Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) and Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) led a big stock market rally on Tuesday, as the Nasdaq led the major indexes with a 2.8 percent gain.
Dell surged 7 percent after Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) said it sees strong demand for notebook computers in an otherwise uninspiring earnings report. IDC also forecast 20 percent growth in PC shipments this year.
RIM, meanwhile, gained nearly 6 percent on a Wall Street Journal report that the company plans new smartphones and a possible tablet device.
The entire chip sector gained 5.5 percent, with Micron (NASDAQ: MU), AMD (NYSE: AMD), Broadcom (NASDAQ: BRCM), Novellus (NASDAQ: NVLS) and Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) among the sector’s stronger names.
Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) was another big gainer, up 4.3 percent.
There was also a technical reason for investors to cheer on Tuesday: The Dow and S&P 500 cleared their 200-day moving averages for the first time in more than three weeks, and both indexes broke out of a three-week trading range in the process.