MARKET CLOSE: Yahoo! ignites broad tech rally

Yahoo!'s strong second-quarter results boosted technology stocks Wednesday as the Nasdaq composite roared up 143 points to close at 4,099.56. The Dow Jones industrial average moved up 57 points to finish at 10,783.76.

Yahoo! (YHOO) stormed up 19 7/16, or 18 percent, to 124 15/16 after it topped analysts' estimates by 2 cents a share in its second quarter.

America Online (AOL) shares picked up 1 1/2 to 57 1/2 while Amazon.com (AMZN) and eBay (EBAY) moved up 1 15/16 and 8 11/16 a share, respectively. Lycos (LCOS) rose 2 5/8 to 44 1/4.

"I think the market is doing better on Yahoo earnings,'' said James Volk, co-director of institutional trading at D.A. Davidson and Co. ``I think people are also feeling a little bit better about the 'Old Economy' stocks.''

Goto.com (Nasdaq: GOTO) jumped 5 1/4 to 15 9/16 after it announced an extension of its relationship with America Online's Netscape division.

PMC-Sierra, Inc. (Nasdaq: PMCS) shot up 11 5/8 to 208 1/16 after announcing it will buy Quantum Effect Devices Inc. (Nasdaq: QEDI), up 18 7/16 to 78 15/16, for about $2.3 billion and intends to make its open-architecture MIPS technology dominant in the broadband semiconductor space.

Motorola (NYSE: MOT) closed up 1 11/16 to 35 1/4 ahead of its earnings report. Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) rose gained 2 3/8 to 141 3/16 while Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and IBM (IBM) moved up 1/4 and 2 3/8 a share, respectively.

Among widely held PC stocks, Apple (AAPL) added 1 15/16 to 58 7/8; Gateway (GTW) moved up 3 9/16 to 70 15/16; Compaq (CPQ) rose 1 1/4 to 26 3/4 and Dell (DELL) closed up 1 5/16 to 52 1/16.

Global Crossing (GBLX) hustled up 2 15/16 to 32 1/16 after announcing it would sell its U.S. local telephone business to Citizens Communications for $3.65 billion in cash.

Microsoft (MSFT) picked up 1 3/16 to 80 5/16. Oracle (ORCL) gained 2 3/8 to 74 11/16 and Sun Microsystems (SUNW) finished up 3 3/16 to 93 3/8.