Techs post gains as bargain hunters emerge
After pulling out of bear market territory, blue chips continued to rally along with technology stocks as investors took advantage of the dip.
The Nasdaq rose 35.44 to 1,933.14, and the Dow Jones industrial average gained 86.02 to 9,475.50.
After pulling out of bear market territory late Thursday--the Dow was down 20 percent from its high--blue chips continued to rally along with technology stocks Friday.
"People were encouraged by the big turnaround yesterday toward the end of the day, and there is some more follow-through today, especially in technology," said Guy Truicko, a portfolio manager at Unity Management, which oversees more than $1 billion in assets.
There was also a dose of good news on the earnings front to encourage bargain hunters.
WebMD was up 63 cents to $6.44, or 15 percent. The company topped estimates in the fourth quarter. SG Cowen upgraded the stock to "strong buy" from "buy."
Shares of Red Hat surged $1.20 to $6.44 a day after the Linux company beat analysts' quarterly estimates and raised profit targets for fiscal 2002.
Micron Electronics, down 13 cents to $3.31, said it is exiting the PC business and merging with Web hosting company Interland in a $130 million stock deal that will transform the company into a hosting firm.
Data storage products company Adaptec, down 19 cents to $9.44, issued its second profit warning this month, citing an oversupply of products in the hands of its distributors.
Among other notable issues, Amazon.com was up 25 cents to $10.44; AOL Time Warner gained $1.97 to $38.74, and Yahoo fell 25 cents to $14.63.
Cisco Systems fell 6 cents to $19.69; Intel rose 63 cents to $29.31; Oracle rose 63 cents to $16.12, and Microsoft was up $2 to $56.