Technology stocks remained the driving force for Wall Street midday, although the indexes were coming off their strong early gains.
The S&P Information Technology index rose about 2% at 12:10 AM ET (17:10 GMT).
Autodesk (NASDAQ:ADSK) rebounded after seeing some serious selling that started around the beginning of the month. It was the leading component of the index, jumping about 4.5%.
Another beaten-down name, semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD), rose about 3.2%. AMD, the high flyer in the chip sector, had been slumping since the end of September.
Payment companies also pushed the index higher.
Dow component Visa (NYSE:V) gained 3.5%, while Mastercard (NYSE:MA) rose 3.8% and PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) rallied 3.1%.
Meanwhile, utilities stocks were among the laggards as Treasury yields resumed their rise. The yield on the 10-year was back around 3.15%.
The S&P Utilities sector index fell about 0.25%.
Among the biggest drags on the index were NiSource (NYSE:NI), down about 1%, and Consolidated Edison (NYSE:ED), off around 1%.
