Wall Street was higher in midday trade Tuesday after the Commerce Department reported that core personal consumption expenditures were 1.9 percent higher in June.

However, the same report also said that personal spending was up only 0.1 percent in June, its slowest growth in nine months.

Meanwhile, the Conference Board reported that consumer confidences was at a six year high.

At mid-session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.54 percent higher to 13,429.84, while the Nasdaq Composite had gained 0.25 percent to 2,589.62 and the S&P 500 was up 0.48 percent to 1,480.93.

Dow Jones (NYSE: DJ) and News Corp (NYSE: NWS, NWSa; LSE: NCRA; ASX: NWS) were both higher after the Wall Street Journal, a Dow Jones-owned newspaper, reported that the Bancroft family is close to agreeing to a deal to be bought by News Corp.

The Rupert Murdoch-owned News Corp added 6 cents to $22.90, while Dow Jones was $6.29 higher to $57.85.

Fast food chain Wendy’s (NYSE: WEN) was also higher, adding $1.59 to $35.28 on an offer of between $37 and $41 per share.

Sun Microsystems (NAS: SUNW) was up 3 5 cents to $5.24 on a better than anticipated quarterly report, while in the automobile manufacturing sector General Motors (NYSE: GM) was up 82 cents to $33.43, also on a good quarterly result.

Despite a decline in profits of 30 percent in the second quarter from the same period last year, Waste Management Inc (NYSE: WMI) added $2.38 to $39.87 on an upped full-year forecast.

Wall Street was up in midday trade on Tuesday after the Dow Jones Industrial Average crossed the 14,000 mark for the first time to a record high of 14,011.51 before dropping back to 13,989.51, still a gain of 0.3 percent at mid-session.

The Nasdaq Composite was 0.4 percent higher to 2,707.94, while the S&P 500 had added 0.2 percent to 1,551.86.

In the computer-related sectors, search engine Yahoo (NAS: YHOO) and semiconductors maker Intel (NAS: INTC; SEHK: 4335) were both higher ahead of their quarterly reports, scheduled to be released after the close of trade.

Yahoo was 4 cents higher to $26.74, while Intel had added 27 cents to $26.22.

Online auctioneer eBay (NAS: EBAY), expected to report on Wednesday, was 9 cents lower to $34.30.

In the media sector, News Corp (NYSE: NSWS, NWSa; LSE: NCRA; ASX: NWS) and Dow Jones (NYSE: DJ) reached a tentative agreement for News Corp to buy the publisher of the Wall Street Journal.

The deal still has to be approved by the Dow Jones board of directors and by the Bancroft family, which controls a majority of Dow Jones stock.

News Corp added 2.7 percent to $24.27 on the news, while Dow Jones fell 0.7 percent to $56.56.

Pharmaceuticals and consumer goods group Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) dropped 2 percent to $63.51 despite a second-quarter report that showed profits were up 9.3 percent and international sales had grown by 18 percent.

Wall Street was lower by the middle of the session on Tuesday after new data showed that new housing starts were down sharply in August and Yahoo issued a profits warning. By midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.5 percent lower to 11,502.09, while the Nasdaq Composite had dropped 1.1 percent to 2,212.25 and the S&P 500 was 0.5 percent lower to 1,315.23.

The news that housing starts were down by 6 percent in August, double the expected drop, hurt the homebuilding sector. Centex and Toll Brothers each dropped 3.2 percent to $51.94 and $27.27 respectively.

Internet search engine Yahoo was 11.6 percent lower to $25.65 when its chief financial officer announced that this quarters results would only reach the lower levels of earlier predictions. The news also hurt Google, which fell 4.5 percent to $395.77.

Dow Jones, which publishes the Wall Street Journal, was also lower on a revised earnings guidance, dropping 2.5 percent to $33.02. In yet another lowered guidance, semiconductors company Maxim Integrated Products declined by 6.1 percent to $29.45.

In the pharmaceuticals sector, ImClone Systems fell 6.3 percent to $28.59 after a judged ruled that the process it used to come up with its cancer drug Erbitux was actually invented by three Israeli scientists, whose employer could be entitled to royalties due to ImClone’s use of the process.

The New York equities markets were mixed at midday on Wednesday after US gasoline inventories were reported down much more than anticipated last week. Crude oil prices were up on the report amid concerns that gasoline prices will spike during the summer driving season.

By mid-afternoon, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had overcome earlier losses to gain 0.2 percent to 11,225.14. The Nasdaq Composite was up 0.5 percent to 2,356.64. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 had gained 0.3 percent to 1,310.12 on gains in energy stocks after the weekly oil inventories report.

Apple Computer was up over 7 percent to $65.48 when it announced a new software patch that will allow the Macintosh computer to run Windows XP, but this did not help tech stocks generally.

The news that mortgage applications jumped by more than 7 percent last week helped homebuilders. DR Horton added 2.9 percent to $34.84 as the Philadelphia Housing index was up 1.6 percent.

The Amex semiconductor index added 0.9 percent even though three chipmakers lost ground after they were downgraded by Credit Suisse. RF Microdevices dropped 3.6 percent to $8.39, while ON Semiconductor lost 0.6 percent to $7.13 and Fairchild Semiconductor was down 0.4 percent to $19.12.

A downgrade also hurt Dow Jones. Merrill Lynch cut its recommendation on the company from “neutral” to “sell”, saying that it was not likely to be sold soon. Shares in Dow Jones dropped 3.4 percent to $37.80.