Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Markets Continue to Rally as InfoBlox Takes a Big Haircut

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 1.41 percent to 16,024.00 while the NASDAQ surged 1.17 percent to 4,196.74. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.26 percent to 1,822.31.

Leading and Lagging Sectors
On Tuesday, the basic materials sector proved to be a source of strength for the US market after Yellen statement. Huntsman HUN shares surged 2.62 percent after reporting strong quarterly earnings, while China Gerui Advanced Materials Group CHOP gained around 2.5 percent.

Consumer goods stocks were underperformers in Tuesday's trading, up on the day by just 0.5% compared to S&P's 1.03 percent gain. Among the consumer goods stocks, shares of Star Scientific STSI were down by more than 1 percent.

Top Headline
Sprint S reported a narrower fourth-quarter net loss. Sprint posted a quarterly loss of $1.04 billion, or $0.26 per share, versus a year-ago loss of $1.32 billion, or $0.44 per share. It posted an operating loss of $576 million, compared to a year--earlier loss of $738 million. Its net operating revenue surged to $9.14 billion versus $9.01 billion. However, analysts were estimating a loss of $0.35 per share on revenue of $8.98 billion. Sprint added 58,000 postpaid subscribers and 322,000 prepaid subscribers.

Equities Trading UP
Cadence Pharmaceuticals CADX shot up 26.42 percent to $14.02 after Mallinckrodt plc MNK announced its plans to acquire Cadence Pharma for $14.00 per share in cash.

Shares of iRobot IRBT was up as well, gaining 13.63 percent to $42.76 after as the stock's new alltime high was breached, leading to bullish sentiment on Wall Street.

Mallinckrodt plc MNK was also up, gaining 12.72 percent to $66.95 after the company announced its plans to buy Cadence Pharma for $1.3 billion.

Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Infoblox BLOX were down 47.01 percent to $17.59 after the company lowered its FY14 revenue forecast. Wedbush downgraded the stock from Outperform to Neutral and cut the price target from $36.00 to $25.00.

Zoetis ZTS was down as well, falling 5.25 percent to $29.50 percent after the company guided its fiscal year 2014 revenue and EPS below street estimates.

Rackspace Hosting RAX was down, falling 17.02 percent to $33.40 after the company reported a drop in its fourth-quarter net income and announced the retirement of its Chief Executive Lanham Napier.

Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 0.10 percent to $99.96, while gold traded up 1.33 percent to $1,291.50.

Silver traded up 0.17 percent Tuesday to $20.25, while copper rose 0.23 percent to $3.23.

Eurozone
European shares were higher today.

The Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.09 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index climbed 1.04 percent.

Meanwhile, the German DAX surged 2.03 percent and the French CAC 40 gained 1.09 percent while U.K. shares rose 1.23 percent.

Economics
The ICSC-Goldman same-store sales index fell 0.3% in the week ended Saturday versus the earlier week.

The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index rose to 94.10 in January, versus a prior reading of 93.90. However, economists were expecting a reading of 93.60.

The Redbook Chain Store Sales came in with a gain of 2.8 percent y/y, compared to a gain of 2.7 percent last week.

U.S. wholesale inventories rose 0.30% in December, versus economists' expectations for a 0.50% gain.