NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Bargain-hunting investors returned to some of the U.S. stock markets' hardest-hit technology shares Friday, sending the Nasdaq composite index up more than 5 percent for its first gain in more than a week.
Yahoo!, Dell Computer, and WorldCom, all down more than 50 percent over the last six months, rose in a holiday-shortened session so quiet that it was the New York Stock Exchange's lightest session of the year.
The day's gains spread to the Dow Jones industrial average, whose tech components helped propel it to a 70-point advance.
"I think it's bargain hunters looking at valuations and trying to sift through the rubble to pick up some values," Mark Donahoe, trader at US Bancorp Piper Jaffray, told CNNfn's market coverage. Donohoe sees the gains continuing through Monday. (319K AIFF) (319K WAF).
 The day's advance came as a tough year on Wall Street approaches its final five weeks. The S&P 500, which comprises 75 percent of the market's value, would need to rise 128 points, or 8.7 percent, over the next five weeks just to break even on the year. This 12-month period is shaping up to be the market's worst since 1981.
One session after posting its lowest close in more than 13 months, the Nasdaq rose 148.83 points, or 5.4 percent, to 2,904.17, breaking a five-session losing streak.
The Dow gained 70.91 to 10,470.23 and the S&P 500 climbed 19.40 to 1,341.76.
Despite the gains, all three indexes finished lower on the week. The Dow shed 1.5 percent, the Nasdaq lost 4 percent and the S&P 500 declined 2 percent.
 More stocks rose than fell amid light trading volume. Advancing issues on the New York Stock Exchange beat declining ones 1,794 to 798 on volume of 402 million shares. Nasdaq winners beat losers 2,469 to 1,061. More than 804 million shares changed hands in the Nasdaq stock market's second-slowest day of 2000.
In other markets, Treasury securities fell. The dollar gained against the yen but fell versus the euro.
A bottom for Nasdaq?
The Nasdaq has fallen 29 percent this year and is off 42 percent from its March high.
Those losses appeared reason enough to draw buyers to beaten-down tech stocks.
Yahoo! (YHOO: Research, Estimates), which has fallen to levels not seen since 1998, rose $2.69 to $40.88. Dell Computer (DELL: Research, Estimates) gained $1.38 to $24.38 and Worldcom (WCOM: Research, Estimates) advanced $1.31 to $15.81.
 Technology stocks also led the Dow higher. Microsoft (MSFT: Research, Estimates) jumped $1.69 to $69.94 while Intel (INTC: Research, Estimates) advanced $2.75 to $43.94.
Stocks have fallen steadily since Labor Day as companies and the analysts who follow them have lowered profit forecasts. The U.S economy is still expanding, but at a less robust rate. Gross domestic product, which measures all the nation's goods and services produced grew at 2.7 percent pace over the summer, the slowest pace since the spring of last year.
Uncertainty over the presidential contest hasn't helped the markets; the Nasdaq has fallen 15 percent since Election Day.
In the latest development, the Florida Supreme Court refused to force Miami-Dade County to recount ballots, a setback for Vice President Al Gore, who could benefit from the Democrat-heavy area.
But aides for Gore said they will fight the decision. George W. Bush, the Texas governor, holds a slight lead in the battle for Florida's 25 electoral votes.
"I think there will be a relief rally when the election situation finally sorts itself out," Robin Marshall, chief economist at Chase Manhattan Bank, told CNNfn's Market Call.
Quaker sheds a suitor
Quaker Oats (OAT: Research, Estimates) fell $3.25 to $83.75 after the company lost another potential buyer. France's Danone Thursday ended talks about a possible bid for the maker of breakfast cereal and Gatorade sports drink, just days after Coca-Cola (KO: Research, Estimates) also bowed out of the bidding.
In other stocks in the news, Priceline.com (PCLN: Research, Estimates) managed a small gain even though the Internet auction company said Wednesday it will take an unspecified fourth-quarter charge. Priceline stock, which has fallen dramatically from its 52-week high of $104.25, rose 25 cents to $2.53.
Friday kicked off one of the busiest days of the holiday shopping season. Some of the nation's largest chain store operators, whose stocks have fallen amid a slowing economy, were mixed. Wal-Mart Stores (WMT: Research, Estimates) fell 69 cents to $45.19, Federated Department Stores (FD: Research, Estimates) rose 6 cents to $30.56 and Target (TGT: Research, Estimates) shed 69 cents to $28.44.
It was a better day for the better-known online retailers, who joined other tech stocks in rallying. Amazon.com (AMZN: Research, Estimates) gained $3.75 to $28.94, despite a 20-minute outage attributed to volume. eBay (EBAY: Research, Estimates), the auction site, rose $4.06 to $36.94, and eToys (ETYS: Research, Estimates) gained nearly 50 percent, up 59 cents to $1.81.
U.S. stock markets closed at 1 p.m. ET, a day after the Thanksgiving Day holiday. 
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