Stocks Rise 143 Points

Stocks were up for the third day in a row, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining more than 143 points in choppy trading.

It was the third day of gains -- after a 37-point rise Monday and Tuesday's 322-point lift. For cable stocks, it was more of the same as most stocks reported modest gains.

In the cable sector, Comcast was up 2.5% (51 cents) to $20.57; Time Warner Cable rose 1% (62 cents) to $63.46; Charter Communications increased 0.4% (17 cents) to $47.60; and Cablevision Systems down 1% (16 cents) to $17.16.

Satellite stocks also posted small gains with Dish Network up 1.1% (25 cents) to $22.24 and DirecTV up 0.6% (27 cents) to $42.88.

Programmers also showed modest gains, with Time Warner up 3.3% (96 cents) to $29.84; News Corp., up 3% (49 cents) to $17.01; Discovery up 2.5% (94 cents) to $38.68; Disney up 1.3% (40 cents) to $32.51; Viacom up 1.3% (68 cents) to $53.72; and Scripps Networks up 0.8% (30 cents) to $40.30. Rounding out the sector, Liberty Interactive gained 2.7% (39 cents) to $14.94; Liberty Capital was up 2.4% ($1.53) to $65.57; Liberty Starz rose 2% ($1.36) to $68.35; and AMC Networks was up 2% (66 cents) to $33.72.