Mid-Day Market Update: Markets Settling, SunPower Heads Skyward

Midway through trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.33 percent to 14,028.51 while the NASDAQ rose 0.38 percent to 3,204.31. The S&P also rose, increasing 0.53 percent to 1,527.25.

For technicals on the major indices today, the S&P looks poised to bounce off its 1515 support and head to 1524 highs. The NASDAQ looks to be struggling to hold a breakout over 3197.. The Dow looks to be remaining in the 13,860-14,022 range, after it attempts a breakout over 14,022 The RUSSEL continues to trend higher, with new intra-day resistance at 927.5..

Making headlines on Tuesday was the rumored merger between Office Depot

and OfficeMax

. The news sent shares up almost 33 percent and 26 percent respectively. The rumor, which said a deal may emerge as early as this week, also sent Staples

through the roof, gaining over 15 percent.

SunPower

shot up 17.12 percent to $13.41 Tuesday after being initiated by Citibank with a Buy rating. Shares of Sealed Air Corporation

were also through the roof Tuesday, gaining a staggering 19.43 percent to $23.17 after an earnings beat and raising its top line guidance, but lowering its forecast for the bottom line. Power-One

rose 11.89 percent to $4.61 after an upgrade at Raymond James to a Strong-Buy with a $6 price target.

Humana

took a hit this morning, falling 7.24 percent to $72.35 after the medicare and medicaid payouts were announced to be going down by approximately 3 percent on Friday. Yandex

was also down, dropping 9.89 percent to $23.06 following some poor fourth-quarter results. Shares of EarthLink

were down as well, falling 10.53 percent to $6.20 following the company's poor fourth-quarter results this morning.

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.18 percent to $95.69, while gold traded down 0.19 percent to $1,606.40. Silver traded down 0.41 percent Tuesday to $29.44.

In the eurozone this morning, markets rose following a better than expected ZEW survey as bond yields declined. The French CAC was leading the rise, gaining 0.99 percent while the Italian FTSE was close behind, gaining 0.77 percent.

In economic news Tuesday, the NAHB housing market index came in at 46.00, missing the 48.00 estimates and the prior release of 47.00.