Summary: U.S. markets started lower Thursday after a worse-than-expected jobless claims number and downwardly revised retail sales data, but turned positive mid-morning. Traders change-of-heart has the S&P and Dow up slightly, while the Nasdaq is up almost half a percent after a very rough start following Cisco's disappointing Q2 revenue results. Cisco beat Wall Street earnings estimates last night by a penny, but said revenue fell nearly 8% to $11.16 billion. Cisco shares were recently down around 4%. Also making the headlines, Comcast confirmed Thursday it reached a deal to buy Time Warner Cable for about $45.2 billion in stock. Comcast shares were down around 3% on the news and Time Warner Cable was recently up 7%.
