On The Fly: Top stock stories at midday

Stocks opened quietly but quickly moved lower after President Trump announced he had called off the planned summit meeting with North Korea. The disappointing news was clearly a setback and may be seen as clouding the outlook for a trade resolution with China. The major averages are off their worst levels, but remain in the red near midday as the President holds a press conference where he is explaining the rationale for cancelling the meeting. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., initial jobless claims rose 11,000 to 234,000 in the week ended May 19. Existing home sales fell 2.5% to a 5.46M rate in April. The FHFA home price index rose 0.1% to 261.7 in March. COMPANY NEWS: Electronics retailer Best Buy (BBY) reported better than expected sales and profits for the first quarter and backed its full-year financial outlook, but the stock is responding by falling about 8% near noon... Largely overshadowed today by the North Korean news was the fact that the U.S. Commerce Department has reportedly launched a probe into whether it can raise tariffs to up to 25% on auto imports on the basis of national security. Domestic automakers General Motors (GM) and Ford (F) are up between 1%-2% following those reports, while Toyota (TM) shares trading in New York have slid about 2%. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Babcock & Wilcox (BW), which surged 13% after Steel Partners (SPLP) submitted a proposal to acquire the company for a price in the range of $3.00-$3.50 per share in cash. Babcock & Wilcox confirmed receipt of the indication of interest, which it said it will review. Steel Partners shares are flat after the news. Also higher were Williams-Sonoma (WSM) and L Brands (LB), which gained 13% and 4%, respectively, after reporting quarterly results. Among the notable losers was Frontier (FTR), which slipped 5% after Bloomberg reported that the company and its bondholders are in negotiations again after the company's asset auction failed to generate an acceptable price. Also lower were Hormel (HRL) and 58.com (WUBA), which fell a respective 3% and 5% after reporting quarterly results. INDEXES: Near midday, the Dow was down 150.02, or 0.60%, to 24,736.79, the Nasdaq was down 18.81, or 0.25%, to 7,407.15, and the S&P 500 was down 13.84, or 0.51%, to 2,719.45.