Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) sent tech stocks higher on Monday after a Citigroup analyst issued an upbeat report on the stock.

Amazon shares gained more than 9% after analyst Mark Mahaney said Amazon's Kindle could become "the iPod of the book world."

Mahaney said Amazon could sell as many as 380,000 of the devices this year, double his initial estimate.

Broadcom (NASDAQ: BRCM) led a strong chip sector, rising 3.7% after winning a patent ruling against SiRF (NASDAQ: SIRF), which saw its shares fall 24% on the news.

But stocks finished well off their highs after oil prices stabilized following another steep drop.

Rackspace Hosting (NYSE: RAX) fared better in its second day of trading, rising 7%.

Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) rose and Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT) declined ahead of their results, due out after the close on Tuesday.

VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN) and Qwest (NYSE: Q) rose on upgrades.

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IAC (NASDAQ: IACI) edged higher after saying it will complete its four-way split on Aug. 21.

The Nasdaq gained 25 to 2439, the S&P rose 9 to 1305, and the Dow gained 48 to 11,782. Volume rose to 5.12 billion shares on the NYSE, and 2.33 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led by a 21-12 margin on the NYSE, and 20-8 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 64% on the NYSE, and 78% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 82-92 on the NYSE, and 122-99 on the Nasdaq.