Technology Stocks Join Broader Market Rally

, led by Hewlett-Packard Co., joined a broader market rally on Tuesday, as Wall Street welcomed renewed hopes that European leaders will take the necessary steps to stem the euro-zone debt crisis.

Following the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s 272 point jump – the biggest point gain since Sept. 7 and fourth-largest rally of the year – on Monday, the blue-chip index once again surged 250 points, or 2.3%, to 11294. The last time the Dow registered back-to-back gains of 200 points or more was in December 2008.

The index is up more than 5% since plunging 391 points last Thursday.

H-P’s shares set the pace, gaining 7%, while IBM rose 2.8%, Intel added 3.2% and Cisco moved up 2%.

Other tech-sector components that helped the blue-chip rally included Oracle Corp. (Up 2.63%), Google Inc. (Up 2.64%) and Dell Inc.(+4.54%).

In addition to the Dow gains, the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index rallied 26 points and the Nasdaq Composite also shot up 56 points to 2573.

According to reports by the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. market rally follows sharp gains in overseas markets amid reports of a potential expansion of the European Financial Stability Facility as well as plans for the European Union to aggressively recapitalize its banks. European shares were broadly higher.

“This activity represents an elimination of something between a panic and high levels of pessimism” among investors, said Morris Mark, president of Mark Asset Management. “There seems to be a real commitment on the part of leadership in European countries, financial institutions and the European Central Bank to solve the problems. But until we see definitive outcomes, you just don’t know what’s going to happen.”

via MarketWatch