Dell Leads Tech Stocks Higher

U.S. stocks hit new highs for the year on Monday, and Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) led the way higher.

Dell was up 3.6 percent ahead of its quarterly results, due out after the market close on Thursday, after Goldman Sachs made bullish comments about the company.

Goldman said Dell should beat estimates this week, but the analyst firm was even more positive on the company’s prospects for next year, when a PC upgrade cycle is expected to kick in.

Analysts expect quarterly earnings of 28 cents a share from Dell on a 13.3 percent sales decline to $13.14 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

The rest of the U.S. market followed overseas markets higher despite downbeat comments from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and noted bank analyst Meredith Whitney.

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) was up 2 percent after the chip giant raised its dividend.

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) edged higher after raising its bid for Tandberg.

Broadcom (NASDAQ: BRCM), Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT) and VMware (NYSE: VMW) gained around 3 percent each.

Sprint (NYSE: S) soared 13 percent on a Credit Suisse upgrade.

Palm (NASDAQ: PALM) lost 4.6 percent a day after gaining on takeover speculation.

The Nasdaq rose 30 to 2197, the S&P 500 gained 15 to 1108, and the Dow surged 136 to 10,406. Volume rose to 4.57 billion shares on the NYSE, and 2.12 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led by a 30-7 margin on the NYSE, and 20-6 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 88 percent on the NYSE, and 78 percent on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 513-73 on the NYSE, and 175-23 on the Nasdaq.