Wall Street up at midday

The New York equities markets had a mixed week on concerns about inflation and interest rates, although new employment data released on Friday pointed to continuing economic growth. At midday on Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1 percent to 11,083.46, the Nasdaq Composite had gained 0.5 percent to 2,261.64, and the S&P 500 had risen by 0.8 percent to 1,281.90. However, this brought weekly numbers to a 0.5 percent gain for the Dow, but losses of 0.4 percent for the S&P and 1.8 percent for the Nasdaq.

Internet search engine Google lost 10.7 percent on the week to $337.69 after a snafu saw an internal financial forecast posted on the company’s website.

The telecommunications sector was mixed after AT&T’s bid for BellSouth led to speculation about more consolidation in the sector. AT&T lost 3.3 percent for the week to $27.06, but BellSouth gained 9.5 percent to $34.45 on the bid news and on an upgrade from Bear Stearns. Elsewhere in the sector, Verizon was up 1.8 percent, Alltel gained 1.8 percent to $34.17, and Sprint Nextel grew by 2.7 percent to $66.03.

Technology stocks were down on the week. Intel dropped 1.8 percent to $19.96. Texas Instruments fell 3.5 percent to $31.16. National Semiconductor declined by 5.2 percent to $27.80, and Advanced Micro Devices was down 6.7 percent to $36.88.

General Motors had a good week, gaining 12.1 percent to $21.53.

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