MARKET CLOSE: Dow picks up 76 points; Nasdaq falters

Blue-chip stocks posted decent gains Monday but the struggling technology sector couldn't muster any momentum as the Nasdaq composite fell 24 points to 2,880.53. The Dow Jones industrial average moved up 76 points to 10,546.07.

"The lack of closure on the election is certainly an excuse for seeing pressure in the marketplace, but fundamentally, you've had a lot of very high-priced stocks that are confronting a substantial slowdown in the economy and earnings," said Robert J. Barbera, chief economist at Hoenig & Co.

Sun Microsystems (SUNW) gained $3.31 to $88.19. Oracle (ORCL) lost $1 to $23.13 and Microsoft (MSFT) finished up 75 cents to $70.69.

Commerce One (Nasdaq: CMRC) fell $3.25 to $36 on mixed analyst coverage for it and fellow B2B player Ariba (Nasdaq: ARBA), off $11.44 to $67.

Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU) added $1.94 to $47.69 after it said it would sell its QuickenInsurance business to online insurance service company InsWeb for $14 million in stock.

E-tailers saw booming business on the day known as "Black Friday," and shares responded accordingly on Monday. eToys Inc. (Nasdaq: ETYS) shares closed up 19 cents to $2.

Among widely held PC stocks, Dell (DELL) inched up 6 cents to $24.44; Compaq (CPQ) edged up 12 cents to $24.81; Apple Computer (AAPL) lost 63 cents to $18.69 and Gateway (GTW) shed $1.35 to $32.15.

Yahoo! (YHOO) slid 75 cents to $40.13. America Online (AOL) rose $1.07 to $43.97 while Amazon.com (AMZN) and CMGI (CMGI) closed off 94 cents and $1.19 a share, respectively. eBay (EBAY) managed to gain $1.25 to $38.19.

Harmonic (Nasdaq: HLIT) shed 56 cents to $9.88 after it confirmed that it too would be hit by the decision of AT&T's (NYSE: T) Broadband division to stop accepting shipments from suppliers. Revenue is expected to be as much as $3 million lower for the quarter.