April 8, 2014: Markets opened mixed on Tuesday with the tech momentum stocks rocking the Nasdaq Composite higher. Consumer discretionary stocks picked up later in the morning and the three major indexes are pointed to a higher close today. At the close of trading today the DJIA was up 0.06%, the S&P 500 was up 0.36%, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.79%.

After dropping nearly 3% on Monday, Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) jumped back up 2.87% today, to trade at $72.85 in a 52-week range of $58.82 to $80.26. Share volume was about 25% above the daily average of around 4 million shares traded. Nike was a recovering consumer discretionary stock stock today, helped by an analysts upgrade and what many investors saw as a buying opportunity as the stock was down about 4.8% in just the past five days.

Heavy machinery maker Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) traded up 1.2% at $102.32 in a 52-week range of $79.49 to $103.38. Caterpillar stock has come back well from the dip preceding its appearance before a Congressional committee to be quizzed about its offshore holdings. Emerging market strength today also added to the company’s uptick. Volume was about 15% below the daily average of around 6.4 million shares traded.

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) said this morning that it will close its Costa Rican assembly and test plant and cut 1,500 of the 2,500 jobs the company supports in the Central American country. But that was not enough to spare the stock from today’s downturn. Shares traded at $26.88, up 1.45% in a 52-week range of $20.80 to $27.12. Volume was 25% above the daily average of around 32 million shares traded.

Dow component Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) added 1.19% and traded at $48.15 in a 52-week range of $45.08 to $54.31. Volume was about 30% below the daily average of around 47 million shares traded. There was no significant news on the company today, but the shares still trade about 2% below where they started the year.’

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Of the Dow 30 stocks 18 were set to close higher today and 12 to close lower.

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