Another Big Day?

After a scintillating rally on Thursday that took the averages up significantly, shares are bracing for some slight selling pressure at the open Friday.

Overnight, June S&P 500 futures fell 2.10 points, or 0.2 percent, and were trading roughly 6.50 points below fair value, according to HL Camp & Co. Nasdaq futures lost 18.50 points, 1.2 percent.

The bulls stampeded on Wall Street Thursday, handing the Dow industrial average its second-biggest point gain ever and sending the Nasdaq up a smashing 8.9 percent.

It didn't take much to ignite the rally, reports CBS News Correspondent Anthony Mason. Investors pounced after Dell Computer and Alcoa gave Wall Street its first really good earnings news in months. Dell announced it would hit profit estimates, while Alcoa said it would surpass them.

A.G. Edwards' Al Goldman says the market was oversold and ready to rally. "I don't think it was the external news that did it. It was a mood shift."

The Dow rose 402.63, or 4.2 percent, to close at 9,918.05.

The index's run-up was its second-largest daily point gain, after the 499.19 it rose on March 16, 2000. Despite the big advance, the Dow has gained less than 40 points this week, having plunged 392 over Monday and Tuesday.

The Nasdaq composite index also soared, rising 146.20, or 8.9 percent, to 1,785.00, posting its third-largest daily percentage gain.

But Seaport Securities' Ted Weisberg is still cautious. "I just don't think anything has changed out there that would indicate, at least for the time being, that we're really out of the woods yet," he says.

Dell's news helped other tech issues move higher. Dow stock Intel, which announced last month it was cutting prices on some of its chips to reduce inventory, rose $3 to $25.63. Intel supplies Dell with chips.

Yahoo! climbed $2.75, a 22 percent increase, to $15.25 after its stock was upgraded by Lehman Brothers.

Dell, the nation's top producer of desktop and laptop computers, surged $3 to $25.19.

Alcoa rose $1.95 to $37.50. Other Old Economy stocks advanced, including Dow stock 3M, up $4.61 at $103.23.

Meanwhile, Federal Express, down 63 cents at $38.97, had some sobering news, saying it is lowering its fourth-quarter earnings estimates. FedEx offered no specific figures.

Many blue chip and tech stocks, however, appeared poised to make a strong advance Friday. IBM, for example, rose $1.69 in extended-hours trading, building on the $6.21 climb to $98.21 it made in the regular session. Philip Morris was up 48 cents in after-hours dealings after advancing 61 cents to close Thursday at $46.23.

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