NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The stocks of Internet commerce companies were in focus on Wall Street Wednesday, moving broadly higher as traders returning from the Christmas holiday were greeted by some upbeat news about that market segment.
The Dow Jones Internet commerce index rose 2.04 points, or 4.1 percent, to 52.45, outpacing the broader technology sector. The Nasdaq composite index, which is weighted heavily with technology names, finished 16.22 points higher at 1,960.70, a gain of just under 1 percent.
Volume was light. Roughly 1.1 billion shares changed hands on the Nasdaq, making for one of the lightest trading days of the year.
Shares of Amazon.com (AMZN: up $1.27 to $11.10, Research, Estimates), the nation's leading online retailer, were among the most active, rising more than 12 percent.
The company, which sells everything from books to PCs, has promised to deliver an operating profit for the quarter ending this month, and its stock was lifted in part by positive chatter on the Street about the company and the Internet retailing industry.
US Bancorp Piper Jaffray on Wednesday told its clients that the number of units purchased through Amazon's site this holiday season shows "continued strength," with a "surprise increase" in the pricing of electronics.
The firm reiterated its "outperform" rating on Amazon's shares Wednesday, saying it expects strong unit sales to more than offset the lower overall average prices and help Amazon with top-line growth.
Despite Amazon's promise to deliver an operating profit for the fourth quarter, analysts generally are expecting the company to report a loss of 7 cents per share on about $1 billion in revenue, according to a survey conducted by earnings tracker First Call.
By USB Piper Jaffray's count, Amazon is likely to log a loss of 4 cents per share on $1 billion in sales, estimates the firm reaffirmed on Wednesday.
Goldman Sachs also chimed in with an upbeat post-holiday comment about the e-commerce segment.
The firm told its clients there was a "healthy seasonal uptick" in traffic to e-commerce sites in November, pointing out noteworthy increases at sites including Amazon, eBay (EBAY: up $2.53 to $66.34, Research, Estimates), and 1-800-FLOWERS (FLWS: up $0.49 to $15.39, Research, Estimates).
Goldman also highlighted strong seasonal increases in traffic at online travel service providers Expedia (EXPE: up $1.34 to $39.55, Research, Estimates) and Priceline (PCLN: up $0.17 to $5.43, Research, Estimates).
Shares of Yahoo! (YHOO: up $0.84 to $17.51, Research, Estimates) also spiked after the company made some upbeat comments about its e-commerce business, which is a relatively new area for the leading Internet portal.
Citing deep discounts on items from brand-name retailers who sell products through Yahoo!'s various shopping channels, the company on Wednesday reported an 86 percent rise in online holiday sales this year, compared with last year.
Yahoo! does not actually sell merchandise but collects a small fee for each item sold through its site. The company said the five most popular product categories this holiday season were video-game consoles, digital cameras, laptop computers, toys and apparel.
Elsewhere in the tech sector Wednesday, shares of computer memory chipmaker Micron Technology (MU: up $0.68 to $30.40, Research, Estimates) were in focus on the New York Stock Exchange after it said it expects to enter into a strategic alliance with Hynix Semiconductor, a rival memory chipmaker based in South Korea.
Analysts said the deal, which could help Hynix survive a record slump in memory-chip prices, might involve Micron taking over management control at Hynix or simply acquiring some of its assets, such as its manufacturing plant in Eugene, Ore.
Earlier this month, Micron, which is based in Boise, Idaho, agreed to purchase a U.S. manufacturing plant from Japan's Toshiba, which has decided to exit the computer memory-chip business. Over the past year that industry has been hard hit by a sharp decline in prices.
Observers have pointed out that such consolidation in the industry would enable Micron to reduce the output of chips into the marketplace and ease some of that pricing pressure.
The stocks of most other chipmakers moved higher as well, including: Intel (INTC: up $0.27 to $32.29, Research, Estimates), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD: up $0.06 to $15.62, Research, Estimates); Texas Instruments (TXN: up $0.22 to $28.05, Research, Estimates); LSI Logic (LSI: up $0.24 to $15.51, Research, Estimates); and National Semiconductor (NSM: up $0.60 to $30.35, Research, Estimates).
The Philadelphia Stock Exchange's semiconductor index rose 5.56 points to 520.68, a 1.1 percent gain on the day.
Elsewhere, shares of Sun Microsystems (SUNW: up $0.31 to $12.22, Research, Estimates), a top supplier of Unix servers, rose after A.G. Edwards upgraded its rating on them to "strong buy" from "buy."
Most other computer hardware stocks finished higher as well.
PC makers Dell Computer (DELL: up $0.18 to $27.95, Research, Estimates), Hewlett-Packard (HWP: up $0.13 to $20.90, Research, Estimates), Compaq (CPQ: up $0.11 to $9.78, Research, Estimates) and Gateway (GTW: up $0.17 to $7.54, Research, Estimates) all ended in the plus column.
Shares of IBM (IBM: up $0.95 to $122.40, Research, Estimates), the world's largest supplier of computer hardware and information technology services, also finished higher. EMC (EMC: unchanged at $13.32, Research, Estimates), the top supplier of data-storage systems, had traded higher earlier in the session but ended unchanged.
The Goldman Sachs computer hardware index ended 2.26 points higher at 257.78. 
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