stock buyback program, using profits from the Alibaba (BABA) IPO.