Fly Intel: Wall Street's top stories at midday

Stocks opened in negative territory as investors reacted to the latest news in the trade fight between the U.S. and China. The latest round of tariffs went into effect at midnight and China responded with tariffs of its own and reportedly also backed out of talks that were supposed to take place this week. The market saw its best levels a short time after the open and proceeded to lose ground throughout the morning as new headlines crossed regarding the political future of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., the Dallas Fed manufacturing index dropped 2.8 points to 28.1 in September. COMPANY NEWS: Shares of Comcast (CMCSA) are sliding following the announcement that the company outbid 21st Century Fox (FOXA) in the auction for Sky (SKYAY) held this weekend. Meanwhile, Disney's (DIS) shares are on the rise as Bernstein analyst Todd Juenger argued that this weekend's outcome was "the best possible result" for the company, which is in the process of buying most of Fox... In other M&A news, Sirius XM (SIRI) announced a definitive agreement to acquire and Pandora Media (P) in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $3.5B, or an implied price of Pandora common stock of $10.14 per share. The companies said the combination will create "the world's largest audio entertainment company, with more than $7B in expected pro-forma revenue in 2018 and strong, long-term growth opportunities." Additionally, Barrick Gold (ABX) announced that it has reached agreement on the terms of a recommended share-for-share merger of Barrick and Randgold Resources (GOLD) that "will create an industry-leading gold company with the greatest concentration of Tier One Gold Assets in the industry." Following completion of the merger, Barrick shareholders will own approximately 66.6% and Randgold shareholders will own approximately 33.4% of the new Barrick Group on a fully-diluted basis. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Amarin (AMRN), which skyrocketed 237% after the REDUCE-IT outcomes trial of Vascepa succeeded in meeting its primary endpoint. Also higher was Intrexon (XON), which gained 26x% after it announced advances in production of medical cannabis. Among the notable losers was Michael Kors (KORS), which slipped 9% after Bloomberg reported that the handbag maker is close to buying Versace in a deal valued at roughly $2B. Also lower was Nutanix (NTNX), which fell 7% after Susquehanna analyst Mehdi Mosseini downgraded the stock to Negative from Neutral and cut his price target on the shares to $33 from $55. INDEXES: Near midday, the Dow was down 178.09, or 0.67%, to 26,565.41, the Nasdaq was down 13.06, or 0.16%, to 7,973.89, and the S&P 500 was down 12.53, or 0.43%, to 2,917.14.