Stocks Go Up As Oil Prices Head Lower

The major indexes rallied Tuesday, thanks in large part to news of a drop in the price of crude oil. That's good news for consumers, and tech sectors enjoyed the benefits.

Traders got a boost from the price of July oil futures, which fell 58 cents to close at $41.14 a barrel in Nymex trading.

They were also cheered by a report from the Conference Board, which said its Consumer Confidence Index for May edged up to 93.2 from a revised 93.0 reading in April. And in a separate report, the National Association of Realtors said sales of existing homes were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.64 million last month, a 2.5% increase over the previous month.

Cisco Systems rose 58 cents, or 2.7%, to $22.24; Motorola rose 2.2%, or 42 cents, to $19.92; Nortel Networks rose $1.44, or 5 cents, to $3.53; Microsoft rose 1.3%, or 34 cents, to $26.10; Siebel Systems rose 0.9%, or 9 cents, to $9.97; and Nextel rose 0.9%, or 19 cents, to $22.40. The Nasdaq-100 tracking stock rose 1.99%, or 70 cents, to $35.96, as 145.4 million shares changed hands.

For the day, the Nasdaq index rose 41.67 points, or 2.2%, to 1,964.65, and the InformationWeek 100 rose 2.1%, or 6.31 points, to 314.65. The Dow Jones industrials rose 1.6%, or 159.19 points, to 10,117.62, and the S&P 500 rose 1.6%, or 17.67 points, to 1,113.08.