CHICAGO (CNN/Money) - Well, Cisco did it. After the bell Tuesday, Cisco announced profits that (shades of the old Cisco!) beat analyst estimates by two shiny pennies a share.

CEO John Chambers pronounced himself "very pleased" with what he called a "home run" quarter, touting a gross profit margin and cash flows that he said "exceeded our goals." (For more on all the numbers, click here.)

Investors seemed to agree, sending shares in the beleaguered networking stock up more than 20 percent on Wednesday morning -- to $15.75 a share. The Nasdaq surged 90 points, or nearly six percent.

Clearly, investors are seizing on Cisco's (CSCO: Research, Estimates) news as some kind of return to the good old days of tech.

Indeed, while I was listening to the company conference call on Tuesday I got two e-mails from the same guy who was beside himself with excitement: "Cisco come with great news and gave me hope, optimism, and reason to believe in technology sector...tomorrow, great day for the bulls, America and for the people who believe in Cisco. Thanks Cisco, thanks giving us optimism."

I've got to question if what's good for Cisco is good for America -- but I agree that Cisco's numbers are important, which is why I wish Chambers offered a little meat on his feel-good sandwich.

Instead, he gave very little else to get optimistic about, noting in his trademark soothing drawl that it's "too early to call a possible turnaround" in this "challenging capital expenditure period." Chambers said he expects revenue growth in the current quarter to be flat, "with a slight upward bias."

"When the economy does pick up," Chambers noted vaguely, "so will ... spending."

So will Cisco's results offer relief from the veritable bad news buffet that's plagued the Nasdaq of late. One can only hope.

The grinding downward slog of the Nasdaq index -- now within 150 points of its September lows -- has been unsettling enough. Even worse, for the faint of heart or stomach, have been all those sudden tech stock plunges.

On Monday, Peregrine Software (PRGN: Research, Estimates) plunged a stunning 65 percent after the company acknowledged that auditor KPMG was looking into what it called "revenue recognition irregularities totaling as much as $100 million."

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Tuesday, business software maker Manugistics (MANU: Research, Estimates) fell more than 30 percent after analysts raised concerns about a possible sales shortfall. Meanwhile, communications chipmaker Broadcom (BRCM: Research, Estimates), meanwhile, dropped more than 17 percent on news that Motorola, a big customer, would be turning to Texas Instruments (TXN: Research, Estimates) to supply a big order of cable-modem chips.

Even tech blue chips have seen their share prices taken down on the merest whiff of news. Tech bellwethers Oracle (ORCL: Research, Estimates) and Sun Microsystems (SUNW: Research, Estimates) have been pounded in recent days as executives at both firms head for the door; both stocks have plunged more than 50 percent from their highs earlier this year.

And IBM (IBM: Research, Estimates), already beaten down by worries about slowing growth and creative accounting, dropped another 7 percent on Monday after an IBM gadfly leaked news of a less-than-encouraging speech by new CEO Sam Palmisano. (For a depressing list of the most recent big losers, take a look here.)

With many tech stocks still looking expensive by most measures -- heck, even after its 17 percent haircut Tuesday, Broadcom trades for a staggering 9 times sales -- it's hard to argue that Chambers' cheerful talk means much of anything to a tech sector that's lately been delivering almost nothing but bad news.

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