The New York markets were up in early afternoon trade on Tuesday.
At just past 1 p.m. local time the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.43 percent higher to 13,415.21, while the Nasdaq Composite ha added 1.2 percent to 2,627.62 and the S&P 500 was up 0.9 percent to 1,4878.2.
The automobile manufacturing sector was higher even though Ford Motor (NYSE: F) said that sales were 14.4 percent lower in August, worse than the 13.2 percent decline that analysts had anticipated.
Car sales were down 33.7 percent while truck sales were 2.4 percent lower overall.
Still, Ford was up 9 cents to $7.90, while General Motors added 40 cents to $31.14.
A little earlier, at midday, the semiconductors sector was up on an upgrade for Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) and on a report from the Semiconductor Industry Association that said global chip sales were up 2.2 percent in July.
AMD was 29 cents higher to $13.29 after Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS; NYSE: CSGN) raised its recommendation on the chipmaker from “underperform“ to “neutral“.
Intel (NAS: INTC; SEHK: 4335) had gained 55 cents to $26.30, while Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) added $1.14 to $35.38.
Apple (NAS: AAPL) added $4.96 to $143.44 on a report that its iPhone sold better than all other smart phones in the US in July.
In the internet sector, Yahoo (NAS: YHOO) was up $1.31 to $24.04 after Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC) named it a top pick.