Stocks climbed yesterday as reassuring earnings from technology companies like Brocade Communications Systems and FreeMarkets drowned out Enron's funeral dirge, which extended a freefall on huge trading volume.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 117.56 points, or 1.21 per cent, to end at 9,829.42, while the Nasdaq composite leaped 45.29 points, or 2.40 per cent, to 1,933.26. The broad Standard & Poor's 500 index was up 11.68 points, or 1.04 per cent, at 1,140.20.
Brocade, a data storage networker, rallied $2.88, or 10 per cent, to $31.70 after posting results that edged past expectations and forecast a steady or stronger showing in the current quarter.
Enron, teetering on the brink of one of the biggest corporate implosions in US history, plunged 85 per cent in frenzied trading Wednesday and fell another 41 per cent, or 25 cents, to 36 cents yesterday.
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