Stocks have been bouncing back today from yesterday's selloff after Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam formally withdrew the extraditions legislation that had set off three months of protests in the region. Meanwhile, the U.K. Parliament took a crucial step to block a "no-deal" Brexit and purchasing managers indexes in Asia beat expectations, all of which have helped buoy the U.S. market in first half of the trading day.

ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., the trade deficit narrowed 2.7% to $54.0B in July as exports bounced 0.6% and imports dipped 0.1%.

In Asia, stocks rose on both the Hong Kong news as well as better than expected services PMIs from both Japan and China.

TOP NEWS: Shares of Starbucks (SBUX) have slid 1% after the coffee giant used presentation slides at a Goldman Sachs conference to temper its outlook for fiscal 2020. The company's 2020 earnings outlook is below its "ongoing growth model" of 10%-plus, as well as its 2018 investor day outlook of at least 13%, due to the lapping of one-time tax benefits in fiscal 2019 and normalized share repurchase volume, according to the presentation slides. Starbucks added that its fiscal 2019 current earnings growth outlook is 16%, above its 2018 investor day outlook of 8%-10%.

Automakers have been reporting on their monthly U.S. sales this morning, though none of the domestic "big three" issue monthly reports any longer. Toyota Motor (TM) reported its August sales increased 11.3% in the U.S. compared to the same month of last year, while American Honda (HMC) reported even stronger sales growth of 17.6%.

MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Michaels (MIK), which rose 8% after the crafting retailer reported better than expected second quarter results. Also higher was Box (BOX), which gained over 11% after activist investor Starboard Value disclosed last night in a filing to the SEC that the firm now owns a 7.5% stake in the company.  

Among the notable losers was Vera Bradley (VRA), which fell 16% after reporting second quarter sales below expectations and stating that "retail remains challenging, particularly in the Indirect channel." Another apparel retailer, American Eagle (AEO), is down 15% following its own Q2 report and third quarter guidance. 

INDEXES: Near midday, the Dow was up 202.31, or 0.77%, to 26,320.33, the Nasdaq was up 77.22, or 0.98%, to 7,951.38, and the S&P 500 was up 25.36, or 0.87%, to 2,931.63.