U.S. stocks were higher in early afternoon trading on Wednesday, helped by gains in healthcare and technology sectors.
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The sector, however, has come under pressure in the past five trading sessions, falling the most on Tuesday after reports of tepid iPhone X demand took a toll on Apple
"Ever since September, technology stocks have had some momentum left behind them," said Kim Forrest, senior equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh.
"After a last couple of days - Apple and its suppliers were down and perhaps that was an overreaction - people are buying what they hope to be bargains."
Trading volumes were muted in the holiday-shortened week between Christmas and New Year.
At 12:24 p.m. ET (1724 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average <.dji> was up 20.94 points, or 0.08 percent, at 24,767.15 and the S&P 500 <.spx> was up 1.74 points, or 0.06 percent, at 2,682.24.
The Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> was up 6.93 points, or 0.1 percent, at 6,943.18.
Oil prices dipped after hitting a near two-and-a-half year high in the previous session, pushing down the S&P energy index <.spsy> by about 0.3 percent. [O/R]
Concho Resources
UnitedHealth
Tesla
Shares of wireless-charging technology developer Energous Corp
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,702 to 1,082. On the Nasdaq, 1,746 issues rose and 1,065 fell.
(This article has not been edited by Zeebiz editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
11:35 PM IST