Benzinga Mid-Afternoon Market Update

Following the market opening Monday morning, the Dow traded down 0.43 percent to 13,286.44 while the NASDAQ rose 0.08 percent to 3,008.00. The S&P also fell, decreasing 0.39 percent to 1,427.56. As a heads up for the week, we have now entered the most busy period of earnings season. Some significant companies that will announce this week include Apple AAPL, Facebook FB, Amazon AMZN, Raytheon RTN, and Sprint Nextel S. Top Headline Caterpillar CAT posted an earnings beat Monday morning, but managed to significantly miss revenue expectations. The revenue miss has lead some pessimist investors to credit the earnings beat to accounting tricks, rather than good company fundamentals. Equities Trading UP Peabody Energy BTU consolidated its gain towards the end of trading Monday, remaining up 9.50 percent at $28.35, after the company posted a significant beat in both EPS and Revenue. Cascade CASC remained up as well, rising 17.85 percent to $64.91 after the announcement that Toyota Industries will acquire Cascade for $65 per share this morning. Ancestry.com ACOM held onto its gains too, up 7.81 percent at $31.46 after the company announced that it would be acquired by Permira for $1.6 billion, or $32.00 per share. Equities Trading DOWN Monster Beverage Corporation MNST took a beating towards the end of trading Monday, falling 14.01 percent to $45.85 after the New York Times posted a report that speculates a link between the energy drink and 5 deaths. The Manitowoc Company MTW also fell, trading down 8.42 percent to $13.98 after a cut at Longbow Research Monday morning. Shares of Quicksilver Resources KWK dropped 6.64 percent to $4.29, possibly linked to the BP sale of its TNK-BP operation. Commodities In commodity news, oil traded down 1.99 percent to $88.26, while gold traded up 0.25 percent to $1,728. Silver traded up 0.22 percent Monday to $32.32. Euro Zone In the EU this morning, the European Commission said that the Troika will complete technical talks on Greece within the next few days, so be on the lookout for a major release on the EU's strategy for the struggling Greek economy. Following its earnings release, Caterpillar stated that some countries may pull out of the Eurozone according to its analysis, providing a very contradictory outlook to what European leaders have been displaying. Economics There are no major economic releases for Monday.