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MARKET CLOSE: Wall Street looks like Pamplona

2 min read

Internet stocks led another huge rally in the technology sector Thursday as the Nasdaq composite stormed up 77 points to a record close of 3,346.74. The Dow Jones industrial average hustled up 153 points to close at 11,035.70.

With both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 perched at all-time highs and the Dow back above the 11,000-point mark, it's obvious this bull market still has plenty of momentum.

"The market was basically in a position to stage a year-end rally," said Joseph Barthel, the chief investment strategist, at Fahnestock & Co. "There is very little that you can point to that is negative."

Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HWP) led the charge Thursday after beating Street estimates by 2 cents a share in its fourth quarter and receiving several upgrades from leading analysts. H-P shares roared up 13 1/2 to 94 1/2.

But the good news doesn't end there. H-P's spin-off, Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A), jumped 12 3/8 to 42 3/8 in its initial public offering.

Among the day's other IPOs, MetaSolv Software (MSLV) jumped 36 to 55 in its debut while HNC spin-off Retek (RETK) added 17 9/16 to 32 9/16 and Symyx Technologies (SMMX) rose 8 7/16 to 22 7/16.

Intel Corp. (INTC) shot up 3 3/4 to 78 1/2. Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) lost 11/16 to 26 and International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) gained 4 1/4 to 98.

Unisys Corp. (UIS) picked up 5 3/16 to 29 7/8 after Morgan Stanley Dean Witter raised its rating on computer services company to "outperform" from "neutral."

Citrix Systems (CTXS) shares stormed up 16 3/4 to 98 1/2 after CS First Boston boosted its 12-month share price target on the stock to $145 from $83.

Internet stocks were exceptionally strong Thursday.

America Online Inc. (AOL) gained 3 7/8 to 159 1/2 while Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) closed up 7 11/16 and 1 7/16 a share, respectively. Excite@Home Corp. (ATHM) charged up 4 3/16 to 49 3/16 and Lycos Inc. (LCOS) fell 1 9/16 to 54 7/16.

Among widely held PC stocks, Dell Computer Corp. (DELL) rose 1 3/16 to 40 15/16; Compaq Computer Corp. (CPQ) added 1 1/4 to 25; Gateway Inc. (GTW) trimmed 1/8 to 78 and Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL) sawed off 5/8 to 89 5/8.

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) clipped 1/16 to 84 15/16. Oracle Corp. (ORCL) rose 3 3/16 to 74 3/16 and Sun Microsystems Inc. (SUNW) closed up 13/16 to 125 3/4.

Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) picked up 4 13/16 to 43 5/16. 3Com Corp. (COMS) continued its recent rally, gaining 3 7/16 to 43 5/16 and Lucent Technologies Inc. (LU) closed up 3 7/16 to 80 7/16.