Mid-Day Market Update: Dow Pushing Towards 14000, Lexmark Falls on Earnings Miss

Mid-way through trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.49 percent to 13,949.18 while the NASDAQ fell 0.07 percent to 3,152.18. The S&P also rose, increasing 0.44 percent to 1,506.17. Top Headline
Ford Motor Company F traded down a little over 4 percent today despite an earnings beat this morning. The decline was linked to a $2 billion loss in Europe and guidance that predicted the same or slightly lower margins in 2013. Equities Trading UP
Hess Corporation HES traded up 8.87 percent to $68.02 after it was announced that Elliott Management would push the company to split up and sell both its retail and Bakken operations. Shares DR Horton DHI traded up 10.44 percent to $23.54 after the company beat on earnings before the market open Tuesday morning. Valero Energy VLO was up as well, rising 9.96 percent to $42.68 after posting its best fourth-quarter since 2005. Equities Trading DOWN
VMware VMW took a 20.81 percent hit to $77.86 after the company posted very poor guidance and received a slew of downgrades this morning. Lexmark International LXK was also down, falling 13.70 percent to $24.12 following an earnings miss and weak first quarter guidance, despite the fact it guided its fiscal year 2013 earnings higher. Shares of Sanmina SANM were down as well, giving up 19.15 percent to $9.50 after missing on earnings and releasing poor guidance after the close Monday. Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 1.22 percent to $97.62, while gold traded up 0.48 percent to $1,660.90. Silver traded up 0.42 percent Tuesday to $31.20. Euro zone
In European markets this morning were slightly lower following some weak Spanish retail data. Leading the decline was the Spanish Ibex, down 0.25 percent while the Italian MIB index was close behind, falling 0.22 percent. Economics
In economic news this morning, the S&P/ Case Shiller home price index came in at 14.82, slightly below the anticipated 145.92 and the prior report of 145.95. The S&P/ Case Shiller composite 20 year over year came in at 5.52 percent, slightly below the projected 5.55 percent, but well above the prior report of 4.310 percent.