MARKET CLOSE: GDP report sends blue chips higher

Technology stocks made slight gains Friday but the Dow shot up 211 points after a tame GDP report. The Nasdaq managed to inch up 6 points to close at 3,277.95.

U.S. economic growth slowed sharply in the third quarter to its weakest pace in more than a year, in a convincing sign that past U.S. interest rate rises are beginning to brake the hard-charging expansion, the GDP report showed Friday.

"We are in a transitional market, we are due here for a little bit of relief, but JDS Uniphase is not going to be able to do it all by itself," said Arnold Berman, technology strategist at Wit Soundview. "We are going to be in a more selective market going forward."

JDS Uniphase Corp. (Nasdaq: JDSU) picked up $2.81 to $77.25 as analysts praised its first quarter report.

Fellow fiber-optic firms SDL (SDLI) and Ciena (CIEN) closed up $12.06 and $1.38 a share, respectively.

Among widely held PC stocks, Dell (DELL) gained 19 cents to $27.94; Apple Computer (AAPL) tacked on 6 cents to $18.56; Gateway (GTW) moved up $2.44 to $50.29 and Compaq (CPQ) inched up 5 cents to $29.95.

Brooktrout Inc. (Nasdaq: BRKT) fell $7.50 to $12.75 after missing estimates for its third quarter and getting some downgrades.

Sapient (Nasdaq: SAPE) closed up $4.25 to $35.25 after it met analyst estimates in the third quarter, reporting third quarter net income of $16.1 million, or 12 cents per share.

Microsoft (MSFT) picked up $3.25 to $67.69. Oracle (ORCL) and Sun Microsystems (SUNW) finished up 13 cents and $1.19 a share, respectively.

Yahoo! (YHOO) shed 75 cents to $55.25. America Online (AOL) gained $1.30 to $48 while Amazon.com (AMZN) and eBay (EBAY) dropped $1.25 and $1.13 a share, respectively.

Homestore.com (Nasdaq: HOMS) shot up $8.98 to $37.94 after announcing it will acquire the move.com portal site from Cendant Corp. (NYSE: CD) in a deal worth $761 million.

Shares of NBC Internet Inc. (Nasdaq: NBCI) gained 78 cents to $5.69 after the company posted a narrower than expected loss for the third quarter, and predicted a faster than expected path to cash profitability.

Lycos Inc. (Nasdaq: LCOS) moved up 38 cents to $41.06 after its shareholders voted in favor of a merger with the Spanish Internet company Terra Networks SA to create the world's No. 3 Internet access provider.

Intel (INTC) marched up $1.69 to $46.38. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) inched up 13 cents to $20.44 and IBM (IBM) gained 94 cents to finish at $93.69.