MARKET CLOSE: Dow gets back on its feet

The Dow Jones industrial average rebounded from last week's pounding, surging up 177 points to 10,038.65 Monday. After an early free fall, technology stocks recovered some ground in late trading as the Nasdaq closed off 13 points to 4,577.79.

"The Dow is extremely oversold and the Nasdaq is coming off record highs," Arnie Owen, the managing director of capital markets at Cruttenden Roth, said in explaining the divergence in the Dow and Nasdaq.

On the economic front, consumer spending in January rose 0.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted rate of $6.53 trillion, following a 1.1 percent gain in December. Incomes gained 0.7 percent to $8.05 trillion adding to a 0.3 percent gain in December.

While the Nasdaq managed to finish with only minor damage Monday, most of the leading blue-chip tech stocks took their lumps.

Intel Corp. (INTC) closed off 7/8 to 112 3/8 while Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) and IBM Corp. (IBM) slid 2 7/8 and 3 9/16 a share, respectively.

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) inched up 1/4 to 91 9/16 and Sun Microsystems Inc. (SUNW) gained 1/8 to 93 7/8. Oracle Corp. (ORCL) closed off 2 to 68 5/8 even though an analyst praised its partnership in the Web venture announced by General Motors Corp.

The wireless sector was buzzing after America Online Inc. (NYSE: AOL) said it had signed deals with six different telephone and wireless companies. Its shares closed up 15/16 to 60 9/16.

Arch Communications Group (Nasdaq: APGR) charged up 2 3/8 to 14 after AOL said it would use the company's messaging capabilities for its new AOL Mobile Messenger.

Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) shaved off 3 1/4 to 161 15/16 while Lycos Inc. (LCOS) and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) fell 3 3/4 and 3 3/8 a share, respectively. Excite@Home Corp. (ATHM) trimmed 5/8 to 33 3/8 and eBay Inc. (EBAY) lost 5 3/4 to 145 1/16.

Among widely held PC stocks, Dell Computer Corp. (DELL) slid 1/4 to 41; Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL) moved up 2 7/8 to 113 1/4; Gateway Inc. (GTW) tacked on 1/16 to 69 1/2 and Compaq Computer Corp. (CPQ) closed off 7/16 to 25 9/16.

3Com Corp. (Nasdaq: COMS) closed off 1 5/8 to 79 1/16 ahead of its pending spin-off of the Palm Pilot unit. Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) dropped 2 3/16 to 130 9/16 and Lucent Technologies Inc. (LU) closed off 3/4 to 58 1/2.

Image-provider Getty Images (Nasdaq: GETY) closed off 11/16 after announcing it will buy its largest competitor, Visual Communications Group (VCG), from Britain's United News & Media for about $220 million

Rivals Mission Critical Software (Nasdaq: MCSW) and NetIQ (Nasdaq: NTIQ), said they are teaming up in a stock-swap valued at about $1.42 billion. Mission Critical shares closed off 19/32 to 61 21/32 while NetIQ lost 5 1/2 to 68.