Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Markets Post Rally to Go Into the Green; Precious Metals Take a Hit

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded up 0.35 percent to 15,937.04 while the NASDAQ dropped 0.35 percent to 4,113.61. The S&P also fell, declining 0.17 percent to 1,793.09.

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 10.28 percent to $7.40 as the company lifted its Q4 forecast and announced the resignation of its founder and CEO Paul Palmieri.

Shares of Caterpillar CAT got a boost, shooting up 5.73 percent to $91.10 after the company reported upbeat Q4 results.

Sprint S was also up, gaining 6.88 percent to $8.98 after the company announced a deal with Pogoplug to offer customers unlimited cloud storage and backup.

Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Geron GERN were down 12.45 percent to $4.92 after the company reported that 20 patients have discontinued from Imetelstat study since its inception.

Regis RGS shares tumbled 12.44 percent to $11.75 after the company reported downbeat Q2 results.

Allied Nevada Gold ANV was down as well, falling 8.95 percent to $4.425 after the company divested from a “non-core” property. Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 1.03 percent to $95.64, while gold traded down 0.86 percent to $1,253.80. Silver traded down 1.34 percent Monday to $19.68, while copper fell 0.40 percent to $3.26.

Eurozone
European shares were lower today.

The Spanish Ibex Index dropped 0.95 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index dropped 0.44 percent.

Meanwhile, the German DAX declined 0.33 percent and the French CAC 40 fell 0.41 percent while U.K. shares tumbled 3.19 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 Dallas Fed general business activity index rose to 3.80 in January, versus a prior reading of 3.10. However, economists were expecting a reading of 3.50.