MIDDAY MARKETS: Nasdaq gets Greenspan bounce

The Nasdaq got a double-dose of good news; remarks from Fed Chief Alan Greenspan and election news boosted the index 7 percent at midday Tuesday. The Nasdaq rebounded 11.81 to 2,746.79 and the Dow Jones industrial average was up 97.26 to 10,604.84.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index rose 4 to 332.45.

Federal Reserve Chairman Greenspan's remarks to a banking group in New York raised the prospect of a U.S. rate cut.

"In an economy that already has lost some momentum, one must remain alert to the possibility that greater caution and weakening asset values in financial markets could signal or precipitate an excessive softening in household and business spending," Greenspan said.

Greenspan's comments added to a market surge which accompanied a ruling by a Florida judge that enforced George W. Bush's effort to win the state's 25 electoral votes.

Another good sign for the markets was that profit warnings didn't bring down whole sectors.

Analysts maintained their ratings on Xilinx (Nasdaq: XLNX) Tuesday even though it warned that sales would grow 5 percent to 7 percent sequentially, down from 12 percent. Wall Street said Xilinx's warning wasn't as bad as Altera's. Altera (Nasdaq: ALTR) shares were up 4.13 to 30.13. Xilinx gained 2.01 to 42.81.

3Com (Nasdaq: COMS) shares dropped 3.41 to 9.53, or nearly 30 percent after the company lowered its guidance for the second quarter and received a batch of downgrades from analysts. Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) and Lucent (NYSE: LU) surged.

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) jumped 4.56 to 48.13, or 10 percent after it industry_list.asp?mode=news&doc_id=ZE506743&pic=Y"extended revenue growth targets of 25 percent to 35 percent for 2002 into 2003, and said it expects continued high profitability.

Shares of Natural MicroSystems (Nasdaq: NMSS) dropped 11.97 to 8.71, or over 50 percent after lowering fourth quarter sales and earnings numbers, and getting a thumbs down from analysts.

LSI Logic Corp. (NYSE: LSI), up 1.96 to 20.15, put its foot in its mouth and industry_list.asp?mode=news&doc_id=ZE506741&pic=Y trimmed fourth quarter guidance, blaming lower demand due to a build-up of inventory in the supply chain.

Tech bellwethers Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), up 2.97 to 35.91, Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL), up 1.91 to 30.09 and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), up 3.63 to 60.06, were all helping to boost the index.

Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) rose 0.75 to 27.31, AOL (NYSE: AOL) gained 2.44 to 43.49 and Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) gained 3.88 to 41.81.