Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Markets Mixed, Given Drops After Company Abandons Sale

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.20 percent to 13,534.18 while the NASDAQ fell 0.22 percent to 3,110.18. The S&P also rose, increasing 0.11 percent to 1,472.25.

Facebook

came finally released its highly touted new product to the press today: social graph search. After confirming that it was not a web search, the presentation shaped it as a brand new form of search based on what people and things are linked to your search query. The announcement did little for Facebook's shares, and actually sent those of Google

upwards.

Express

traded up 23.33 percent to $17.34 after the company announced that its fourth-quarter comps would come in between unchanged and up one percent, better than the expected decline of single digits. The company also raised its EPS guidance. Shares of Santarus

were also up, gaining 10.82 percent to $12.50 after the FDA approved the company's ulcerative colitis drug. Arena Pharmaceuticals

saw a boost as well, rising 5.58 percent to $10.77 after the company's presentation at the J.P. Morgan healthcare conference.

Given Imaging

traded down 11.43 percent to $16.12 after the company announced it had abandoned talks of a sale this morning. TTM Technologies

was down as well, dropping 17.61 percent to $7.54 after the company was downgraded by Stifel Nicolaus. Shares of PDL BioPharma

were also down, falling 4.92 percent to $7.06 after the company was downgraded to Underperform at Credit Suisse this morning.

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.81 percent to $93.38, while gold traded up 0.66 percent to $1,680.70. Silver traded up 0.29 percent Tuesday to $31.40.

European markets remained mixed this morning as traders positioned themselves on a relatively light macro news day. The Spanish Ibex was down 0.36 percent while the Italian MIB index took an opposite stance, rising 0.41 percent.

In economic news, PPI year over year came in at 1.3 percent, below the projected 1.4 percent and the previous release of 1.5 percent, while PPI month over month was reported at -0.2 percent, lower than the anticipated -0.1 percent and the prior report of -0.8 percent. Retail sales were also reported, coming in at 0.5 percent, above the anticipated 0.2 percent and the previous figure of 0.3 percent.