Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mixed; Verizon Posts Q4 Profit

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.22 percent to 16,422.66 while the NASDAQ surged 0.34 percent to 4,212.03. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.16 percent to 1,841.60.

Verizon Communications

swung

in the fourth quarter. Verizon posted a quarterly profit of $5.07 billion, or $1.76 per share, versus a year-ago loss of $4.23 billion, or $1.48 per share. Its adjusted earnings climbed to $0.66 per share from $0.38 per share. Its revenue surged to $31.07 billion from $30.05 billion. However, analysts were estimating earnings of $0.62 per share on revenue of $31.04 billion.

Signature Bank

shot up 11.25 percent to $122.49 as the company reported upbeat Q4 earnings. Shares of Liquidity Services

got a boost, shooting up 10.26 percent to $23.80 after the company

from the US Defense Logistics Agency. Ironwood Pharmaceuticals

was also up, gaining 8.53 percent to $13.74 on better-than-expected Q4 profit.

Shares of Expedia

were down 6.49 percent to $66.10. Search Metrics reported that Expedia may have lost 25% of their search visibility in Google CNOOC

shares tumbled 5.55 percent to $168.40 after the company reported its business strategy and development plan for 2014. FireEye

was down, falling 5.36 percent to $69.63 after JP Morgan downgraded the stock from Overweight to Neutral.

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.10 percent to $94.99, while gold traded down 0.07 percent to $1,239.40. Silver traded down 1.14 percent Tuesday to $19.83, while copper fell 0.48 percent to $3.33.

European shares were mostly higher today. The Spanish Ibex Index dropped 0.14 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index climbed 0.87 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX surged 0.57 percent and the French CAC 40 jumped 0.38 percent while U.K. shares gained 0.22 percent.

The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills.