Tech stocks shook off inflation fears Friday to push to fresh four-year highs, spurred higher by strong chip sales and positive reports from a number of companies.
Blue chips, meanwhile, slipped on rising oil prices, a strong jobs report that revealed wage pressures, and hawkish comments from Federal Reserve officials.
The Nasdaq rose 6 to 2273, the S&P 500 added half a point to 1265, and the Dow fell 35 to 10,877. Volume fell to 2.09 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.79 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led 17-15 on the NYSE, and 16-14 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 45% on the NYSE, and 64% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 194-54 on the NYSE, and 178-37 on the Nasdaq.
Novell gained 10% on strong sales.
OmniVision soared 18% after trouncing estimates and raising guidance.
SeaChange , Cognos
and Peerless
rose on their earnings news, and Rackable Systems
jumped on a secondary offering.
Visual Networks soared 20% on a buyout offer from Danaher
.