Wall Street was higher at midday on Tuesday as commodity prices declined, which sent miners and oil stocks lower but helped the retail sector. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.64 percent to 11,745.27, while the Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 were each 0.3 percent higher, to 2,243.50 and 1,335.12 respectively.
With gold and copper prices down, miners declined significantly. Newmont Mining dropped 3.4 percent to $41.74, while Freeport McMoran fell 5.1 percent to $50.73.
Oil services companies were lower on dropping crude oil prices. Ensco International declined 3 percent to $40.42 on a downgrade from “overweight” to “neutral” by JPMorgan. Diamond Offshore ell 4.3 percent to $65.58.
The retail sector, however, liked the drop in oil prices on the possibility that lower gasoline and heating oil prices would free up more consumer dollars for other purchases. Limited Brands was 2.8 percent higher to $27.51, while office-supply retailer Staples gained 5.1 percent to $25.50
Semiconductors were lower on the session. Marvell Technology dropped 14.1 percent to $16.40 after saying that it would restate its financial results and after reducing its 2007 revenues outlook. Broadcom declined 3.8 percent to $29.68.