Fly Intel: Wall Street's top stories at midday

Stocks opened sharply higher on reports the U.S. and China, which have not talked about trade in two months, will renew low-level negotiations. The averages have continued to tack on gains throughout the morning and while the move is broad-based, the Dow is the clear leader, helped by strength in Walmart (WMT), Cisco (CSCO) and Boeing (BA). ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., initial jobless claims fell 2,000 to 212,000 in the week ended August 11. The Philly Fed manufacturing index dropped 13.8 points to 11.9 in August, which was much weaker than forecast. Housing starts rebounded a tepid 0.9% to a 1.168M rate in July, which was below forecast. Building permits bounced 1.5% to a rate of 1.311M. COMPANY NEWS: Shares of Walmart jumped over 10% after the retailer reported better than expected earnings and revenue for the second quarter and raised its full-year profit forecast. Walmart, which continues to fight Amazon (AMZN) on both the online and physical retail fronts, reported Q2 U.S. same-store sales growth of 4.5% and U.S. e-commerce sales growth of 40%... On the other side of the retail spectrum is J.C. Penney (JCP), which is plunging 23% after the company's Q2 losses were steeper than expected and it reduced its outlook for the fiscal year... Cisco shares are up 4% after the company posted a Q4 beat and guided for year-over-year revenue growth of 5%-7% that was better than expected. Also noted by several analysts was the fact that Cisco's product order growth rate accelerated to 7% from 4% in the prior quarter. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Symantec (SYMC), which jumped 7% after it was confirmed that Starboard has taken a position in the company and nominated five directors to its 11-person board. Also higher was 58.com (WUBA), which gained 12% after reporting quarterly results. Among the notable losers was MiMedx (MDXG), which slipped 11% after the Wall Street Journal reported that United Healthcare (UNH) has decided that amniotic tissue products made by MiMedx and others are "unproven and/or not medically necessary for any indication." Also lower were SpartanNash (SPTN) and Dillard's (DDS), which fell 15% and 14%, respectively, after reporting quarterly results. INDEXES: Near midday, the Dow was up 369.36, or 1.47%, to 25,531.77, the Nasdaq was up 67.77, or 0.87%, to 7,841.89, and the S&P 500 was up 26.77, or 0.95%, to 2,845.14.