At midday on Wednesday, the New York equities markets had made back some of Tuesday’s losses, helped out by good news on the trade deficit and out of several corporations. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 11,123.24 by mid-session, a gain of 0.3 percent, and the S&P 500 had gained 0.1 percent to 1,287.15. The Nasdaq Composite, however, held steady at 2,310.07.
In the telecommunications sector, Motorola added 1.3 percent to $23.87 on an upgrade from Bear Stearns on the theory that the company would continue to increase its share of the market because of demand for its thin handsets.
Aircraft manufacturer Boeing was up 3.7 percent to $83.53 on a deal to sell 80 of its 737 jets to China. This was Boeing’s largest one-day increase in two months.
In the automobile manufacturing sector, General Motors added 2.2 percent to $19.65, also on news related to China. GM said that sales of it’s Chevrolet line in China will increase by at least 50 percent this year. Ford Motor also saw an advance on the day, by 1 percent to $7.24.
In the retail sector, Circuit City added 2.3 percent to $25.18 after is said that its fourth-quarter profits were up by 65 percent on Christmas sales of digital music players and flat-panel televisions.
Biotechnology group Genentech was down 1.1 percent to $80.84 despite a 48 percent rise in profits in the first quarter after ales of its drug Rituzan did not meet expectations.
Bosch & Lomb dropped 4.7 percent to $46.75, seeing declines for the second day in a row after having to withdraw its contact lens solution due to reports that some users had contracted fungal infections.