The stock market turned mostly higher Wednesday, following the lead of financial stocks as the heads of several big banks testified before the United States Congress about the financial crisis.

Stocks fluctuated for much of the morning but strengthened as the questioning of bank officials proceeded with little in the way of confrontation. Investors were being choosy, moving into consumer stocks in response to a higher profit forecast from Kraft Foods Inc. but selling energy stocks as the price of oil fell. Industries seen as safer in a weak economy, like health care and utilities, rose.

Executives including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein, JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO James Dimon, Morgan Stanley Chairman John Mack and Bank of American Corp. CEO Brian Moynihan appeared before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. It is the first meeting of the bipartisan, 10-member panel, which is investigating the near collapse of the financial system in the fall of 2008.

While the executives agreed that banks’ actions contributed to the crisis that paralyzed the credit markets and worsened the recession, investors did not hear anything from the hearings that would encourage them to flee financial stocks.

Still, there is growing public discord over big profits and bonuses at financial companies that has the White House considering a levy on banks to cover about $120 billion in taxpayer losses from the government’s industry bailout. Opponents say it could jeopardize a recovery by the nation’s biggest banks.

Scott Colyer, chief executive at Advisors Asset Management in Monument, Colo., is concerned that imposing a tax on banks would threaten his expectation for a strong economic rebound in 2010. “You don’t want to take money from a group that you’re trying to prop up,” he said.

The questions about banks underscored how many concerns investors are juggling. After a strong first week of the year in stocks, a disappointing profit report from Alcoa Inc. late Monday is causing concern that the robust earnings investors had been expecting for the final quarter of 2009 might not materialize.

In much of 2009, companies boosted earnings by laying off workers and slashing expenses. But cost-cutting cannot be relied upon forever so investors are looking for signs that increases in revenue will lift earnings.

The improved forecast from Kraft was welcome news but its increased projection matches what analysts had already been predicting. Intel Corp. is expected to post results Thursday, and JPMorgan Chase & Co. is scheduled to report on Friday.

In midday trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 40.66, or 0.4 percent, to 10,667.92. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 5.33, or 0.5 percent, to 1,141.55, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 7.21, or 0.3 percent, to 2,289.52.

On Tuesday, the Dow fell 37 points, or 0.3 percent, while the S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq lost each lost about 1 percent on concern about China’s bank policies and Alcoa’s results.

Bond prices fell after jumping Tuesday, pushing yields higher. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 3.75 percent from 3.72 percent late Tuesday.

Crude oil fell $2.05 to $78.74 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The drop in oil hurt energy companies, which also hurt stocks.

The dollar fell against most other major currencies, while gold fell.

Meanwhile, investors sold shares of Google Inc. after the Internet search company threatened to withdraw from China. The company said it will no longer censor its search results in the country after finding that computer hackers had led human-rights activists to reveal their e-mail accounts to outsiders. Google’s public complaints were a rare show of protest in the country and an about-face for the company that long said it would abide by Chinese laws that block some political and socially sensitive content. Google fell $8.97, or 1.5 percent, to $581.51, while Baidu rose $51.51, or 13.3 percent, to $438.00.