09:17 AM EDT, 09/19/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Consumer stocks were edging higher pre-bell Thursday with the Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund ( XLP ) up 0.02% and the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund ( XLY ) 1.9% higher recently.

Darden Restaurants ( DRI ) shares were up 7% after the company reported fiscal Q1 sales of $2.76 billion, up from $2.73 billion a year earlier.

Alibaba Group Holding ( BABA ) shares rose past 4% after its Alibaba Cloud unit said it has released more than 100 open-sourced Qwen 2.5 large language models.

Topgolf Callaway Brands ( MODG ) shares were over 3% higher after the company said it signed a multi-year deal with Golf Saudi Entertainment for the marketing and distribution of the company's golf brands in Saudi Arabia.