Tech stocks soared along with the larger market after the Federal Reserve decided to cut recent market jitters by cutting the overnight lending rate by a half-percentage point.
Traders responded by sending stocks and indexes soaring in one of the biggest one-day gains the markets have seen in years.
After the Fed moved to lower the federal funds rate to 4.75, traders responded by driving stocks higher after the bigger-than-expected cut. The Nasdaq finished up the day at 2,651.66, a gain of 2.71 percent.
The Dow finished up 2.51 percent at 13,739.39, a gain of 335 points, one of its biggest finishes in years.
Intel (INTC) closed up by 2.25 percent to $25.41 after executives at its annual developer forum said it would ship 45 nm chips in November and that it was gaining back some lost market share to chip rival AMD.
Microsoft (MSFT) eked out 20 cents more on the day to close at $28.93 as it continued to mull its options regarding a European court’s ruling upholding antitrust penalties by the European Commission, and whether to appeal again.
Best Buy confounded the skeptics in online tech retailing by declaring a second-quarter profit of $250 million (55 cents per share). The results, an 8.7 percent improvement over the same time last year, also beat analyst expectations. Shares closed up 6.56 percent to $47.46 and were headed up in after-hours trading.
Adobe’s share’s rose by 65 cents to $43.71 ahead of profits that more than doubled in its third fiscal quarter. Net income was $205.2 million (34 cents per share) compared to its year-ago profit of $94.4 million (16 cents per share). The software maker had a record quarter for sales, with revenues jumping by 41 percent.