Net Stocks Accelerate Along With Broader Market

Economic data were destined to influence the day's trading, and an

in-line

Consumer Price Index

report was providing a lift in stocks and the Internet sector early on.

TheStreet.com Internet Sector

index was recently up 18.01, or 2.7%, at 687.87. Short-covering has contributed to the rebound, and it remains to be seen how much fresh buying will come in after the as-expected data, particularly with the bond market not getting much of a boost from the numbers and

Fed

fears continuing. Fed Chairman

Alan Greenspan

speaks later today as well.

Among Net bellwethers,

America Online

(AOL)

, which reports earnings Wednesday, was up 3 7/8, or 3.5%, at 114.

Prudential Securities

released a note on AOL today, with analyst Paul Merenbloom writing that DSL beta trials by AOL in Maryland reportedly went well, which suggested a national rollout sometime during the fourth quarter. Prudential, which has not done underwriting for AOL, reiterated a strong buy rating and a price target of 212 on the stock.

Other Net bellwethers were higher as well.

Amazon.com

(AMZN) - Get Report

was up 2 3/4, or 4%, at 76 13/16;

Yahoo!

(YHOO)

was up 4 1/8, or 2.4%, at 174 1/2; and

eBay

(EBAY) - Get Report

was up 4 1/8, or 3%, at 133 5/8.

Among other stocks in the news,

MyPoints.com

(MYPT)

was up 1, or 8.5%, at 12 3/4 after the company said it planned to hike Web-based advertising and email marketing rates. The company said the increase reflected strong and continued demand for the company's rewarded media products.

Also,

Lycos

(LCOS)

said today that it had launched 12 Latin American Web sites and two sites for the Spanish-speaking population in the U.S. It was up 1 13/16, or 3.5%, at 53 13/16.

eToys

(ETYS)

, which dropped 7 points Monday, was up 5 3/4, or 9%, at 69 1/4 early today.

Goldman Sachs

, lead underwriter for the eToys IPO in May, indicated that eToys had entered the U.K. market under

etoys.co.uk

, giving it a foothold in the European toy market.