Tech Rally Bleeds Into Blue-Chips

The averages snap a two-day losing streak amid good news from Nvidia.
By Paula Lacê ,

Updated from 4:03 p.m.

Solid guidance at chipmakers

Intel

(INTC) - Get Report

and

Nvidia

(NVDA) - Get Report

fueled a tech rally that seeped into the broader market Friday.

The

Dow Jones Industrial Average

gained 113 points, or 1.34%, to 8604, while the

Nasdaq

climbed 30 points, or 2%, to 1520. The

S&P 500

rose 13 points, or 1.4%, to 933.

"The bull is out of the barn and people are starting to realize it," said Bill Nasgovitz, co-portfolio manager of the Heartland Value Fund. "This year will be a replay of 1933, when the market was up 56%. The only thing missing is confidence among retail investors."

A study by EKN of the 435 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported first-quarter results showed that for every company that missed estimates, 3.1 beat them. Companies in the S&P 500 have reported earnings growth of 13.9% so far.

On the NYSE, some 1.3 billion shares traded hands, with advancers ahead of decliners by an almost three-to-one. One and a half billion shares traded hands at the Nasdaq, with winners outpacing losers by a margin of more than two to one.

Nvidia posted a decline in profit and sales, but its first-quarter earnings of 12 cents a share beat estimates by a penny, and the company predicted second-quarter sales would rise as much as 18%. Nvidia shares gained 33% to $21.28.

Intel also moved up after the company's president, Paul Otellini, was quoted in a German newspaper as saying that he expects solid demand in China and an improvement in the semiconductor industry this year. Intel shares finished up almost 4% at $19.53.

The news from Nvidia and Intel boosted other tech stocks, including

Cisco

(CSCO) - Get Report

,

Dell

(DELL) - Get Report

and

Microsoft

(MSFT) - Get Report

.

On the negative side,

Johnson & Johnson

(JNJ) - Get Report

was down amid reports that a California jury was to determine whether the company was liable for damages related to the death of a 46-year-old man who took the drugmaker's heartburn medicine Propulsid. Johnson & Johnson denied it was responsible for his death. Shares lost 0.4% to $56.20.

Meanwhile, securities regulators are in talks with

Qwest

(Q)

to settle possible fraud charges related to swaps of fiber-optic capacity it made with other carriers, The

Wall Street Journal

reported. The swaps, which critics contended served no economic purpose and were simply a way to boost top-line results, were the reason for a $2 billion restatement Qwest announced last year. Nonetheless, Qwest shares climbed 8% to $4.33.

Interpublic Group

(IPG) - Get Report

, an advertising-agency holding company, surprised investors with a loss amid higher costs and lower demand for its services. Shares rose 4% to $11.89.

Imclone Systems

(IMCLE)

fell 6% to $19.65 following auditor KPMG's decision to further investigate the company's accounting figures after learning that executives failed to pay as much as $60 million in taxes from 1997, according to

The Wall Street Journal

.

Enron

(ENRNQ)

said it plans to form a new company with its international infrastructure assets instead of selling the operations. The company would be protected from the liabilities connected to the bankruptcy, according to media reports.

Overseas markets were higher, with London's FTSE 100 up 0.4% at 3942 and Germany's Xetra DAX up 0.6% at 2904. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei closed 1.5% higher at 8152, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 2.1% to 9084.

Treasuries were slightly lower, while crude oil prices for June delivery were down to $24.60 a barrel in London. The dollar was stronger against the yen and little changed against the euro.

On Thursday, the Dow ended 0.8% lower at 8491. The S&P 500 fell 1.0% to 920, while the Nasdaq lost 1.1% to 1489.

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