MIDDAY MARKETS: Bargain hunters come out of hiding

Investors decided it was time for some bargain hunting at midday Tuesday.

The Nasdaq rose 90.54 points to 2,233.46, and the Dow Jones industrial average gained 66.66 points to 10,628.96 amid a broad rally in technology stocks.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index rose 13 points to 223.85.

Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO), up $1.19 to $23.38, shrugged off a downgrade from Goldman Sachs and eked out a 6 percent gain Tuesday. The rating cut came as a new analyst took over coverage of the stock, and banished it from Goldman's recommended list.

The Internet portal was just one of many Internet companies gaining Tuesday. Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) rose 81 cents a share to $13.44, and AOL Time Warner (NYSE: AOL) gained $2.60 to $46.40.

Other technology bellwethers were making strong gains across the board. Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) picked up $1.63 to $24.69, Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) increased $2.06 to $32.44, Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) gained 75 cents a share to $17.75 and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) was up $2.06 to $59.50.

Gains also came from Veritas Software (Nasdaq: VRTS), up $6.38 to $66.19, which pulled off a rare feat Tuesday: The company said it's confident about its outlook for the quarter and growth projections for the year.

The usual negative news from downgrades and warnings had slowed to a trickle. Siebel Systems (Nasdaq: SEBL), off $3.69 to $29.94, hit a new 52-week low after being slapped with two downgrades, a day after the company said its senior vice president of sales was leaving. Analysts were split on the company's long-term prospects.

New Focus (Nasdaq: NUFO) shares dropped $2.63 to $18.62 on the heels of yesterday's revenue warning. Analysts cut their estimates but remained bullish longer-term.

ZDII staff and Reuters contributed to this roundup.