Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Supervalu Boosts, Mattress Firm Remains Down

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.91 percent to 13,070.17 while the NASDAQ fell 0.41 percent to 2,984.50. The S&P also rose, increasing 0.48 percent to 1,413.87.

In one of the biggest acquisitions of the year, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold

announced it had purchased McMoRan exploration

this morning in a $20 billion deal. The deal sent shares of McMoRan Exploration up over 75%, while Freeport-McMoRan fell over 13%.

Cobalt International Energy

gained 15.85 percent to $27.55 after the company announced a significant oil discovery in the Gulf of Mexico this morning. Shares of Plains Exploration & Production

jumped 23.97% to $44.71 following the McMoRan acquisition news this morning. Supervalu

also saw a boost, rallying 13.73 percent to $2.90 after the company announced that it was moving towards sale of two chains to Cerberus.

TIBCO Software

was among the morning's top losers, falling 19.66 percent to $19.87 following a downgrade to Neutral at Bank of America. Pandora Media

fell 17.46 Wednesday to $7.79 following the very poor guidance issued by the company after the close Tuesday. Shares of Mattress Firm Holding

also took a hit, falling 20.51 percent to $24.10 after the company's earnings report Tuesday.

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.69 percent to $87.89, while gold traded down 0.01 percent to $1,694.20. Silver traded up 0.16 percent Wednesday to $32.90.

European markets rose this morning as reports from the service sector indicated less contraction than expected for November. In other news, the UK's Osborne said that the UK economy is forecasted to grow 1.2% in 2013, while increasing the bank levy rate to 0.130% next year.

In economic news Wednesday morning, unit labor costs came in at -1.9 percent, below the projected -0.9% and the prior report of -0.1%. Non-farm productivity was also reported, coming in at 2.9 percent, above the projected 2.7 percent and the previous figure of 1.9 percent.