Wall Street was higher at midday on Friday after the Commerce Department said that retail sales were up 0.6 percent in September over August’s numbers, twice the gain that had been expected.
In addition, the Labor Department said that wholesale prices added 1.1 percent last month.
However, when food and energy prices were excluded from the data, wholesale prices were only up 0.1 percent.
At mid-session the Dow Jones Industrial Average had added 0.41 percent to 14,073, while the Nasdaq Composite was 0.96 percent higher to 2,799.16 and the S&P 500 gained 0.41 percent to 1,560.86.
Technology-related businesses helped the gains.
Software manufacturer Oracle (NAS: ORCL) was 15 cents higher to $22.61 after it made a $6.66 million bid for rival BEA Systems (NAS: BEAS), which added $4.44 to $18.06.
Chipmaking equipment manufacturers were higher after Korean chipmaker Samsung Electronic Co (SEO: 005930) said it will increase capital spending on the production of semiconductors by over $1 billion.
Rudolph Technologies Inc (NAS: RTEC) was up 38 cents to $13.80, while Applied Materials (NAS: AMAT; SEHK: 4336) gained 81 cents to $20.94 and Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates Inc (NAS: VSEA) added $2.67 to $48.55.
Elsewhere, General Motors (NYSE: GM) added $1.48 to $41.47 after it said that sales in Latin America were up.
General Electric (NYSE: GE) dropped 93 cents to $40.66 even though its earnings were up 14 percent in the third quarter.
In the banking sector, Citigroup (NYSE: C) fell 68 cents to $47.65 after it said it will join its alternative investments and investment banking division into a single business.
The news spurred Deutsche Bank to cut its recommendation on Citigroup from “buy” to “sell” on the grounds that the changes are not enough.