Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Surge; AutoZone Posts Rise In Profit

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded up 1.10 percent to 16,345.41 while the NASDAQ surged 1.46 percent to 4,339.62. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.17 percent to 1,867.30.

Leading and Lagging Sectors
In trading on Tuesday, industrials shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 1.61 percent. Top gainers in the sector included Plug Power PLUG and Maxwell Technologies MXWL.

Utilities sector gained 0.78 percent in the US market today. Among the utilities stocks, Huaneng Power International HNP was down more than 1.4 percent, while UIL Holdings UIL tumbled around 0.7 percent.

Top Headline
AutoZone AZO reported a gain in its fiscal second-quarter profit. AutoZone's quarterly profit surged to $192.8 million, or $5.63 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $176.2 million, or $4.78 per share. Its net sales rose to $1.99 billion versus $1.86 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $5.57 per share on sales of $1.98 billion. AutoZone's US same-store sales jumped 4.3% in the quarter.

Equities Trading UP
Vipshop Holdings VIPS shot up 37.53 percent to $175.71 after the company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter results and issued a strong revenue forecast for the first quarter.

Shares of Trina Solar TSL got a boost, shooting up 4.54 percent to $15.42 after the company posted a profit in the fourth quarter.

MBIA MBI was also up, gaining 8.18 percent to $14.41 after the company reported upbeat Q4 earnings.

Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of McDermott International MDR were down 6.97 percent to $7.55 after the company reported a Q4 loss of $1.37 per share on revenue of $517.3 million. It also withdrew its previous outlook. Capital One Financial downgraded the stock from Equalweight to Underweight and cut the price target from $8.00 to $6.00.

Ascena Retail Group ASNA shares tumbled 5.83 percent to $17.77 after the company reported Q2 results. Ascena Retail expected FY14 earnings of $1.00 to 1.05 per share.

WebMD Health WBMD was down, falling 3.65 percent to $41.75 after Stifel Nicolaus downgraded the stock from Buy to Hold and removed the target price of $55.

Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 1.21 percent to $103.65, while gold traded down 1.23 percent to $1,333.70. Silver traded down 1.75 percent Tuesday to $21.11, while copper rose 0.66 percent to $3.19.

Eurozone
European shares were higher today.

The Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.89 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index surged 2.88 percent.

Meanwhile, the German DAX jumped 2.31 percent and the French CAC 40 rose 2.33 percent while U.K. shares climbed 1.51 percent.

Economics
The ICSC-Goldman same-store sales index climbed 0.3% in the week ended Saturday versus the earlier week.

The Treasury is set to auction 4-and 52-week bills.