On The Fly: Top stock stories at midday

Stocks are little changed near midday, improved from their early lows despite some continuing weakness from the two big banks that kicked off the earnings season - Citigroup (C) and JPMorgan (JPM). ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., initial jobless claims dropped 15,000 to 243,000 first-time claims in the week of October 7. The headline Producer Price Index climbed 0.4% in September, with the core up 0.4% as well. The advance in the overall PPI reading was in line with expectations, though the core reading was a bit hotter than forecast. COMPANY NEWS: JPMorgan shares are down about 1% after the bank's third quarter profit topped expectations, boosted by strong deposit and loan growth that offset its weaker trading results. Of note, JPMorgan Chase, which was already the largest U.S. bank by assets, is now also the largest U.S. bank by deposits, overtaking Bank of America (BAC), according to the Charlotte Observer. Meanwhile, shares of peer Citi are down 2% although the bank also posted better than expected revenue and earnings for the third quarter. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the notable gainers was Glu Mobile (GLUU), which rose over 11% after Benchmark analyst Mike Hickey upgraded the stock to Buy and set a $6 target on the shares, saying he believes a turnaround is taking shape and that he is "cautiously optimistic" on the upcoming launch of "The Swift Life," a social platform from Taylor Swift. Also higher was Veeva (VEEV), which is advancing 4% after holding an analyst and investor day yesterday. J.Jill (JILL) was among the noteworthy losers, seeing its stock price get cut roughly in half following yesterday's Q3 guidance reduction by the company. Also lower was MercadoLibre (MELI), which is dropping 10% after Brazilian newspaper Valor Economico reported Amazon (AMZN) may make its long-awaited launch into the Brazilian e-commerce market within the week. INDEXES: Near midday, the Dow was up 1.06 to 22,873.95, the Nasdaq was up 6.15, or 0.09%, to 6,609.70, and the S&P 500 was down 0.95, or 0.04%, to 2,554.29.