Upbeat auto sales boosted the markets during the midday with the Dow soaring 110 points to 14,944. Nasdaq climbed 35 points to 3647.

On the upside

A factory fire at rival Hynix Semiconductor lifted shares of Micron Technology (Nasdaq: MU) and SanDisk (Nasdaq: SNDK).

E*Trade (Nasdaq: ETFC) received approval to use $100 million of capital from a bank subsidiary to address broader corporate needs.

A Seeking Alpha contributor listed Himax Technologies (Nasdaq: HIMX) as one of three profitable companies with low debt that pays good dividends.

On the downside

Forbes questioned the business model and prospects of Unilife (Nasdaq: UNIS) and noted that the company continues to be unprofitable after 11 years.

Jeffries initiated coverage of Kinder Morgan (NYSE: KMI) with a Hold rating.

The Food and Drug Administration notified MiMedx (Nasdaq MDXG) in a letter dated August 28 that the company’s Surgical Biologics unit violated the Public Health Service Act.  

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of 7 to 3 on the NYSE and by more than 5 to 3 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 climbed 14 points to 1654.