Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mostly Higher; Caterpillar Results Beat Street View

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded up 0.28 percent to 15,924.16 while the NASDAQ dropped 0.04 percent to 4,126.43. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.18 percent to 1,793.57.

Top Headline
Caterpillar CAT reported a 44% rise in its fourth-quarter profit. Caterpillar's quarterly profit surged to $1 billion, or $1.54 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $697 million, or $1.04 per share. Its revenue declined to $14.40 billion from $16.08 billion. However, analysts were expecting a profit of $1.27 per share on sales of $13.41 billion. Caterpillar announced its plans to buy back $10 billion in common stock by the end of 2018.

Equities Trading UP
Millennial Media MM shot up 13.26 percent to $7.60 as the company lifted its Q4 forecast. Shares of Caterpillar CAT got a boost, shooting up 6.34 percent to $91.64 after the company reported upbeat Q4 results. Rayonier RYN was also up, gaining 8.69 percent to $44.76 after the company reported Q4 results and announced its plans to separate into two public companies.

Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Geron GERN were down 14.59 percent to $4.80 after the company reported that 20 patients have discontinued from Imetelstat study since its inception. Regis RGS shares tumbled 12.67 percent to $11.72 after the company reported downbeat Q2 results. Idenix Pharmaceuticals IDIX was down, falling 6.99 percent to $6.79 after JMP Securities downgraded the stock from Market Perform to Market Underperform.

Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 0.14 percent to $96.78, while gold traded down 0.47 percent to $1,258.60. Silver traded up 0.05 percent Monday to $19.78, while copper fell 0.12 percent to $3.27.

Eurozone
European shares were mostly lower today. The Spanish Ibex Index dropped 0.33 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index climbed 0.18 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX declined 0.01 percent and the French CAC 40 jumped 0.12 percent while U.K. shares tumbled 2.87 percent.

Economics
Sales of new homes declined 7% to an annual rate of 414,000 in December, but climbed 4.5% y/y in the month. However, economists were projecting an annual rate of 455,000 in the month. The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills.