By midday on Wednesday the New York equities markets were higher as the utilities sector was higher on mergers and acquisitions news and lower oil prices helped investor sentiment. The middle of the session saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.7 percent to 11,174.07, while the Nasdaq Composite had added 0.8 percent to 2,182.51 and the S&P 500 had gained 0.7 percent to 1,268.39.
If trends continue to the end of the day, the Dow seemed likely to lose 1.7 percent on the month, the Nasdaq was on track to lose 6 percent during the month, and the S&P was likely to be down by 3.2 percent for the month. For both the Nasdaq and the S&P, those figures would make May the worst month for the indexes in several years.
Semiconductors had the biggest losses during the month, with the sector down 9.4 percent as a whole. Intel was the leader of the losers, down 27.5 percent in the month to $18.06. Meanwhile, the automobile manufacturing sector was the most successful during the month. Even though it was down by 4.5 percent at one point, it ended the month 5 percent higher. General Motors was up 18.3 percent during the month.
The utilities sector saw significant advances. NRG Energy was up 16.1 percent to $49.95 on the news that Mirant had bid for the power-plant operator. The announcement helped other utilities, as Texas Utilities gained 2.8 percent to $57.73 and Edison International was up 2.7 percent to $39.40.