Mid-Day Market Update: Stocks Pare Gains, G-III Apparel Surges On Q1 Results

Midway through trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.01 percent to 15,256.10, while the NASDAQ rose 0.24 percent to 3,473.61. The S&P was also up, gaining 0.03 percent to 1,640.86.

Dollar General

reported a 3% rise in its first-quarter profit. Dollar General's quarterly profit surged to $220.08 million, or $0.67 per share, versus $213.41 million, or $0.63 per share, in the year-ago period. Its adjusted earnings came in at $0.71 per share. Its revenue surged to $4.24 billion from $3.90 billion, while same-store sales rose 2.6%. However, analysts were estimating earnings of $0.71 per share on revenue of $4.24 billion. Dollar General projects full-year adjusted earnings of $3.15 to $3.22 per share, versus its earlier forecast of $3.15 to $3.30 per share.

ExactTarget

shot up, gaining 52.49 percent to $33.70, after salesforce.com

announced its plans to buy the company for $2.34 billion. G-III Apparel Group

was also up 18.25 percent to $50.54 after the company reported upbeat first-quarter results and lifted its full-year outlook. Infinity Pharmaceuticals

got a boost, shooting up 20.66 percent to $19.80 on Piper Jaffray defense.

Dollar General

was down, falling 7.60 percent to $49.48 on Q1 results. U.S. Silica Holdings

shares tumbled 5.97 percent to $20.30 after the company announced secondary offering of 10 million shares of common stock by selling stockholder. Array BioPharma

was down 7.79 percent to $5.3299 after the company announced proposed public offering of convertible debt.

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.66 percent to $92.83, while gold dropped 1.22 percent to $1,394.50. Silver traded down 1.68 percent Tuesday to $22.34, while copper rose 0.90 percent to $3.36.

European shares traded higher in early trade after the positive Spanish economic news and also on the ESM news. Spain's unemployment count, those collecting unemployment benefits, declined 98,265 in May to 4.89 million, a drop of almost 2 percent. The Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.92 percent and the Italian FTSE MIB Index gained 0.29 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX climbed 0.03 percent and the French CAC 40 rose 0.20 percent while U.K. shares gained 0.37 percent.

US trade deficit widened 8.5% to $40.3 billion in April, versus a revised $37.1 billion in March. However, economists were expecting the deficit to rise to $41.5 billion. US exports increased 1.2% to $187.4 billion in April, while imports rose 2.4% to $227.7 billion. The ICSC/Goldman Sachs Retail Chain Store Sales Index increased 1.9% in the week ended Saturday versus the prior week. The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index gained 0.6% in the first four weeks of May versus April. Fed members Sarah Bloom Raskin, Esther George, and Richard Fischer are expected to speak.