Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Rally; Intel CEO to Retire

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded up 1.14 percent to 12,731.58 while the NASDAQ rose 1.34 percent to 2,891.36. The S&P also rose, increasing 1.39 percent to 1,378.73.

Intel

chief executive officer Paul Otellini announced that he would be retiring in May. Following the news, Intel's market opening was delayed about 10 minutes, after which it traded down a little under 2 percent.

Sina Corporation

traded up 10.07 percent to $49.61 after the company beat on both top and bottom lines Monday morning and following a report that Alibaba would be taking a 15-20% stake in Sina's Wibo microblogging service. Shares of Lowe's

were also up, increasing 7.79 percent to $34.47 after the company issued an earnings report in line with analyst expectations, and beat on revenue. Tyson Foods

saw a boost as well, rising 7.02 percent to $18.07 after the company posted a big earnings beat Monday morning.

Aruba Networks

fell 3.08 percent to $18.25 following the announcement that Cisco

had acquired Merkai for $1.2 billion. K12

was also down, falling 12.18 percent to $17.96 after the company was downgraded at Wells Fargo. Shares of E-Commerce China Dangdang

also fell, dropping 1.47 percent to $4.03 following a prediction of slower ad revenue in the fourth quarter for Chinese internet companies.

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.43 percent to $86.67, while gold traded up 0.93 percent to $1,734.90. Silver traded up 0.46 percent Monday to $32.83.

European markets rose early this morning, riding hopes that a deal on the fiscal cliff would soon be reached in Washington. A few eurozone leaders were also out with comments this morning. The Austrian finance minister stated that Greece cannot expect additional aid or a debt cut for its finances. The Dutch and German finance minister spokespeople also made statements, both indicating that they did not believe a decision on Greece would be made at Tuesday's meeting.

In economic news, existing home sales came in at 2.1 percent, well above the expected -0.2 percent and the prior report of -2.9 percent. NAHB housing market index was also reported, coming in at 46, above the expected release and the prior report of 41.