Technology stocks rallied back from a five-session knockout, sparking the largest one-day point gain ever in the Nasdaq composite and pushing other market indexes sharply higher. At the close of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 186.15 at 9,363.46, the day's high.

The Nasdaq composite, which is heavily stocked with technology shares, was up 95.97 at 2,405.47. Those were strong advances for the indexes, but some traders remarked that the rally was too narrowly confined to technology shares to be trusted as a trend.

Shares of banking and financial services companies rose after US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan endorsed a bill that would make it easier for financial services companies to combine their businesses. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a four-to-three margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,776 up, 1,204 down and 590 unchanged. NYSE volume totalled 792.84 million shares.