The New York equities markets were higher at midday on Tuesday on speculation that interest rates have finally finished rising and might even start to decline. At mid-session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had added 0.2 percent to 11,361.54, while the Nasdaq Composite was 0.5 percent higher to 2,158.54 and the S&P 500 had gained 0.3 percent to 1,301.11.
In the semiconductor sector, Jabil Circuit was 2.4 percent higher to $27.88, to a total rise of 27 percent in the past month. It had previously fallen 50 percent from March until a month ago. Advanced Micro Devices added 6.3 percent to $24.87 on an optimistic market share forecast by a company official.
Internet search engine Yahoo was 1.5 percent higher to $29.32, while online auctioneer Ebay was up 3.9 percent to $27.79. Among computer makers, Apple Computer advanced by 2.2 percent to $68.04.
Satellite radio providers were up after Bear Stearns upgraded XM Satellite Radio from “underperform” to “outperform”. XM added 13.2 percent to $12.72 on the upgrade. Sirius Satellite Radio also benefited from the news, gaining 3.9 percent to $4.04.
Toll Brothers was up 4.4 percent to $25.87 even though the homebuilder reported a 19 percent drop in profits in its third quarter due to declines in the US housing market. The lower profits were about where they had been expected to be.