Oracle Takes Tech Higher

Updated from 4:06 p.m. EST

A strong profit report from Oracle (ORCL) sent tech stocks rallying Thursday, while blue chips posted more modest gains amid mixed earnings and economic data.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 39.85 points, or 1.53%, to 2640.86, helped by a 6.5% climb in shares of business-software giant Oracle.

Among blue chip indices, the Dow Jones Industrial Average continued a string of uneven trading sessions, spending time on both sides of the flatline before finishing higher. The Dow added 38.37 points, or 0.29%, to 13,245.64. The S&P 500 rose 7.12 points, or 0.49%, to 1460.12.

"This is a very typical pattern for December, in that there is no big price change so far this month," said Phillip Roth, chief technical market analyst with Miller Tabak. "If we don't get a rally next week, it would be unusual and certainly a negative. Right now, it seems as though we're stabilizing and setting up for a rally."

Peter Cardillo, chief market economist with Avalon Partners, agreed that the market was set for a technical bounce before year-end.

"The market remains skittish, but we're in the lower end of the trading range so we should see a technical bounce," said Cardillo. "We should now begin to see holiday volume creep in here, also."

Breadth was positive Thursday as volume was steady. On the New York Stock Exchange, 3.45 billion shares changed hands, as advancers topped decliners by nearly a 6-to-5 margin. Volume on the Nasdaq reached 1.96 billion shares, with winners outpacing losers 3 to 2.