On The Fly: Top stock stories at midday

Stocks began the session little changed but have managed to drift higher at midday. The price of oil is bouncing back a bit following the heavy selling pressure over the past week and many healthcare-linked stocks are advancing after Senate Republicans released a draft of their Affordable Care Act replacement bill. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., initial jobless claims rose 3,000 to 241,000 in the week ended June 17. The FHFA home price index rose 0.7% in April to 248.2. The leading index rose 0.3% to an all time high of 127.0 in May. COMPANY NEWS: Shares of American Airlines (AAL) advanced are up about 1%, though that is well off the stock's early morning levels, after the company disclosed that state-owned Qatar Airways has expressed its interest in acquiring an approximately 10% stake in the U.S. air carrier... Hospital stocks and shares of health insurers are higher across the board after Republican leaders in the Senate released a draft of their proposed bill to repeal-and-replace the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as "ObamaCare." Hospital operators seeing strength at midday include HCA Holdings (HCA), LifePoint (LPNT) and Tenet Healthcare (THC), while health insurers UnitedHealth (UNH), Humana (HUM) and Aetna (AET) are rising as well. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the notable gainers was Oracle (ORCL), which jumped 9% and saw many Wall Street firms raise their price targets on the stock following the company's report of better than expected Q4 results. Also higher was Staples (SPLS), which gained about 7% after Reuters reported that buyout firm Sycamore Partners is in advanced discussions to acquire the office supply retailer. Among the noteworthy losers was Weibo (WB), which fell 6% after China's State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television issued a notice requiring platforms that do not have the Internet Audio-Visual Program Transmission License to suspend video broadcasting service. Also lower following their earnings reports were Steelcase (SCS), which dropped 14%, and Accenture (ACN), which slid 4%. INDEXES: Near midday, the Dow was up 23.50, or 0.11%, to 21,433.53, the Nasdaq was up 20.53, or 0.33%, to 6,254.48, and the S&P 500 was up 5.14, or 0.21%, to 2,440.75.