Dow near record close

New York equities markets were higher at midday on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average close to its record closing high, set on January 14, 2000. The Dow was up 0.4 percent to 11,712, while the Nasdaq Composite was 0.35 percent higher to 2,269 and the S&P 500 1,339. The gains were helped by new data showing that new home sales were up in August that helped balance another drop in durable goods sales.

In the semiconductors sector, both Intel and Advanced Micro Devices were higher after an anti-trust suit filed against Intel by AMD was mostly dismissed by a federal judge. AMD was 0.7 percent higher, while Intel added 3 percent.

Merck was also helped out by a legal decision. The pharmaceutical company gained 1.6 percent after a New Orleans court ruling in a lawsuit over its Vioxx painkiller favored Merck.

General Motors was up 2.2 percent after a report in the Wall Street Journal said that GM wants a multi-billion dollar payment before it agrees to any sort of alliance between it and Nissan and Renault.

Altria was 1.9 percent higher as it tried to recover from a recent decline of 8 percent.