Mid-Afternoon Market Update: B2Gold Rises as DreamWorks Takes a Hit

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded up 0.04 percent to 15,550.30 while the NASDAQ gained 0.34 percent to 3,599.02. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.20 percent to 1,695.94. Top Headline
McDonald's MCD reported a downbeat second-quarter profit. McDonald's quarterly profit climbed to $1.4 billion, or $1.38 per share, versus $1.35 billion, or $1.32 per share, in the year-ago period. Its sales increased 2% to $7.08 billion from $6.92 billion. However, analysts were estimating earnings of $1.40 per share on sales of $7.08 billion. McDonald's global same-store sales climbed 1% in the quarter. Equities Trading UP
Himax Technologies HIMX shot up 33.56 percent to $6.95 after the company reported that Google GOOG will buy a 6.3% stake in its subsidiary Himax Display. Shares of Federal-Mogul FDML got a boost, shooting up 29.49 percent to $13.85 after the company swung to a profit in the second quarter. B2Gold BTG was also on the rise, gaining 10.98 percent to $2.94 as gold posted a strong rally on the day's session and broke the key $1300 level. Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Yahoo! YHOO were down 4.16 percent to $27.90 on Loeb's exit. The company announced its plans to repurchase 40 million shares of its stock owned by Third Point LLC. DreamWorks Animation DWA was also down, falling 5.22 percent to $23.60 after its movie Turbo got a poor reception over the weekend. McDonald's MCD shares tumbled 2.72 percent to $97.54 after the company posted a downbeat Q2 profit. Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 1.24 percent to $106.71, while gold traded up 3.12 percent to $1,333.80. Silver traded up 4.96 percent Monday to $20.48, while copper rose 1.29 percent to $3.18. Euro zone
European shares were mostly higher following strong earnings and positive sentiment out of Asia. The Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.21 percent and the Italian FTSE MIB Index gained 0.65 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX rose 0.13 percent and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.30 percent while U.K. shares dropped 0.13 percent. Economics
The Chicago Fed national activity index increased to negative 0.13 in June, versus negative 0.29 in May. Existing home sales dropped 1.2% to an annual rate of 5.08 million in June, versus a revised 5.14 million in the prior month, the National Association of Realtors reported. However, economists were projecting an annual rate of 5.26 million in June