Solid housing data has trumped gloomy economic data from the New York area, and prices are now mostly higher.
US stocks opened on the back foot after the Empire State general business index fell sharply into negative territory.
Expectations of a reading of +4.5 were confounded by August's level of -14.9, which was a massive swing from July's reading of +3.9, and the worst level since April 2009, when the world was just beginning to emerge from the credit crunch.
A positive number indicates improving conditions, so the deeply negative number was of concern, although the index is known to be volatile, and investors soon forgot about it in any case after the home builder confidence index rose to its highest level in almost 10 years, boosting demand for house builders such as PulteGroup (NYSE:PHM), up 1.25%, and D.R. Horton (NYSE:DHI), up 2.1%.
In corporate news, perfumier and cosmetics maker Estee Lauder (NYSE:EL) was off 6.6% despite topping market forecasts with its quarterly earnings.
Investors took fright at a downbeat outlook statement and a miss on the top line.
In contrast, electric car maker Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA) benefited from an upgrade by banking heavyweight Morgan Stanley (MS).
The shares motored 4.6% forward after MS upped its price target by two-thirds.
Elsewhere in the technology sector, telecoms firm Sprint Communications (NYSE:S) was wanted, rising 13.4%, after it announces plans to offer a new upgrade plan for the popular iPhone.
Racing away was Zulily (NASDAQ:ZU), an online retailer, which has succumbed to an offer from Liberty Interactive (NASDAQ:QVCA), the media conglomerate which owns home shopping network QVC, in a cash-and-stock deal valued at around US$2.32bn.
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 66 points at 17,543 in lunchtime trading, while thee broader-based S&P 500 was six points to the good at 2,098. The Nasdaq Composite was up 23 at 5,071.