Stocks rebounded from a two-day drubbing Thursday on strong earnings reports from the tech sector.
Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), Computer Sciences Corp. (NYSE: CSC) and Synopsis (NASDAQ: SNPS) were among the stocks propelling the Nasdaq to a 0.67% gain, more than twice the advance recorded by the Dow and S&P.
Salesforce shares rose 5.8% after the company reported 52% sales growth for the first quarter, well ahead of Wall Street expectations. Synopsis gained 4.7% on 11% sale growth, and CSC rose 2.5% after reporting better than expected revenue growth of 13%.
The good earnings news, along with a decline in oil prices, helped stocks recover a little of the ground lost from two days of heavy selling on fears of rising inflation and slowing growth.
Mentor Graphics (NASDAQ: MENT) was another earnings winner, and Level 3 (NASDAQ: LVLT) surged 11% on a Wachovia upgrade.
Dell (NASDAQ: DELL), which will report its quarterly results next week, rose 4.4%.
NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP) and Blue Coat Systems (NASDAQ: BCSI) tumbled on their earnings reports, and Akamai (NASDAQ: AKAM) lost more than 6% on a Goldman Sachs downgrade.
The Nasdaq rose 16 to 2464, the S&P added 3 to 1394, and the Dow rose 24 to 12,625. Volume declined to 3.95 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.94 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led by a 17-14 margin on the NYSE, and 17-11 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 53% on the NYSE, and 67% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 40-67 on the NYSE, and 51-115 on the Nasdaq.