Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Markets Rise as the Solar Sector Plumets

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.54 percent to 15,050.71 while the NASDAQ rose 0.07 percent to 3,395.07. The S&P rose, gaining 0.50 percent to 1,625.75.

Emerson Electric Co

reported a 2.9% rise in its fiscal second-quarter earnings and cut its full-year view. Emerson Electric now projects earnings of $3.48 to $3.58 per share or the year on sales growth of 1.5% to 2.5%. In February, the company expects earnings of $3.53 to $3.63 per share on sales growth of 2% to 5%. Emerson Electric's quarterly profit surged to $561 million, or $0.77 per share, from $545 million, or $0.74 per share, in the year-ago period. Its revenue climbed 0.7% to $5.96 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.78 per share on revenue of $6.03 billion.

Santarus

shot up 11.23 percent to $20.99 on Q1 earnings. Shares of Mercadolibre

got a boost, shooting up 17.65 percent to $122.30 after the company reported strong Q1 sales. Fossil

continued to rise, gaining 8.90 percent to $107.93 after the company reported a 24% rise in its Q1 earnings.

Aruba Networks

was down, falling 23.58 percent to $16.85 on weak forecast. Shares of Solarcity

dropped 10.10 percent to 23.73 as the whole solar segment falls on First Solar's earnings report. First Solar

shares tumbled 9.46 percent to $43.18 on Q1 results that came in below the company's pre-announcement.

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.42 percent to $95.76, while gold traded down 1.36 percent to $1,448.00. Silver traded down 1.06 percent Tuesday to $23.70, while copper fell 0.24 percent to $3.30.

European shares rose following the stronger than expected bank earnings from around the continent. The Spanish Ibex Index gained 0.47 percent while the Italian FTSE MIB Index rose 1.54 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX surged 0.86 percent while the French CAC 40 climbed 0.37 percent and U.K. shares rose 0.55 percent.

The ICSC-Goldman comparable store sales index declined 1% in the week ended Saturday versus the prior week. The Redbook index fell 2.5% month-over--month in the week ended April 28. March consumer credit was also out, coming in at $7.966 billion, well below the survey of $15.60 billion and the prior release of $18.139 billion.