MARKET CLOSE: Bargain hunters ignite Dow, Nasdaq

Naysayers predicting the worst for U.S. stocks were scratching their heads Monday as investors aggressively snapped up beaten down technology stocks in a broad-based rally. For the day, the Nasdaq closed up 218 points, or 6.5 percent, to 3,538.97.

The Dow Jones industrial average moved up an impressive 277 points to 10,582.51, one day after suffering through its largest one-day decline in history.

After falling more than 90 points in early trading, the Nasdaq made strong gains in afternoon trading with leaders such as Cisco Systems, Sun Microsystems and Oracle leading the charge.

"What's happening is people are cautiously dipping back into the water but doing it with brand names and companies that have solid revenue and earnings growth," said Ned Riley, chief investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors. "But I would say this is one for the books. This market has acted and behaved better than most had anticipated considering the weekend and the fear of redemptions and margin calls and all of the negativeness that seemed to be examined."

Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) hustled up 9 1/2, or 17 percent, to 66 1/2 as the Nasdaq's most heavily traded issue. 3Com Corp. (COMS) lost 1 to 39 1/16 and Lucent Technologies Inc. (LU) rose 2 to 54.

Among widely held PC stocks, Dell Computer Corp. (DELL) moved up 1 to 48 5/8; Compaq Computer Corp. (CPQ) added 2 3/16 to 26 11/16; Gateway Inc. (GTW) tacked on 3/4 to 32 1/4 and Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL) closed up 12 to 123 7/8.

Even most of the tattered B2B stocks had fine days as PurchasePro (PPRO) and Commerce One (CMRC) gained 8 and 4 3/8 a share, respectively. VerticalNet (VERT) moved up 5 7/8 to 33 7/8 while Ariba (ARBA) fell 7 13/16 to 54 7/16.

Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) trimmed 1 5/8 to 114 3/8. America Online Inc. (AOL) jumped 2 3/4 to 57 3/4 while eBay Inc. (EBAY) and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) rose 3 11/16 and 3/16 a share, respectively. Lycos Inc. (LCOS) closed off 9/16 to 37 13/16.

In merger news, Internet loyalty firm MyPoints (Nasdaq: MYPT) agreed to acquire Cybergold (Nasdaq: CGLD) in a $157 million stock swap, the companies said Monday. MyPoints shares fell 1 7/16 to 13 1/2 and Cybergold inched up 3/16 to 5 11/16.

On the downside, Network Computing Devices (Nasdaq: NCDI) plunged 1 13/32 to 1 21/32 after auditors flagged the company's operating losses and lack of capital.

Chip stocks got back in the mix as Intel Corp. (INTC) stormed up 12 1/2 to 123 and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) moved up 5 3/4 to 71 3/4.

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) tacked on 1 1/2 to 75 5/8. Oracle Corp. (ORCL) zipped up 12 5/16 to 74 13/16 and Sun Microsystems Inc. (SUNW) charged up 8 5/16 to end at 84 13/16.