New data on retail sales in the United States along with positive corporate earnings reports helped the New York equities markets to midday gains despite the news that yields on ten-year US Treasury bonds had gone above 5 percent for the first time in almost four years.
At mid-session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had added 0.3 percent to 11,158.14. The Nasdaq Composite had advanced by 0.8 percent to 2,332.29, while the S&P 500 gained 0.2 percent to 1,290.38.
General Electric reported that its profits were up 14 percent in the first quarter and it reiterated its full-year guidance for 2006, but its shares dropped 1.5 percent to $33.95. Still, Goldman Sachs kept its rating of GE at “outperform”.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Sector index added 1.3 percent as chipmakers supported the Nasdaq. Lam Research, which makes semiconductor processing equipment, added 6.7 percent to $47.69 on a 45 percent rise in earnings in its third quarter. Intel gained 2.4 percent to $19.58 ahead of an earnings report due next week.
Bucking the trend in the sector, Advanced Micro Devices dropped 7.8 percent to $32.66 despite earnings that were better than expected in the first quarter. A weak second-quarter guidance led Sanford C. Bernstein to downgrade the company’s shares.
Flash-memory products maker SanDisk added 4.2 percent to $61.99 when the S&P said it will install the company in its index in place of Chiron Corp.