U.S. stocks rise ahead of ECB meeting

U.S. stocks rose midday Wednesday after wavering between gains and losses in the early morning session, as investors were eagerly awaiting the policy meeting of the European Central Bank (ECB).

At noon, the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 51.70 points, or 0.30 percent, to 17,566.93. The S&P 500 added 13.13 points, or 0.65 percent, to 2,035.68. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 28.58 points, or 0.61 percent, to 4,683.43.

The ECB will hold its first governing council meeting Thursday and is widely expected to announce a quantitative easing program to fight the threat of deflation. Investors were reluctant to make big moves ahead of the meeting.

On the economic front, led by solid gains in single-family housing production, U.S. housing starts jumped 4.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.089 million units in December, the U.S. Commerce Department said Wednesday.

"There was no indication in the regional data that falling oil prices have had an impact on housing starts or permits despite anecdotal reports of caution from big homebuilders, but we will keep an eye on this possibility going forward," said Sophia Kearney-Lederman, an economic analyst at FTN Financial, in a note.

In corporate news, Netflix Inc. shares spiked 17.03 percent to trade at 408.21 U.S. dollars a share around midday Wednesday, a day after the U.S. online video streaming service provider said it added 4.33 million net subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2014, compared to 4.07 million in the previous year period, beating market expectations.

Shares of the International Business Machines Corp. led the declines on the Dow, slipping 3.42 percent to trade at 151.59 dollars a share at noon, after the company reported late Tuesday a 12-percent decline in the fourth-quarter revenue that trailed analysts' forecast. Endite