Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mixed, McMoRan Deal Leads Movements

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.34 percent to 12,996.42 while the NASDAQ fell 0.52 percent to 2,981.02. The S&P also rose, increasing 0.02 percent to 1,407.29.

In one of the biggest acquisitions of the year, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold

announced it had purchased McMoRan exploration

this morning in a $20 billion deal. The deal sent shares of McMoRan Exploration up over 75%, while Freeport-McMoRan fell over 13%.

Plains Exploration & Production

jumped 24.94% to $45.04 following the McMoRan acquisition news this morning. Shares of Cobalt International Energy

were also up, gaining 12.74 percent to $26.81 after the company announced a significant oil discovery in the Gulf of Mexico this morning. Teavana Holdings

was also up, rallying 6.81 percent to %15.38 after Starbucks released an update saying it still expected to buy the company this year.

TIBCO Software

was among the morning's top losers, falling 21.24 percent to $19.47 following a downgrade to Neutral at Bank of America. Frontier Communications

started down sharply at the open, but quickly recovered its losses, remaining down 1.81 percent at $4.61 after Jim Cramer recommended a sell on the company Tuesday evening. Shares of Select Comfort

were also down, dropping 8.38 percent to $25.35, possibly linked to the Mattress Firm drop yesterday on poor guidance.

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.03 percent to $88.53, while gold traded down 0.24 percent to $1,690.30. Silver traded up 0.04 percent Wednesday to $32.77.

European markets rose this morning as reports from the service sector indicated less contraction than expected for November. In other news, the UK's Osborne said that the UK economy is forecasted to grow 1.2% in 2013, while increasing the bank levy rate to 0.130% next year.

In economic news Wednesday morning, unit labor costs came in at -1.9 percent, below the projected -0.9% and the prior report of -0.1%. Non-farm productivity was also reported, coming in at 2.9 percent, above the projected 2.7 percent and the previous figure of 1.9 percent.