Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Surges 100 Points; Sunedison Shares Tumble Following Report Of SEC Probe

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.57 percent to 17,635.68 while the NASDAQ gained 1.64 percent to 4,844.79. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.83 percent to 2,053.89. Leading and Lagging Sectors On Tuesday, technology shares gained by 1.61 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Himax Technologies, Inc. (ADR) HIMX, up 13 percent, and PAR Technology Corporation PAR, up 9 percent. In trading on Tuesday, energy shares rose by just 0.1 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc DO, down 6 percent, and Denbury Resources Inc. DNR, down 5 percent. Top Headline Lennar Corporation LEN reported better-than-expected earnings for its fiscal first quarter on Tuesday. Lennar reported quarterly earnings of $0.63 per share on revenue of $1.99 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.52 per share on revenue of $1.86 billion. Equities Trading UP Keryx Biopharmaceuticals KERX shares shot up 14 percent to $5.17 after the company announced positive top-line results from its pivotal Phase 3 study of ferric citrate for the treatment of iron deficiency anemia in adults with non-dialysis dependent chronic kidney disease. Shares of Cleco Corporation CNL got a boost, shooting up 13 percent to $55.19 after the company confirmed that the Louisiana Public Service Commission (LPSC) voted to approve a sale of the company. OHR Pharmaceutical Inc OHRP shares were also up, gaining 22 percent to $3.47. OHR Pharmaceutical announced it has reached an agreement on the Special Protocol Assessment (SPA) with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on the design of a Phase 3 trial for its lead drug candidate, Squalamine. Equities Trading DOWN Sunedison Inc SUNE shares dropped 53 percent to $0.595 in reaction to a Wall Street Journal report that the company is facing a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation. Shares of BioPharmX Corp BPMX were down 31 percent to $1.02 after the company announced the pricing of 3.6 million share common stock. Puma Biotechnology Inc PBYI was down, falling around 22 percent to $27.53 after the company issued an update to the timeline for the filing of a new drug application. Puma Biotechnology will submit the NDA for neratinib in mid-2016. According to a press release, the decision was based on the company's recent meetings with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Commodities In commodity news, oil traded down 2.87 percent to $38.26, while gold traded up 1.55 percent to $1,241.00. Silver traded up 0.69 percent Tuesday to $15.30, while copper fell 1.51 percent to $2.21. Eurozone European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 rose 0.50 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index gained 0.21 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index rose 0.03 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.37 percent, and the French CAC 40 gained 0.85 percent, while U.K. shares fell 0.01 percent. Economics The S&P/Case-Shiller home price index gained 5.7 percent year-over-year in January. The Conference Board's consumer confidence index gained to 96.20 in March, versus a prior reading of 92.20. However, economists were expecting a reading of 94.00.