Tech stocks rallied Friday after solid results from Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) and Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) showed that IT spending is holding up fairly well despite the worst economic downturn in decades.
Oracle gained 7% despite weaker than expected sales, while RIM shares jumped 11% on a surprisingly strong outlook.
And Palm (NASDAQ: PALM) did even better, rising 13% despite posting disappointing results.
Accenture (NYSE: ACN) gained 6% after beating estimates but lowering its sales outlook.
The earnings reports were good enough to send the Nasdaq to solid gains even as blue chip stocks were mixed on news of a $17 billion government bailout of automakers.
Micron (NYSE: MU) posted another day of strong gains, rising 14% ahead of its quarterly results next week. Red Hat (NYSE: RHT), which also reports next week, gained 4.5%.
Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) lost 1% each on Bernstein downgrades on slowing consumer spending.
BMC (NYSE: BMC) gained 5% on a Goldman Sachs upgrade.
The Nasdaq rose 11 to 1564, the S&P added 2 to 887, and the Dow lost 25 to 8579. Volume rose to 6.78 billion shares on the NYSE, and 2.65 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led by a 22-15 margin on the NYSE, while decliners led 15-14 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 55% on the NYSE, and 59% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 24-95 on the NYSE, and 10-114 on the Nasdaq.