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Tech, Net Takeoff Propels Markets to Green Finish

Dot closes up strongly but bellwether Yahoo! finishes down after beating earnings estimates.

About the only thing standing in the way of a full-blown Internet party was tomorrow's employment report and the performance of Yahoo! (YHOO) .

After trading as high as 4324.09, the

Nasdaq

saw some selling pressures late in the session before closing up 98.34, or 2.4%, at 4267.56. There may have been some hesitation ahead of Thursday's employment report (see

James Padinha's

piece).

TheStreet.com Internet Sector

index closed up 43.45, or 4.5%, at 1015.43.

TheStreet.com New Tech 30 ended up 34.56 points, or 5.4%, at 641.71. The Nasdaq finished up 2.36%, 98.34 points, at 4267.56.

Yahoo!'s performance may also have been a source of anxiety as the superportal sold off after reporting higher-than-expected earnings Wednesday night. The sector has occasionally followed Yahoo!'s trend after its earnings announcement.

Yahoo! ended the day down 11 9/16, or 7%, at 154 after trading as high as 171 1/4, as investors weren't sure what to make of Yahoo!'s earnings

report. Yahoo! topped the Street's estimates by a penny with earnings of 10 cents a share, but came up short of the whisper number of 12 cents a share. Uncertainty often leads to selling, and that's what happened today.

Other traditional Net bellwethers did not fare as poorly.

eBay

(EBAY) - Get Free Report

closed up 16 1/16, or 10%, at 182,

Amazon.com

(AMZN) - Get Free Report

ended up 2 1/16, or 3.3%, at 64 1/4 and

priceline.com

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added 5 3/16, or 7%, to 77 1/8. All three stocks benefited from a note from

Salomon Smith Barney

, which initiated coverage of all three stocks with buy ratings.

Tim Albright of Salomon wrote that Amazon, eBay and priceline will each be worth more than $100 billion by the end of 2003. He wrote "the flow of capital away from the consumer names into the business-to-business names provides a terrific entry point for investors, particularly in the dominant large-cap names: Amazon, eBay and priceline."

Finally,

QXL.com

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, a heretofore relatively unknown European online auction house closed up 29 39/64, or 132%, at 51 63/64 after

SG Cowen

placed a 1000 price target on the stock. Note today it split 3 for 1 so the price target is actually 333.

As originally published, this story contained an error. Please see

Corrections and Clarifications.