Dow Breaks 10,000, Channel Stocks Surge

Wall Street finally broke the 10,000 milestone Monday, and the bull market breathed life into several slumping channel stocks along the way.

The Dow soared 185 points to 10,006, surviving a late afternoon scare to ride into the history books, while The Nasdaq climbed 3 percent to 2,492, a 73-point jump.

Tech Data Corp. led a surge in distributor stocks, vaulting $2.63 to $19.13, surging 16 percent the day before its scheduled fourth-quarter earnings conference call. Shares of Ingram Micro Inc. climbed $1.19 to $19.50 after revealing plans to provide logistics, assembly and services for Compaq Computer Corp.'s PartnerDirect Program. The computer vendor's shares climbed 31 cents to $31.50.

Among other distributors, CHS Electronics Inc. continued to decline, losing 25 cents to $3.06; MicroAge Inc. dropped 19 cents to $5.31; and Bell Microproducts Inc. rose 13 cents to $6.

Several VARs also broke out of a yearlong depression Monday. En Pointe Technologies Inc. was up $1.63 to $7.94, a 26 percent climb; Cambridge Technology Partners Inc. rose $1.25 to $12.19; and Inacom Corp. climbed 63 cents to $7.81.

CompuCom Systems Inc. slipped 6 cents to $3.69 and Pomeroy Computer Resources Inc. declined 19 cents to $12.94.

Overall, it was a big Monday for tech stocks. Shares of Platinum Technology International Inc. skyrocketed $14.19 to $24.06, a 144 percent increase, after Computer Associates International Inc. (CA) agreed to acquire the software company in a deal valued at $3.5 billion. CA's shares bolted $3.06 to $37.

Sun Microsystems Inc. soared $8 to $124.50, Intel Corp. climbed $4.75 to $121.44 and Microsoft Corp. was up $3.06 to $92.13.

Internet stocks also surged, as Amazon.com Inc. increased $10.56 to $149.63 and pcOrder.com Inc. jumped $4.63 to $60.88.++