SINA Jumps On Speculation

Last week’s acquisition of Chinese online retailer Joyo by Amazon.com appears to have touched off a bit of speculative fever in Chinese Internet stocks.

SINA soared 16% Wednesday on rumors that Yahoo could make a play for the company. The rumors have surfaced before, but Amazon’s recent acquisition appears to have traders listening more closely.

With Amazon and eBay — with its 2003 acquisition of EachNet — looking more closely at China, it stands to reason that Yahoo might not be far behind. With a market cap of $1.15 billion, though, SINA would not come cheap.

SINA and other Chinese Internet stocks have been hit recently by sanctions from China Mobile , which has been cracking down on wireless messaging violations. NetEase and SOHU rode SINA’s coattails to 10% gains each on Wednesday.

The broader market surged as oil prices tumbled and traders shook off weak home sales and a gain in durable orders that was driven mainly by aircraft orders.

The Nasdaq surged 23 to 1860, the S&P 500 climbed 8 to 1104, and the Dow rose 83 to 10,181. Volume rose to 1.19 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.32 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led 23-9 on the NYSE, and 20-9 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 75% on the NYSE, and 84% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 105-16 on the NYSE, and 43-49 on the Nasdaq.

After the close, Opsware beat estimates, and ADC Telecom missed. Apollo reaffirmed guidance, and Cirrus warned.

During the day, ADE soared 21% on its results, and Semtech rose 6% after beating estimates.

Applied Signal climbed on its results, while OmniVision declined on a warning.

Overstock and Motorola rose on upgrades.

Tessco plunged 16% on a downgrade.