Stocks opened with a modest advance and have remained in positive territory throughout the morning as the market tries to recover some of yesterday's losses. After its worst daily performance since May the market is also on pace for its worst weekly performance of the year. With the earnings season nearly wrapped up, investors have turned their full attention to politics, keeping watch for headlines concerning North Korea and any movement on the Trump tax agenda. ECONOMIC NEWS: In the U.S., the Consumer Price Index for the month of July rose 0.1% for both the headline and core rates. There were no revisions to June, where the headline price reading was unchanged while the core edged up 0.1%. COMPANY NEWS: Department store owner J.C. Penney (JCP) dropped 20% after reporting a larger than expected loss for the latest quarter. The news follows other disappointing reports yesterday from peers Macy's (M) and Kohl's (KSS), though Nordstrom (JWN) bucked the trend of declining sales in the sector, reporting a comparable store sales gain for its most recent quarter and raising its guidance. Despite the earnings beat, shares of Nordstrom are down 1% at midday... Snap (SNAP) shares were also sinking 11% after Snapchat's parent reported lower than expected quarterly results, with sequential daily active users growth slowing from 5% in Q1 to 4.2% in Q2. Multiple analysts weighed in on the social media company's quarter, with analysts from Barclays, Citi, Jefferies, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, UBS, Oppenheimer, RBC Capital, and Stifel all cutting their price targets on the stock... Meanwhile, Reuters reported that Netflix (NFLX) is in "active discussions" with Disney (DIS) about keeping Marvel and Star Wars properties after 2019, at which point new Disney and Pixar films will no longer appear on the streaming service. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers after earnings were Ichor (ICHR) and Trade Desk (TTD), which rose 9% and 5%, respectively. Also higher was Electronics for Imaging (EFII), which gained 5% after it said in a regulatory filing yesterday that it is in the process of completing an assessment of the timing of its financial review and restatement process. Among the noteworthy losers after earnings were Luxoft Holding (LXFT), NVIDIA (NVDA), and Dillard's (DDS), which fell a respective 25%, 6%, and 5%. INDEXES: Near midday, the Dow was up 44.36, or 0.2%, to 21,888.37, the Nasdaq was up 34.03, or 0.55%, to 6,250.90, and the S&P 500 was up 6.44, or 0.26%, to 2,444.65.
