Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Discount Retailers Continue to Fall, WebMD Rallies on Job Cuts

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.54 percent to 13,240.62 while the NASDAQ rose 1.305percent to 3,018.19. The S&P also rose, increasing 0.57 percent to 1,426.62.

In its latest play for access to new markets, Delta Airlines

announced a contract to purchase a 49 percent stake in Virgin Atlantic for $360 million. The play took Delta shares up a little over 5 percent midway through trading.

WebMD

traded up 10.72 percent to $15.34 after the company announced a series of job cuts this morning. Shares of Clearwire

gained 14.37 percent to $2.75 midway through trading following more talk over its deal with Sprint. Tronox

was also up, rallying 8.80 percent to $16.20 after UBS maintained the company at a Buy.

SPX Corporation

dropped 9.07 percent to $62.12 following the market opening after news that it was in talks to buy Gardner Denver was reported by Reuters. SunCoke Energy

was also down, falling 6.61 percent to $14.84 after the company filed a form 8-K this morning. Shares of Family Dollar

were down as well, dropping 8.40 percent to $64.65 as Dollar General's guidance dragged other discount retailers' stock downwards.

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.32 percent to $85.83, while gold traded down 0.24 percent to $1,709.20. Silver traded down 0.40 percent Tuesday to $32.90.

In the euro zone, markets recovered much of their losses from Monday as fears over Italian political instability eased slightly and Germany released optimistic investor sentiment numbers this morning.

In economic news Tuesday morning, JOLTs job openings came in at 3.675 million, above the projected 3.6 million and the previous report of 3.547 million. Wholesale inventories were also reported, coming in at 0.6 percent, above the expected 0.4 percent, but below the prior reading of 1.1 percent. Trade balance was reported as well, coming in at -$42.2 billion, slightly above the expected -$42.6 billion, but below the previously reported -$40.3 billion.