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Thanks partly to the decline of oil prices and news that Apple may start using Intel chips in its Mac computers, U.S. stocks have continued to rise in their biggest weekly gain in the last six months.

"After last week's strong performance, you can expect investors to sit back a bit and wait to see if others are committed to putting more money back into stocks," said Philippe Gijsels, chief global market strategist from Fortis's private investment unit in Brussels.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 34.66 to 10,506.57 in midday trading, while the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 6.03 to 2,052.45, and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 2.81 to 1,192.09. Last week, the Dow Jones and S&P had their highest point increases in six months and the Nasdaq had its biggest point gains in nine months. According to Bloomberg News,

Crude for July delivery fell for a fourth day, dropping as much as 1 percent to $48.15 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures retreated 3.8 percent last week.

Intel, the world's biggest computer-chip maker, added 14 cents to $26.49. The Wall Street Journal cited unidentified industry executives as saying that Apple, the maker of Macintosh computers, may switch to Intel chips in its PCs. It's unclear whether such a move would signal a large-scale shift away from Apple's current supplier, International Business Machines Corp., the paper said. Neither Intel nor Apple would confirm any change in their relationship, the Journal said.

Ciena, Pixar, Campbell Soup Co, Oracle, and McAfee all posted gains. Gains on software makers were helped by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raising its rating on the industry.

Chris is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.