TECH STOCKS: Here's Some Get-Up-And-Go

It was one of those off-to-the-races days for investors. Our indexes opened high and high-tailed it all the way to the finish. There still are those saying tech shares are overpriced and that we could be building a new bubble, but those views weren't troubling Monday's buyers too much. The question is, were the bulls buying based on strong third-quarter economic news or were they betting that business spending will continue to grow consistently? (Hint: No one knows the answer.)

Shares of technology companies were hot Monday. The Nasdaq-100 tracking stock rose 1.7%, or 58 cents, to $35.76 on strong trading volume of 70 million shares. Top gainers among the InformationWeek 100 companies were diverse (despite many pundits' analysis that it was chips that drew buyers away from nontech stocks).

Here's how the indexes broke down: Our InformationWeek 100 index rose 2%, or 6.11 points, to close at 309.06, and the Nasdaq rose 1.8%, or 35.49 points, to 1,967.7. The S&P 500 rose eight-tenths of a percent, or 8.3 points, to 1,059.02; and the Dow rose 0.6% or 57.34 points, to close at 9,858.46.

The coming week is studded with economic news and reports that could really light some fires or send the bulls back to the paddock. Buckle up.