Technology stocks, hit hard in recent weeks by predictions of economic gloom, led a Monday rally on Wall Street, sending the Nasdaq Composite Index up 28.80 to 2,146.43 by midday.
Among the Nasdaq’s biggest winners were companies that have seen large drops lately. Leading the advance were: JDS Uniphase (Nasdaq: JDSU), up $1.30 to $27.69; Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO), up 64 cents to $22.83; and Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL), up 65 cents at $16.95.
Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW), Dell Computer (Nasdaq: DELL) and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) were all higher at midday as well.
Warnings of weaker-than-expected quarterly results at chipmakers Cypress Semiconductor (Nasdaq: CY), LSI Logic (NYSE: LSI) and Vitesse Semiconductor (Nasdaq: VTSS) failed to dampen enthusiasm. At midday, Cypress was up 61 cents at $19.47, LSI was ahead 62 cents at $16.93, and Vitesse was up 94 cents at $38.75.
DJIA, S&P Rise
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 72.47 at 10,538.78 and the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index was up 4.04 at 1,238.22.
The E-Commerce Times Index was down 1.57 percent at midday, pulled lower by drops in Travelocity (Nasdaq: TVLY) and PetSmart (Nasdaq: PETM). Travelocity fell Friday after Northwest Airlines said it would no longer pay commissions to online travel agencies.
eBay, Amazon Higher
eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) was up 75 cents at $38.44 following a reported buy recommendation at Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown. According to published reports, analyst Jaleel Patel repeated his buy rating on eBay Monday morning, with an accompanying 12-month price target of $60 per share.
Also on Monday, eBay said it allied with appraisal firm Eppraisals.com to give users access to professional appraisals of art and antiques.
Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) was up $2.31 at $12.31 on reports the e-tail giant is in talks with Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) about an e-commerce alliance. London’s Sunday Times said that Amazon might become the e-commerce supplier for Wal-Mart.
Good News for Economy
In economic news, the National Association of Purchasing Management said that its index of business activity in industries other than manufacturing perked up in February, after dropping in previous months.
The report showed “purchasing executives felt a lesser degree of discomfort with the level of inventories in February than they did in January,” said Ralph Kauffman, chair of the committee that compiles the report.
The NAPM’s index rose 1.6 percentage points from a month earlier to 51.7, indicating “somewhat faster growth in non-manufacturing economic activity,” Kauffman said. 
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