Sector Watch: Nasdaq Turns Higher and Takes Internet Stocks Along for the Ride

The Nasdaq moved into positive territory today and brought with it some Internet-related stocks that haven't had a lot to be happy about lately.

Awash in green was the DOT, or the TheStreet.com Internet Sector Index, which was lately up 5.3%. The index, reflecting the stock performance of 24 Internet commerce, service and software companies, was led by high-profile names like eBay (EBAY - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), which recently gained 11.2% to $37.94 and Juniper Networks (JNPR - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), which recently climbed from its new 52-week low of $35.94 to $40.15.

Also gaining ground was the Internet infrastructure or software makers like BEA Systems (BEAS - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) and Verisign (VRSN - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), whose shares were lately one the fourth top gainer on the Comp. Their stellar performance lifted the American Stock Exchange Internet Infrastructure Index up an impressive 9.3%.

Does this signal a bottom for these beaten-down stocks? One analyst thinks so.

"What I'm seeing in the very, very short term, the one- to two-day time frame, is that some of these indexes may have come down and retested Thursday's lows," said tech analyst Richard Williams of Jefferies. "And this may be the beginning of the rally, the upside patterns to what may have been a bottom."

Williams said he was "cautiously optimistic." He also told TheStreet.com that today's rally could have something to do with the fact that it's the last day of the quarter and the market has only a week of preannouncement season to get through.

Williams also noted that the San Jose-based BEA Systems made some bullish comments about the future during its conference call this morning, in response to recent negative rumors floating around. "One of them had the company miss its current quarter even though the current quarter is just half over," he said, suggesting that the rumors were spread by short players attempting to knock share prices down.

"The CEO made very bullish comments, saying that he's seeing more demand and not being impacted by the economy. More enterprise companies seem to be coming out and saying that they're fine. That's exciting. I don't expect all of them to say that, but at a time like these the leaders emerge," Williams said.

Shares of BEA Systems were recently trading up 9.6% to $28.69.