A strong 0.5% gain in July retail sales lifted the markets during the midday with the Dow soaring 167 points to 11,311. Nasdaq climbed 26 points to 2519.

On the upside

A Wall Street Journal article yesterday indicated that Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) may provide Clearwire (Nasdaq: CLWR) with additional funding.

Goodyear (NYSE: GT) reassured investors that it has successfully offset increased raw material expenses by selling more profitable higher end tires.

Samsung Electronics will incorporate TranSwitch's (Nasdaq: TXCC) HDMI 1.4 Intellectual Property with patented Phaswitch technology into its next generation high-definition flat panel televisions.

On the downside

Avanir Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: AVNR) sued generic drugmakers Par Pharmaceutical (NYSE: PRX) and Actavis for violating the patent of its pseudobulbar affect treatment Nuedexta.

DeVry (NYSE: DV) reported higher fourth quarter earnings but enrollment fell prompting a downgrade.

Emulex (NYSE: ELX) widened fourth quarter losses and forecast first quarter earnings and revenue below analyst estimates.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of 7 to 3 on the NYSE and by nearly 7 to 5 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks rose 3 points to 699.