Mid-Afternoon Market Update: J.C. Penney Rises on the Return of Sales, VMware Continues to Fall

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.61 percent to 13,965.18 while the NASDAQ rose 0.03 percent to 3,155.18. The S&P also rose, increasing 0.59 percent to 1,508.17.

Ford Motor Company

traded down a little over 4 percent today despite an earnings beat this morning. The decline was linked to a $2 billion loss in Europe and guidance that predicted the same or slightly lower margins in 2013.

J.C. Penney

posted a solid day of gains, rising 9.26 percent to $21.00 after it was announced that the company would bring back sales to its stores. Shares DR Horton

traded up 12.08 percent to $23.89 after the company beat on earnings before the market open Tuesday morning. Valero Energy

was up as well, rising 12.47 percent to $43.65 after posting its best fourth-quarter since 2005.

VMware

took a 20.98 percent hit to $77.69 after the company posted very poor guidance and received a slew of downgrades this morning. Lexmark International

was also down, falling 15.58 percent to $23.59 following an earnings miss and weak first quarter guidance, despite the fact it guided its fiscal year 2013 earnings higher. Shares of Sanmina

were down as well, giving up 21.11 percent to $9.27 after missing on earnings and releasing poor guidance after the close Monday.

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.03 percent to $97.43, while gold traded up 0.61 percent to $1,663.90. Silver traded up 0.61 percent Tuesday to $31.39.

In European markets this morning were slightly lower following some weak Spanish retail data. Leading the decline was the Spanish Ibex, down 0.25 percent while the Italian MIB index was close behind, falling 0.22 percent.

In economic news this morning, the S&P/ Case Shiller home price index came in at 14.82, slightly below the anticipated 145.92 and the prior report of 145.95. The S&P/ Case Shiller composite 20 year over year came in at 5.52 percent, slightly below the projected 5.55 percent, but well above the prior report of 4.310 percent.