MARKET CLOSE: Wild week ends with strong rally

Wall Street closed out another frenetic week on a positive note Friday as blue-chip stocks pushed the Dow Jones industrial average up 173 points to 10,470.25 while the Nasdaq rose 15 points to end at 2,816.83.

One day after International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) lost more than 15 percent of its value, investors returned to the floor with buying on the brain.

"I guess what you've got is a lot of traders getting flat before the weekend. They were coming up short, they probably were a little scared this week,'' Doug Myers, vice president of equity trading at Wachovia Securities. "IBM is rallying as people realize they're still IBM and they're still going to sell stuff."

IBM shares closed up 2 _ to 93 _. Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) shed 3/16 to 18 11/16 while Intel Corp. (INTC) hustled up 1 15/16 to 73 5/8.

Dell Computer Corp. (DELL) added 3/8 to 39 7/8. Gateway Inc. (GTW) rose 2 1/16 to 64 1/16 while Compaq Computer Corp. (CPQ) and Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL) fell 5/16 and 2 3/16 a share, respectively.

Swedish wireless company Ericsson (Nasdaq: ERICY) closed up 5 1/4 to 39 1/16 after it reported earnings that were lower than a year earlier but still surpassed analysts' expectations. Ericsson also issued an optimistic forecast for the quarters ahead, citing strong demand for its new mobile phone products.

Sprint Corp. (FON) gained ? to 65 ? and AT&T Corp. (T) closed off 3/8 to 43.

Level 3 Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: LVLT) tacked on 5 1/16 to 62 3/8 after it posted a loss of 43 cents a share in its third quarter Friday, much better than the loss of 52 cents a share predicted by First Call. The maker of said U.S. and European network construction was ahead of schedule and it experienced strong demand for all its products.

After a week of solid growth, Internet stocks finally retreated a bit Friday.

Merrill Lynch analyst Henry Blodget downgraded Inktomi (Nasdaq: INKT) from an intermediate term "accumulate" to a "neutral" after the company posted a smaller-than-expected fourth quarter loss. It closed off 17 7/16 to 103 1/16.

Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) said on Friday it has filed suit against competitor Barnesandnoble.com Inc. (Nasdaq: BNBN), alleging that the online book and music retailer copied Amazon.com's patented 1-Click technology for online shopping. Its shares closed off 2 1/8 to 78 5/8.

Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) lost 3 13/16 to 178 1/8. America Online Inc. (NYSE: AOL) dropped 2 1/8 to 120 1/8 and Excite@Home Corp. (ATHM) ended off 1 1/16 to 39 1/16. Lycos Inc. (LCOS) gained 11/16 to 56 1/4 and Infoseek Corp. (SEEK) closed unchanged at 29.

Anadigics (Nasdaq: ANAD) trimmed 1/16 to 35 5/16 after it reported Friday that rocketing sales, and an 88 percent increase in wireless revenue drove net income up to 16 cents a share for its third quarter, beating First Call's estimate of 11 cents a share.

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) fell 3/8 to 92 11/16. Sun Microsystems Inc. (SUNW) lopped off 2 7/8 to 90 and Oracle Corp. (ORCL) slid 1 1/16 to 44 1/8.