NEW YORK — Tech-stock fever swept Wall Street Friday, sending the Dow Jones industrials up more than 190 points and the NASDAQ composite up nearly 74 as investors raced to get back in the market on news that Cisco Systems' business is stabilizing.
The buying, which spread across market sectors, got a further boost from a Commerce Department report showing home sales remain strong. But analysts were skeptical the momentum would last, describing the gains as a rebound from weeks of strong selling and noting that the economy's prognosis is still murky.
The Dow closed up 194.02 at 10,423.17, a 1.9 percent gain.
Broader indicators also recorded hefty advances. The NASDAQ climbed 73.83, or 4 percent, to 1,916.80, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index was up 22.84, or nearly 2 percent, at 1,184.93.
All three indexes ended the week higher, with the Dow rising 1.8 percent or 182.39 points, the NASDAQ up 2.7 percent or 49.79 points and the S&P gaining nearly 2 percent or 22.96 points.
"I think people deep down still like tech stocks, and on any bit of good tech news, they want to run with it," said Rafael Tamargo, director of equity research at Wilmington Trust. "But there's no turnaround here. Just maybe a reprieve because things aren't getting worse."
Cisco jumped $1.49 to $18.25, an 8 percent increase, in reaction to chief executive John Chambers' comments Thursday that orders for the first few weeks of the current quarter were in line with expectations.
The networking company had made similar predictions earlier, but Chambers' reaffirmation was welcomed by investors starved for good news after months of dismal profits, layoffs and pessimistic outlooks. They took the tech bellwether's announcement as a sign the economy's problems might finally be abating.
IBM rose $3.99 to $106.99. Microsoft gained $2.93 to $62.05 on news it had taken a key step toward the release of its Windows XP in October and a judge had been assigned to decide how it should be punished for violating antitrust laws.
The euphoria extended to smaller tech companies, too, including Priceline.com, which rose 54 cents to $5.79.
Buyers also gravitated toward blue chips. Home Depot rose $1.95 to $49.94, while General Electric advanced 95 cents to $41.99.
Wall Street was also cheered by new economic data showing the sluggish economy hasn't deterred consumers from housing purchases. The Commerce Department reported sales of new homes in July were up by the largest amount since a 13.5 percent increase last December.
Still, analysts were hesitant to read too much into the market's advance. They attributed much of the buying to an expected rebound after a summer selloff that sent the indexes to levels not seen since spring — rather than any fundamental change in the economic or business climate. They also noted that previous rallies on individual company news have proved unsustainable.
Indeed, most companies, particularly those in the tech sector, are still unable to predict when business will improve. The Federal Reserve has cut interest rates seven times this year, including a reduction earlier this week, but so far the steps have failed to stimulate growth.
Even with Friday's advance, all three major indexes are below where they started the year: the Dow down 3 percent, the NASDAQ off 22 percent and the S&P off about 10 percent.
Although analysts said it was possible that some of Friday's gains would stick since stocks have fallen so much recently, they doubted the advance would continue.
"We've just been back and forth in this trading pattern. I think you have investors who want to buy stocks, and the conditions are ripe for a rally, but so far we haven't been able to follow through," said Richard Cripps, chief market strategist for Legg Mason of Baltimore.
Advancing issues led decliners nearly 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange. Consolidated volume came to 1.28 billion shares, compared with 1.19 billion Thursday.
The Russell 2000 index rose 7.39 to 480.81.
Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 0.4 percent. European stocks also moved higher. Germany's DAX index climbed 2.6 percent, Britain's FT-SE 100 gained 1.4 percent, and France's CAC-40 advanced 2.2 percent.