Stock indexes edged higher in another bumpy trading day Wednesday as optimism grew about talks in Europe on containing that region's debt crisis.

The Dow Jones industrial average is up 34 points, or 0.3 percent, to 11,141 shortly after noon. It had been up as many as 73 points and down as many as 112 points within an hour after the opening bell.

The leaders of Greece, France and Germany will confer by teleconference later Wednesday to seek ways of avoiding a default by Greece. European stock indexes rose as investors hoped the talks would be productive. Germany's DAX rose 3.4 percent and France's CAC-40 1.9 percent. The threat of a default and the damage it could wreak on financial markets has had investors on edge for weeks.

Concerns over Europe have been driving markets lower in the past two weeks, lifting Treasurys and weighing on stocks. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note hit a record low on Monday of 1.87 percent and the S&P 500 has only risen three days this month.

Vice President Joe Biden has a new initiative to fight waste in Medicaid that he says should save taxpayers $2 billion.

The program would help states find and recover improper payments made to health care providers under Medicaid, the federal-state health care program for the poor.

Biden convened a Cabinet meeting Wednesday to discuss that initiative and others aimed at reducing waste at federal agencies, including a new effort that would seek to limit improper unemployment insurance payments.

Biden says that in some cases dead people are getting unemployment insurance.

The Health and Human Services department says taxpayers will save an estimated $2.1 billion over five years under the new Medicaid audit program, and $900 million will be returned to states.