Wall Street was higher after remarks from both President George W. Bush and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke.

In early afternoon trade the Dow Jones Industrial Average had added 1.19 percent to 13,396.43, while the Nasdaq Composite was up 1.05 percent to 2,592.16 and the S&P 500 was 1.29 percent higher to 1,476.46.

Mr. Bush called on congress to send him legislation to modernize the Federal Housing Administration, which provides mortgage insurance through private lenders, but said that the government will not bail out what he characterized as “speculators”.

He also asked lenders to work with homeowners to renegotiate mortgages at lower interest rates.

Mr. Bush’s plan also calls for the creation of a program called “FHA-Secure”, which will allow the FHA to refinance the loans of homeowners with good credit but who have not been able to make all their payments due to rising interest rates.

Mortgage lenders saw gains in the wake of these comments. Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC) was 14 cents higher to $19.78, while Accredited Home Lenders Holding (NAS: LEND) gained $2.38, or 37.72 percent, to $8.69 after Lone Star Funds said it is willing to purchase the subprime lender at a lower price than previously agreed.

Banks also benefited from the marks from the President and the Fed chairman.

Citigroup (NSYE: C) added 53 cents to $46.76, while JP Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM; TYO: 8634) gained 65 cents to $44.62 and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) was 73 cents higher to $46.76.

In early afternoon trade in New York on Monday, equities markets were slightly ahead after last week’s declines.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.3 percent to 13,278,72, while the Nasdaq Composite had added 0.15 percent to 2,548.6 and the S&P 500 was 0.32 percent higher to 1,458.32.

The gains came as the Federal Reserve and other central banks added more cash into their monetary systems in order to calm investor nerves about the credit market.

The New York Fed announced $2 billion in overnight repurchase agreements, while the Bank of Japan put another $5 billion into the system and the European Central Bank added another $65.3 billion.

Also helping the US markets was a new report from the Commerce Department that showed retail sales up 0.3 percent in July, a bit more than had been anticipated.

This new data left the retail sector mixed, however, with Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) up 21 cents to $46.28 but home improvement retailer Home Depot (NYSE: HD) falling 53 cents to $35.39.

Technology stocks were mostly higher in afternoon trade even though they had retreated from morning gains.

Qwest Communications (NYSE: Q) was up 19 cents to $8.56 on the news that it had named a new CEO after the retirement of its previous one.

Qualcomm (NAS: QCOM) added 96 cents to $38.85 after its general counsel resigned in the wake of legal troubles in its continuing dispute with Broadcom (NAS: BRCM), which fell 59 cents to $35.26.

Storage technology group EMC Corp (NYSE: EMC) was $1.12 higher to $18.84 as it prepared to spin off 10 percent of its Vmware storage virtualization unit.

In the subprime sector, Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co (NAS: LEND) dropped $2.76 to $6.15 after it said it had filed suit against Lone Star Fund V and two of its affiliates to try to get the private equity firm to live up to its agreement to take over the troubled mortgage lender after Lone Star said on Friday that Accredited did not meet the conditions of the offer.

Accredited said that without the takeover deal, it could have to file for bankruptcy.

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) dropped $1.62 to $178.88.

Wall Street was higher in early afternoon trade Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average 0.36 percent higher to 13,413.01.

The Nasdaq Composite had added 0.62 percent to 2,569.81, while the S&P 500 was up 0.21 percent to 1,468.94.

In the media sector Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIAb), which owns MTV
and Nickelodeon cable channels and Paramount Pictures, added 1.8 percent to $38.69 on a quarterly report that was better than had been anticipated.

Pharmacy chain CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS) also issued a better than expected report and gained 3.6 percent to $45.54.

Microsoft (NAS: MSFT) gained 1.1 percent to $29.61 on the announcement that is renewed a font licensing agreement with Apple (NAS: AAPL; LSE: ACP; FWB: APC), which was 0.16 percent higher to $135.21.

In mergers and acquisitions news, Fiserv Inc (NAS: FISV) added 0.5 percent to $49.41 on the news that it will purchase electronic payment company CheckFree Corp (NAS: CKFR), which was 24 percent higher to $45.54.

Banks were slightly higher, with Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) adding 0.15 percent to $47.70 and Citigroup (NYSE: C) gaining 0.71 percent to $46.64.

But Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co (NAS: LEND) dropped nearly 40 percent to $4.97 after the subprime lender said it might not be able to stay in business.

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The New York equities markets saw declines on Thursday after two leading mortgage lenders said that more people were defaulting on home loans. At noon, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had dropped 0.4 percent to 12,612.47. The Nasdaq Composite was also 0.4 percent lower, to 2,481.90, while the S&P 500 fell 0.3 percent to 1,445.26.

The retail sector was mixed. Gap added 2.9 percent to $19.81 after it said that its sales are up. On the other hand, Costco dropped 0.3 percent to $56.34 after steeper declines earlier after underlying sales were reported to be up only 2 percent in January, below expected levels.

In the media sector, Walt Disney dropped 1 percent to $35.10 on profit-taking after Wednesday’s report that its net income more than doubled in the quarter. Meanwhile, Warner Music fell 4.7 percent to $20.50 after it reported that its fiscal first quarter profits were down 74 percent.

Declines in the financial sector followed reports from HSBC and New Century Financial, two large subprime mortgage lenders, that defaults are on the rise. New Century fell to $21.64. Other subprime lenders that saw declines were American Home Mortgage Investments, which dropped 6.9 percent to $33.50 and Accredited Home Lenders, down 7.6 percent to $26.81. Elsewhere in the banking sector, JP Morgan and Wells Fargo each were 1 percent lower, to $50.71 and $35.55 respectively, while Lehman Brothers dropped 1.7 percent to $84.14.