March 11, 2014: Markets opened mixed on Tuesday and turned sharply lower in mid-morning trading as copper prices tumbled below $3 a pound, a level not seen since mid-2010. Because copper is often viewed as a bellwether for the global economy, price swings in the red metal can affect equity prices. In the final minutes of trading the DJIA was down 0.47%, the S&P 500 was down 0.62%, and the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.76%.

Today’s big gainer among the Dow stocks was McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD). The company’s CFO indicated that the fast-food giant may seek more ways to cut costs and even borrow cash to boost returns to investors. The company’s shares traded up 3.53% at $98.56 in a 52-week range of $92.22 to $103.70 just ahead of the closing bell. Volume is on track to be more than 3-times higher than the daily average of nearly 5 million shares traded.

The most heavily traded Nasdaq stocks today are Plug Power Inc. (NASDAQ: PLUG) and FuelCell Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: FCEL). The difference today is that the stock prices are tumbling, with Plug Power down 38.89% at $6.30 in a 52-week range of $0.15 to $11.70 (a new 52-week high today). The company’s stock is worth $0.50 a share according to an analyst at Citron Research, who recently had some very harsh things to say about 3D Systems Inc. (NYSE: DDD) as well. Plug Power’s share volume was nearly 8-times the daily average of around 31 million shares traded.

One Nasdaq stock posting outsized gains today is Clean Diesel Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: CDTI) which is getting a share price boost of 68.85%. The company announced that it will begin shipping emissions control systems’ catalysts to Honda in the first half of this year. The stock will close at around $4.82 in a 52-week range of $1.10 to $7.39 (the high was set today and was nearly double Monday’s closing price of $2.83). Volume was about 36-times the daily average of around nearly 525,000 shares traded.

S&P 500 and Dow 30 stocks Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) are trading lower today as the financial sector takes a few lumps. Goldman trades down 1.95% today at $170.09 in its 52-week range of $137.29 to $181.13 shortly before the closing bell. Trading volume for Goldman’s shares was about 10% below the daily average of around 3.2 million shares.

Of the Dow 30 stocks 8 are set to close higher today while 22 are on their way to a lower close.

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