Wall St. up in afternoon trading; Visa, MasterCard jump

(Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose in afternoon trading on Wednesday as VISA (V.NY)s potential entry into the Chinese domestic market and McDonald's turnaround plan helped investors shrug off a mixed bag of results.

Visa gained as much as 7.1 percent to hit a record of $69.98, while MasterCard came shy of its all-time high, after China said it would open up its market to foreign firms for clearing domestic bank card transactions.

MasterCard rose as much as 5.3 percent to $92.43.

A majority of the 10 major S&P 500 sectors rose, with the tech index <.SPLRCT> gaining 0.7 percent on the back of Visa.

Dow component McDonald's rose 2.2 percent to $96.98 as the company said it was working on a plan to improve sales and profit, while Coca-Cola rose 1.4 percent to $41.36 after its revenue increased for the first time in nine quarters.

Of the S&P 500 companies that have reported so far this earnings season, 71.9 percent have posted earnings above analyst expectations. However, just 42.1 percent have beaten revenue expectations, less than the 58 percent beat over the last four quarters.

Boeing declined 2.2 percent to $149.95 after reporting revenue that fell short of expectations, while Chipotle slid 6.7 percent to $645.23 a day after it reported the slowest same-restaurant sales growth in five quarters.

At 1:31 p.m. EDT the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was up 52.58 points, or 0.29 percent, at 18,002.17, the S&P 500 <.SPX> was up 7.12 points, or 0.34 percent, at 2,104.41 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> was up 8.06 points, or 0.16 percent, at 5,022.16.

"The market has picked up steam from a rise in existing home sales, which was a little unexpected," said Robert Francello, head of equity trading for Apex Capital in San Francisco.

U.S. home resales surged to their highest level in 18 months in March as more homes came on the market, a sign of strength in housing ahead of the spring selling season.

However, D.R. Horton slumped 6.2 percent to $26.78 after the biggest U.S. homebuilder reported its slowest growth in average selling prices in over three years and forecast a drop in gross margins for the current quarter.

Tesla Motors shares rose 5.7 percent to a 10-week high of $221.37, after investors learned the company will introduce improved batteries for home and business use by the end of April.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 1,620 to 1,302, for a 1.24-to-1 ratio on the upside; on the Nasdaq, 1,411 issues rose and 1,273 fell for a 1.11-to-1 ratio favoring advancers.

The benchmark S&P 500 index was posting 20 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite was recording 71 new highs and 26 new lows.

Companies reporting results after the market close on Wednesday include AT&T , Facebook and EBay .

(Editing by Savio D'Souza and Rodrigo Campos)