Wall Street was higher by the middle of Wednesday’s session despite bad news from selected sectors. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.2 percent higher to 11,521.22, while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.5 percent to 2,226.05 and the S&P 500 gained 0.3 percent to 1,316.45.
Some of the bad news came from Hewlett Packard, which dropped 1.9 percent to $36.22 after the California Attorney General said that there was evidence that could lead to charges against company officials in connection with leaks by board members to the media.
In the pharmaceuticals sector, Merck fell 2.4 percent to $41.15 after its Vioxx drug was linked to kidney and heart problems in two reports which were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
News was better elsewhere. Gap, the clothing retailer, added 2.3 percent to $17.48 on an upgrade from “equal weight” to “overweight” from Lehman Brothers. AMR, the parent company of American Airways, gained 2.6 percent to $22.78 on an upgrade from “neutral” to “buy” from Merrill Lynch.
The transport sector saw advances based on the news that spot-freight rates for grain are as high as they have been all year. CSX was 3.6 percent higher to #31.94, while Expeditors International gained 6.7 percent to $46.07.