Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Markets Rally on Easing Ukraine Tensions as Dendreon Pulls Back

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 1.38 percent to 16,391.81 while the NASDAQ surged 1.83 percent to 4,355.50. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.46 percent to 1,872.64.

In trading on Tuesday, industrials shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 1.78 percent. Top gainers in the sector included Plug Power

and Maxwell Technologies

. Energy sector gained 0.85 percent in the US market today. Among the energy stocks,McDermott International

was down more than 9.3 percent, while Compressco Partners LP

tumbled around 5.3 percent.

v AutoZone

in its fiscal second-quarter profit. AutoZone's quarterly profit surged to $192.8 million, or $5.63 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $176.2 million, or $4.78 per share. Its net sales rose to $1.99 billion versus $1.86 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $5.57 per share on sales of $1.98 billion. AutoZone's US same-store sales jumped 4.3% in the quarter.

Vipshop Holdings

shot up 30.73 percent to $167.02 after the company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter results and issued a strong revenue forecast for the first quarter. Shares of Trina Solar

got a boost, shooting up 10.10 percent to $16.23 after the company

in the fourth quarter. Plug Power

was up as well, gaining 11.51 percent to $6.49 after the company's new contract with Wal-Mart sparked a rally.

Shares of McDermott International

were down 8.25 percent to $7.44 after the company reported a Q4 loss of $1.37 per share on revenue of $517.3 million. It also withdrew its previous outlook. Capital One Financial downgraded the stock from Equalweight to Underweight and cut the price target from $8.00 to $6.00. Ascena Retail Group

shares tumbled 4.29 percent to $18.06 after the company reported Q2 results. Ascena Retail expected FY14 earnings of $1.00 to 1.05 per share. Dendreon

was down as well, falling 7.25 percent to $3.07 as traders looked to take profits from Monday's rally.

In commodity news,

to $103.19, while gold traded down 1.02 percent to $1,336.80. Silver traded down 1.03 percent Tuesday to $21.20, while copper rose 0.78 percent to $3.21.

European shares

today. The Spanish Ibex Index rose 2.51 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index surged 3.62 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX jumped 2.46 percent and the French CAC 40 rose 2.45 percent while U.K. shares climbed 1.72 percent.

The ICSC-Goldman same-store sales index climbed 0.3% in the week ended Saturdayversus the earlier week. The Treasury is set to auction 4-and 52-week bills.