Apple, IBM Lead Tech Stocks Higher

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and IBM (NYSE: IBM) paced a big rally in tech stocks on Tuesday.

Apple shares surged 4.4 percent on reports that the company will unveil a tablet computer on Jan. 27, two days after its quarterly earnings report.

IBM rose 1.8 percent ahead of its quarterly results, then gave back most of those gains after the market close despite reporting results and guidance that topped Wall Street forecasts.

Big Blue’s earnings of $3.59 a share were 12 cents better than expected, while sales of $27.2 billion were up slightly from the year-ago quarter and also ahead of the Thomson Reuters consensus estimate. IBM also raised its full-year earnings forecast. IBM’s results were driven by 2 percent revenue growth in software and services.

Stratasys (NASDAQ: SSYS) was the day’s biggest winner, soaring 43 percent on a 3D printer deal with HP (NYSE: HPQ).

Ciena (NASDAQ: CIEN) surged 11 percent on a Credit Suisse upgrade, but Palm (NASDAQ: PALM) and Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) were left out of the rally.

eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) and Seagate (NASDAQ: STX) will report their results on Wednesday, and AMD (NYSE: AMD), Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Western Digital (NYSE: WDC) will report on Thursday.

The Nasdaq surged 32 to 2320, the S&P 500 gained 14 to 1150, and the Dow rose 115 to 10,725. Volume fell to 4.6 billion shares on the NYSE, and 2.06 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led by a 29-9 margin on the NYSE, and 19-8 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 84 percent on the NYSE, and 76 percent on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 410-52 on the NYSE, and 163-10 on the Nasdaq.