In early afternoon trading on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had added 0.51 percent to 13,977.73, while the Nasdaq Composite had added 0.07 percent to 2,708.96 and the S&P 500 was 0.08 percent higher to 1,553.9.

Mergers and acquisitions activity and bids rumors were in focus on the session after IHOP Corp (NYSE: IHP), which operates the International House of Pancakes restaurant chain said it will pay 1.9 billion to acquire Applebee’s International (NAS: APPB).

IHOP also said that it will franchise some of the company’s restaurants.

Applebee’s added 48 cents to $24.86 on the news, while IHOP gained $4.75 to $61 on the news after having gone as high as $63.39 earlier in the session.

Some analysts, however, said that the deal might not be good news for the sector because the price was lower than had been expected.

Elsewhere in the casual dining sector, Brinker International (NYSE: EAT), which operates the Romano’s Macaroni Grill and Chili’s Grill & Bar chains, and Darden Restaurants (NYSE: DRI), operator of Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants, have been seen as possible buyout targets.

Brinker dropped 20 cents to $28.21, while Darden was 42 cents lower to $44.42.

Elsewhere, both United Technologies (NYSE: UTX) and Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) reached new record high share prices during the session.

Manufacturer United Technologies had added 2.2 percent to $76.71 after going as high as $76.98, while construction machinery maker Caterpillar was 0.9 percent higher to $85.93 after going to a record high of $86.49.

Both companies will release their quarterly reports later in the week.

After saying that it had seen a rise in profits in the second quarter, toy maker Mattel (NYSE: MAT) gained 3.3 percent to $27.42.

Wall Street was higher at mid-session on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 1.2 percent to 11,102.19. The Nasdaq composite had added 1.7 percent to 2,141.75, while the S&P 500 gained 1.1 percent to 1,253.63. The number of shares traded stayed fairly low, which is a problem according to some analysts, who would like to see more shares change hands before considering the markets to be in recovery from recent losses.

Homebuilders saw advances. Toll Brothers was up 2.6 percent to $26.73, while Kaufman & Broad added 2.9 percent to $45.34 and Pulte gained 3.8 percent to $28.25.

Many technology stocks were higher as well. Cisco Systems was up 2.8 percent to $20.29, Hewlett-Packard added 3.2 percent to $33.92, and Amazon gained 3.7 percent to $36.49. However, Jabil Circuit dropped 3 percent to $25.45 ahead of a scheduled earnings report.

The New York Times added 4.7 percent to $24.52 after it said that it was looking at strategies for increasing the amount of for-pay content on its online service.

Darden Restaurants, which owns Olive Garden and Red Lobster, saw a gain of 5.5 percent to $37.52 on the news that its fourth-quarter profits were up by 10 percent, around what had been predicted.

Also reporting fourth-quarter earnings was Federal Express. The parcel service said its fourth-quarter earnings were well ahead of analyst predictions, adding 27 percent. Its share price gained 4.7 percent on the day to $113.14.

Univision, the Spanish-language broadcaster, dropped 4.1 percent to $33.96 after one potential bidder missed a Tuesday deadline to submit an offer.