Wall Street ekes out a gain

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks moved marginally higher Wednesday as investors weighed mixed corporate earnings news, a $22.5 billion stock buyback plan from Home Depot and a report revealing a jump in U.S. oil inventories.

The Dow Jones industrial average (up 24.79 to 13,660.21, Charts) rose about 0.2 percent about an hour into the session. The broader S&P 500 (up 2.65 to 1,536.35, Charts) index edged higher and the tech-laden Nasdaq (up 7.56 to 2,634.32, Charts) composite index rose 0.1 percent.

Home Depot (up $2.71 to $40.98, Charts, Fortune 500) shares soared over 7 percent in morning trade after the home improvement retailer announced late Tuesday a plan to repurchase $22.5 billion worth of stock. It also said it would sell its building supply unit to a group of private equity firms for $10.3 billion.

Oil prices fell nearly a dollar after the government reported that weekly crude and gasoline supplies rose much more than expected. U.S. light crude for July delivery fell 89 cents to $68.21 a barrel.

Investors were also digesting earnings news, including Morgan Stanley's better-than-expected second-quarter earnings that jumped 40 percent. Net income and revenue handily beating analysts' estimates, sending Morgan Stanley (up $1.70 to $89.50, Charts, Fortune 500) shares up almost 2 percent in morning trade on the New York Stock Exchange.

Package delivery company FedEx (up $3.35 to $111.41, Charts, Fortune 500) reported higher net income of $610 million or $1.96 a share, that just barely beat Thomson First Call estimates.

Consumer electronics retailer Circuit City Stores Inc. (down $0.01 to $16.06, Charts, Fortune 500) Wednesday posted a quarterly loss that it called disappointing and withdrew its earnings forecast, citing a drop in television sales and an uncertain economic environment.

Treasury yields, which helped put stocks into positive territory during Tuesday's session, moved slightly higher with the 10-year benchmark yielding 5.11 percent, up from 5.08 percent Tuesday.

In major corporate news, two Bear Stearns (down $1.19 to $145.60, Charts, Fortune 500) hedge funds heavily invested in securities backed by subprime mortgages are close to being shut down, with Merrill Lynch seizing assets, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

Microsoft (down $0.07 to $30.39, Charts, Fortune 500) has agreed to change its Vista operating system to make it easier for users to run desktop search programs. The move comes in response to a complaint filed by Google (up $1.55 to $515.86, Charts, Fortune 500).

Top executives at Toyota (Charts, Fortune 500) plan to slow the automaker's U.S. factory expansion and the company is leaning towards a greater reliance on exports from Japan, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (up $0.24 to $23.92, Charts, Fortune 500) may swap its social networking site MySpace for a 25 percent stake in the No. 2 search engine Yahoo (up $0.48 to $28.11, Charts, Fortune 500), a newspaper reported.

In currency trading, the dollar eased against the euro, but was higher versus the yen.

COMEX gold for August delivery fell $3.90 to $660.80 an ounce.

Overseas markets were lifted by easing concerns about rising bond yields. European stocks moved higher in midday trade, while Asian markets rose, with the Hong Kong index hitting a new trading high.