Wall Street was working on a fourth day of gains in a row at midday on Thursday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.3 percent higher to 11,359.86, the Nasdaq Composite added 0.7 percent to 2,163.75, and the S&P 500 gained 0.2 percent to 1,298.22.
The semiconductor sector was up as Advanced Micro Devices was 7.7 percent higher to $24.31 on an upgrade from Citigroup, which upped the chipmaker’s recommendation from “hold” to “buy” after reports that Dell is poised to use more AMD chips in its computers. PMC-Sierra gained 8.4 percent to $6.62 said it had not uncovered any deliberate misconduct by its employees in relation to the granting of stock options.
Computer maker Hewlett-Packard added 4.3 percent to $35.92 when it announced that it would conduct a $6 billion share buy-back. HP’s earnings in its third quarter were above analyst estimates.
Ebay, which has been seeing losses this year, was 5.8 percent higher at mid-session, to $27.32.
The oil sector declined as crude oil prices dropped again, as ConocoPhillips dropped 0.8 percent to $66.20 and Valero Energy declined by 2.7 percent to $61.30.
Retailer Sears Holdings was 4.2 percent lower to $143.77 even though it said its quarterly earnings had gone up by 83 percent. Investors were concerned about slowing sales.