Stocks are recovering today from the declines seen on Wall Street into the close yesterday. Encouraging earnings reports from Lowe's (LOW) and Target (TGT) have been supportive, as have encouraging news reports on reopenings domestically and globally.

ECONOMIC EVENTS: The latest data from the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering shows there are now 4.9M confirmed cases of COVID-19, including over 1.5M in the U.S., and 323,723 deaths due to the disease.

TOP NEWS: Shares of Lowe's are fractionally higher near noon after the home improvement retailer reported better than expected comparable store sales growth and gross margin performance. Part of its outperformance may be related to its Spring Black Friday sale being even more successful than usual after rival Home Depot (HD) took a pass on its own version of the annual event. 

Target shares are down 2% after its own quarterly report, which featured same-store sales that increased 10.8% compared to the same period last year. Target, which previously withdrew its first quarter and full-year guidance, did not provide second quarter or updated full-year guidance given the continued uncertainty of "consumer shopping patterns and government policies" related to COVID-19.

Shares of Inovio Pharmaceuticals (INO) are 10% higher after the company announced the publication of preclinical study data for IN0-4800, its COVID-19 DNA vaccine, demonstrating what Inovio called "robust" neutralizing antibody and T cell immune responses. Commenting on the announcement, analysts at Piper Sandler and Roth Capital argued that the data is "not new news," and noted that the preclinical picture remains incomplete without non-human primate data and viral challenge data.

MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Arconic (ARNC), which rose 14% after Credit Suisse analyst Curt Woodworth initiated coverage of the stock with an Outperform rating and $22 price target. Also higher was Kornit (KRNT), which gained 30% after reporting quarterly results. 

Among the notable losers was Urban Outfitters (URBN), which slid 9% after it reported lower than expected preliminary Q1 results, including a 28% year-over-year slide in same-store sales. Also lower after reporting quarterly results was Opera Limited (OPRA), which fell 12%. 

INDEXES: Near midday, the Dow was up 346.99, or 1.43%, to 24,553.85, the Nasdaq was up 175.20, or 1.91%, to 9,360.31, and the S&P 500 was up 49.26, or 1.69%, to 2,972.20.