Bargain Hunters Boost Markets

Bargain hunters lifted the markets in late afternoon trading with the Dow rocketing 553 points to 8835.  Nasdaq leaped 97 points to 1597.

On the upside

EBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) vendor Eforcity became the first to receive one million positive feedback points from buyers.

Although Applied Materials (Nasdaq: AMAT) reported lower fourth quarter earnings, the results topped estimates.

Second quarter revenue for NetApp (Nasdaq: NTAP) rose to surpass analyst expectations.

On the downside

K-V Pharmaceutical (NYSE: KVA) posted a preliminary second quarter loss and withdrew its earnings and revenue guidance for 2009.

Perry Ellis International (Nasdaq: PERY) blamed disappointing consumer spending for warning that third quarter results will fall short of expectations prompting a downgrade.

TigerLogic (NYSE: TIGR) swung to a loss for the second quarter as revenue fell.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 3 to 1 on the NYSE and by 10 to 3 on Nasdaq.  The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks surged 38 points to 491.