Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Nam Tai Plummets as SINA Rises

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded up 0.72 percent to 14,818.76 while the NASDAQ gained 0.86 percent to 3,307.75. The S&P also rose, surging 0.74 percent to 1,593.39.

Loews

reported a 34% drop in its first-quarter earnings. Loews' quarterly profit declined to $242 million, or $0.62 per share, from $367 million, or $0.92 per share, in the year-ago period. Excluding one-time items, its adjusted net income came in at $334 million. Its revenue fell 0.3% to $3.73 billion, while revenue from insurance premiums gained 7%.

Conceptus

shot up 19.46 percent to $30.94 after Bayer AG agreed to acquire the company for about $1.1 billion. Traders seem to be very confident in this acquisition going through as there is very little arbitrage going on here. Shares of SINA

got a boost, rose 10.89 percent to $55.78 after Alibaba acquired an 18% stake in Sina's Weibo for $586 million. Century Aluminum Co

was also up, gaining 12.17 percent to $7.56 after the company announced agreement to buy Sebree smelter.

Auxilium Pharmaceuticals

was down, falling 12.69 percent to $14.00 on disappointing Q1 sales. Shares of National Bank of Greece SA

were down 8.68 percent to $1.04 after the bank's shareholders approved a 9.75 billion euro ($12.7 billion) share offering. Nam Tai Electronics

took a beating Monday, as shares fell 31.52 percent to $7.76 following a weak first quarter report.

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.47 percent to $94.37, while gold traded up 1.02 percent to $1,468.90. Silver traded up 1.15 percent Monday to $24.28, while copper rose 1.18 percent to $3.22.

European shares were higher on stimulus hopes, sentiment from Italy over the formation of the new government, and news out of Greece that parliament passed a set of legislation enabling the country to receive the next bailout payment. Eurozone consumer confidence improved slightly in April as the index rose to -22.0 from -23.5 in March, in line with estimates. Business confidence was slightly weaker than expected in April at 88.6 vs. 89.3 forecast. The Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.79 percent while the Italian FTSE MIB Index gained 2.18 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX rose 0.69 percent and the French CAC surged 1.54 percent and U.K. shares climbed 0.34 percent.

Consumer spending climbed 0.2% in March, versus 0.7% in February. Personal income gained 0.2% last month. However, economists were expecting a 0.1% rise in spending and a 0.4% rise in income. Pending sales of homes surged 1.5% in March. The pending-home-sales index rose to 105.7 in the month, versus 104.1 in February. The Dallas Fed general business activity index declined to -15.60 in April, versus a prior reading of 7.40. The Treasury will hold its weekly 3- and 6-month bill auction.