Around the World's Markets: New York

US STOCKS were generally higher, although technology stocks continued to decline amid caution over earnings. At lunchtime the Dow Jones average was up 89.94 points, or 0.98 per cent, at 9,285.31. The Nasdaq was up 10.69 points, or 0.48 per cent, at 2,259.60, with sharp falls in Microsoft depressing the index.

Analysts were grappling with an unexpected jump in US wholesale prices, with the producer price index registering its sharpest increase in more than two years.