Midway through trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.19 percent
to 12,839.64 while the NASDAQ fell 0.21 percent to 2,8998.17 The
S&P also rose, increasing 0.22 percent to 1,383.07.
Top Headline
In a surprise move after the close Monday, Microsoft's (NASDAQ:
MSFT
) Windows Live president Steven Sinofsky announced he would be
leaving the company. While both Sinofsky and Microsoft had
nothing but good things to say about one and other, investors
were shaken by the departure of the lead behind the Windows 8
project shortly after its launch. The news lead to a near 3
percent drop in Microsoft's share price Tuesday morning.
Equities Trading UP
Idenix Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:
IDIX
) traded up 8.17 percent to $5.03 despite a downgrade by Maxim
Group from Buy to Hold this morning.
Shares of Clean Energy Fuels (NASDAQ:
CLNE
) also saw a boost, rising 11.85 percent to $12.37 after the
company announced it would buy technology from General Electric
that allows it to liquefy natural gas, and would receive a loan
of up to $200 million from GE Capital
Halcon Resources (NYSE:
HK
) rallied 9.85 percent to $5.91after the company filed a series
of SEC form 4's on Monday.
Equities Trading DOWN
Weatherford International (NYSE:
WFT
) fell 13.37 percent to $9.43 after the company announced it
would have to refile its first-quarter earnings statement and
missed on revenue after the close Monday.
AECOM Technology (NYSE:
ACM
) was also down, dropping 11.95 percent to $19.16 following a
revenue miss Tuesday morning.
Shares of Tronox (NYSE:
TROX
) regained some their losses, remaining down 16.29 percent at
$15.67 following a very poor earnings report after the close
Monday.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 0.13 percent to $85.45, while
gold traded down 0.12 percent to $1,728.90.
Silver traded up 0.08 percent Monday to $32.60.
Eurozone
European markets traded down Tuesday morning as the EU and IMF
renewed their struggle over details of the Greek bailout.
The Euro got a slight boost Tuesday morning after a German
newspaper reported that the German government was currently at
work on at EU44B aid package to cover Greece for the remainder of
the year.
Economics
In economic news Tuesday morning, the NFIB small business
optimism came in at 93.1, slightly above the expected 93.0 and
the prior report of 92.8.
IBD/TIPP economic optimism came in at 48.6, well below the
expected 53.8 and the previous figure of 54.0.
The monthly budget statement will be announced at 2:00 PM EST,
so stay tuned to Benzinga for an up to the second release once
the data is available.
(c) 2012 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment
advice. All rights reserved.