Interest rate expectations help Wall Street higher

The New York equities markets were higher at midday on Tuesday on speculation that interest rates have finally finished rising and might even start to decline. At mid-session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had added 0.2 percent to 11,361.54, while the Nasdaq Composite was 0.5 percent higher to 2,158.54 and the S&P 500 had gained 0.3 percent to 1,301.11.

In the semiconductor sector, Jabil Circuit was 2.4 percent higher to $27.88, to a total rise of 27 percent in the past month. It had previously fallen 50 percent from March until a month ago. Advanced Micro Devices added 6.3 percent to $24.87 on an optimistic market share forecast by a company official.

Internet search engine Yahoo was 1.5 percent higher to $29.32, while online auctioneer Ebay was up 3.9 percent to $27.79. Among computer makers, Apple Computer advanced by 2.2 percent to $68.04.

Satellite radio providers were up after Bear Stearns upgraded XM Satellite Radio from “underperform” to “outperform”. XM added 13.2 percent to $12.72 on the upgrade. Sirius Satellite Radio also benefited from the news, gaining 3.9 percent to $4.04.

Toll Brothers was up 4.4 percent to $25.87 even though the homebuilder reported a 19 percent drop in profits in its third quarter due to declines in the US housing market. The lower profits were about where they had been expected to be.