The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI - 13,195.89) is up 78 points, or 0.6%, thanks to earnings victories in the energy sector, as well as Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren and German Chancellor Angela Merkel both calling for more central-bank bond-buying measures. Elsewhere, the CBOE Market Volatility Index (VIX - 15.62) is down 0.3 point, or 2.1%.

Here are a few noteworthy stats at midday:

1. The equity put/call volume ratio across all 10 options exchanges checks in at 0.78, with 3.2 million calls being exchanged so far today, compared to 2.5 million puts.
   
   
2. Among the equities with call-heavy activity is MannKind Corporation (NASDAQ:MNKD - 2.05), which has shed around 6.6% today, despite reporting a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss this morning. Currently, calls make up 98.4% of the biopharma issue's intraday option volume.
   
   
3. The put/call volume ratio on the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (NYSEARCA:VXX - 11.75) -- which touched a new all-time low of $11.61 this morning -- sits at 1.09, with puts outweighing calls.
   
   
4. The Nasdaq shows an advance/decline ratio of 2.01, indicating that the number of upward movers doubles the decliners.
   
   
5. Among the Nasdaq's major advancers is First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ:FSLR - 20.17) which has added about 5.8% in intraday action after the Obama administration announced that it will expedite several of the company's renewable energy projects.

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