Techs lead comeback

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Technology shares rallied Monday, lifting the broader market at the end of a choppy session in which ongoing worries about the economy vied with some upbeat earnings and lower oil prices.

The Dow Jones industrial average (Charts) added 0.3 percent and the S&P 500 (Charts) index gained 0.4 percent, ending higher after having swayed on both sides of break-even throughout the session. The Nasdaq composite (Charts) gained 1 percent.

Stocks got pummeled last week on a mix of credit market fears and record oil prices. After that sell-off, investors made tentative steps back into stocks Monday, although the day's trading was very choppy.

Treasury prices eased a bit, raising the corresponding yields. Oil and gold prices slipped.

After the close, Apple (Charts, Fortune 500) reported sales and earnings that rose from a year ago and beat estimates.

American Express (Charts, Fortune 500) also reported sales and earnings that topped estimates.

Netflix (Charts) reported higher quarterly earnings after the close, as did Texas Instruments (Charts, Fortune 500).

AT&T (Charts, Fortune 500), DuPont (Charts, Fortune 500) and UPS (Charts, Fortune 500) are among the companies due to report results Tuesday.

The Dow lost 367 points Friday - the 20th anniversary of the Black Monday crash - at the end of a rough week on Wall Street in which record-high oil prices, more problems in the bank sector and slower corporate earnings growth revived worries about an economic slowdown.

These concerns continued to weigh on U.S. stocks through the morning Monday - and also dragged on global markets, with Asian and European markets falling.

But the declines were modest and the market turned higher in the afternoon, with big tech stocks such as Yahoo! (Charts, Fortune 500) and Microsoft (Charts, Fortune 500) leading the charge.

After a "disturbing week," investors likely came back to work this week expecting the worst, said Ted Weisberg, NYSE floor trader at Seaport Securities.

When Wall Streeters didn't get any terrible news, and in fact got some decent earnings, and a retreat in commodity prices, that helped stocks bounce back a little, he said.

In the short term, stocks could be primed to continue to bounce, especially if the earnings news is positive, he said.

Earlier Monday, Dow component Merck (Charts, Fortune 500) reported higher quarterly earnings and boosted its 2007 earnings outlook. Merck gained 2.9 percent.

Royal Caribbean (Charts) reported higher sales and earnings that rose from a year ago.

SanDisk (Charts), a maker of flash memory cards, announced a new product that will allow people to move files from their computers to their television, a direct challenge to Apple. (Full story)

Although Merck offered some upbeat earnings, other earnings news has been mixed. Schering-Plough (Charts, Fortune 500) said Monday that earnings and revenue rose from a year ago, but missed estimates. Shares slumped 13 percent.

With 27 percent of the S&P 500 earnings out, third-quarter growth is currently on track to have fallen 0.3 percent from a year ago, according to the latest Thomson Financial figures.

Among other movers, Dow component Exxon Mobil (Charts, Fortune 500) led the list of oil services firms falling along with the price of oil.

Investors were also digesting comments from Friday's G7 meeting of the world's leading economic powers. The ministers predicted slowing global growth and also said that they would do what they could to limit the damage from the credit crisis.

Treasury prices fell, raising the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 4.40 percent from 4.39 percent late Friday. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.

In currency trading, the dollar gained versus the euro and fell against the yen.

On Friday, while stocks and the dollar fell, oil and gold prices rallied as investors sought safety for their investments. On Monday, investors bailed out those areas of the market.

Oil prices retreated $1.04 to settle at $87.56 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Friday, oil briefly hit an all-time high of $90.07 a barrel in electronic trading.

COMEX gold for December delivery fell $8.40 to settle at $760 an ounce.