Stocks continued their upward momentum Thursday as investors remained bullish in the wake of the Fed’s latest interest-rate cut.
For the second consecutive day, Internet stocks led all sectors, with internet.com’s Internet Stock Index, or ISDEX, gaining 8.08, or 3.1%, to 272.55. Thirty-three of the ISDEX’s 50 members stocks advanced in Thursday’s trading.
The Nasdaq was up 27.20, or 1.3%, to 2193.68, while the Dow Jones climbed 32.66, or 0.3%, to 11248.58. The S&P 500 rose 3.50, or 0.3%, to 1288.49.
Perhaps the most significant gainer of the day was Hewlett-Packard , which soared 15.6% to $30.90 after reporting second-quarter profits that exceeded lowered estimates.
The computer maker showed Q2 net income of $319 million, or 16 cents per share, from $935 million, or 45 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.
Excluding certain costs, H-P’s net profit of 18 cents per share easily topped lowered forecasts of 15 cents per share.
(For earnings reports, visit our earnings calendar or reported-earnings page. For after-hours quotes and news, visit After Hours Trading.
E-commerce software vendor Vignette gained 16.7% to $9.07 after announcing an alliance with Deloitte Consulting. The deal calls for Deloitte to implement e-commerce systems using Vignette software.
Portal Software advanced 13.1% to $5.97 in anticipation of the company’s report for its first fiscal quarter, ended April 30. After the market’s close, PRSF said its Q1 pro forma net loss was $30.6 million, or 18 cents per share, compared to net income of $3.1 million, or 2 cents per share, in Q1 2000.
Despite being prominently featured in a Wednesday Wall Street Journal article on stumbling high-tech companies, search engine and caching server software provider Inktomi rose 10.9% to $8.26.
