Wall Street was mixed at mid-afternoon on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.2 percent to 12,645.48, while the S&P 500 was even at 1,447.93 after gains early in the day reversed. The Nasdaq Composite was 0.6 percent higher to 2,486.12 on fiscal second quarter results from Cisco Systems, released after the close on Tuesday.

Cisco added 3.3 percent to $28.18 after it exceeded profits expectations and projected that sales will be strong this year. Its fiscal second quarter net income was at $1.9 billion and it said that it believes that third quarter revenues will be up by around 20 percent. In related sectors, chipmaker Broadcom was 5.3 percent higher to $33.69.

In the media sector, News Corp. added 1.6 percent to $24.53 even though profits were down in its fiscal second quarter. Revenue was up 18 percent, however, and successes with Borat and X-Men for its film division helped sales.

Health insurer Cigna added 2 percent to $139.93 after releasing a fourth-quarter report that showed profits up 10 percent and net income at $232 million, besting estimates by analysts.

Whirlpool dropped 3 percent to $92.02 on net profits that were down 13 percent for the year, with fourth-quarter profits below what had been anticipated.

Wall Street was higher at midday on Thursday despite major declines in the health insurance sector. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.7 percent higher at mid-session to 11,174.87, while the Nasdaq Composite had gained 0.5 percent to 2,081.01 and the S&P 500 was up by 0.4 percent to 1,272.92.

Semiconductors were higher, with National Semiconductor 4.8 percent higher to $22.55 and Broadcom gaining 4.9 percent to $23.04.

Cable tv provider Comcast added 5.3 percent to $34.25 after it reported that profits were up 7 percent in the second quarter and it upped its subscriber growth forecast for the year.

Symantec was up 10.3 percent to $17.42 even though the maker of anti-virus software reported that its profits were down by 52 percent in its first quarter, with operating expenses more than doubled. The gain came because the results were better than had been expected.

Health insurer Aetna dropped 19.8 percent to $32.03 on a 1 percent decline in earnings in the second quarter, but even more due to investor concerns about large claims on its Stop-Loss product. The rest of the sector was also lower. Cigna fell by 7.1 percent to $96.81, while Humana was 4.5 percent lower to $53.97 and United Healthcare dropped 4.2 percent to $48.43.

Dow Chemical was down 9.6 percent to $33.70 after it reported that second-quarter earnings were 19 percent lower because record revenues had been offset by higher prices for fuel.