Tech stocks close up

Technology stocks gave the broader markets a healthy boost Friday as the Dow surged up 84.72 points to 7572.48 and the NASDAQ composite rose 25.99 points to 1583.73 in heavy trading.

Much of the credit for Friday's rally was attributed to benign U.S. Labor Department statistics released Thursday. The producer price index rose a modest 0.1 percent in October while the core rate was unchanged. Also, the Commerce Department reported that retail sales fell 0.2 percent and auto sales fell 2 percent.

These reassuring statistics had the most impact on technology issues, as blue chips and smaller stocks both made impressive strides.

America Online Inc. shares gained $4.69 per share to $73.19 after Merrill

Lynch raised its rating on shares to near-term "accumulate" from near-term "neutral," according to a source close to the Wall Street firm. Yahoo! Inc. closed up $1.88 per share to $47.56 while Excite Inc. and Lycos Inc. picked up $3 and $2.88 per share, respectively.

Among networking stocks, Cisco Systems Inc. shares rose $1.69 to $81.25, Ascend Communications Inc. edged up 13 cents per share to $24.50, and 3Com Corp. was unchanged at $30.38.

Semiconductor stocks made a nice recovery following reassurances from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan that unstable currencies in Asia weren't as troubling as first thought.

Intel Corp. shares gained 75 cents to $78.69. IBM was up $2.50 per share to $101.63 but Texas Instruments Inc. lost $4 per share to $93.50.

Microsoft Corp. shares rose $1.63 to $133.19. Oracle Corp. was up $1.06 per share to $24.44 and Adobe Systems Inc. shot up $2.50 per share to $48.25.

PC makers were also up, with Dell Computer Corp. picking up $1.88 per share to $78.94 and Compaq Computer Corp. rising 50 cents per share to $62.75. Gateway 2000 Inc. and Apple Computer Inc. improved by 75 cents and 31 cents per share, respectively.