Midday Report: Nasdaq Soars for Second Day on Tech Strength

Gains in technology shares pushed the Nasdaq Composite Index higher for asecond day, as investors continued to buy stocks that have fallen todepressed levels.

A warning from Cypress Semiconductor (Nasdaq: CY) about ashortfall in quarterly results failed to dampen the enthusiasm.

At midday, the tech-laden index was up 103.75 at 1,849.46, led by gains inCisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO), up US$1.50 at $15.99, and Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), up$1.38 at $24.58.

Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW) also gained, up $1.81 at $14.85.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index was up 30.34 at 1,167.93, and the DowJones Industrial Average broke through the 10,000 barrier to trade at 10,145.16, up300.01.

Cypress Warns

Cypress was up 94 cents at $16.34, despite lowering its outlook for first-quarter results a second time. Similar announcements have poundedtechnology shares in recent weeks.

The semiconductor maker cut its estimate of sales for the quarter endedApril 1st to $262 million from $280 million, and lowered its forecast forearnings before goodwill to 23 to 26 cents per share from 30 to 34 cents.

“We barely turned positive on bookings, with cancellations offsettingvirtually every order we received,” said chief executive officer T.J.Rodgers.

E-Commerce Gains

The E-Commerce TimesIndex was up more than 6 percent at midday, led by gains in Amazon.com(Nasdaq: AMZN), E*Trade (NYSE: ET) and PetSmart (Nasdaq: PETM).

Amazon shares rose for a second day, gaining $1.93 to $13.11 by midday. OnMonday, Amazon sparked a rally in e-commerce shares when it said itsoperating loss for the first quarter would be smaller than analysts expected.

Homestore Surge

Homestore.com (Nasdaq: HOMS) was up $4.20 at $27.42 after the onlinereal-estate company announced an alliance with financial giant Bank of America. The two set up a Web site aimed at helping homebuyersand homeowners find services ranging from renovations to qualifying for amortgage, which they said is the first part of a $10.5 million, multiyearalliance.

Motorola (NYSE: MOT), which is due to report results after the close oftrading, was up $1.25 at $12.75. Analysts expect the semiconductor andcell-phone maker to post a loss of 7 cents per share on sales of $8.08billion.

Adobe Systems (Nasdaq: ADBE) picked up $5 to trade at $40.83 by midday. Themaker of Acrobat and other software announced an e-book publishing alliance withAmazon.com.