TECH STOCKS: A Mixed BagTECH STOCKS: A Mixed Bag

Blue chips were up moderately Wednesday after the Treasury's successful debt sale pushed bond yields down, cheering investors worried about higher interest rates. But tech issues declined on disappointing earnings from Cisco Systems.

Investors have been skittish about interest rates, which have been rising in the past month following remarks by Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan that many believe signaled a less-aggressive Fed stance toward keeping rates low. "That kind of a put a lid on how high the market could go," Paul McManus, senior VP and director of research at Independence Investment LLC, told The Associated Press. "The thing that would really help the stock market is if the Treasury bond rallied. If economic activity keeps inching up, that would also be a positive."

The Dow Jones industrials rose 25.42 points, or 0.3%, to 9,061.74, after falling 149.72 points the previous session. The broader markets were mixed. The Nasdaq-100 tracking stock fell 2 cents, or 0.1%, to $30.19, as more than 96.3 million shares changed hands. The Nasdaq composite index fell 20.82 points, or 1.2%, to 1,652.68. The information 100 fell 3.28 points, or 1.3%, to 246.07. But the Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 1.62 points, or 0.2%, to 967.08.

Cisco slid $1.21, to $17.65. After the bell on Tuesday, the networking equipment vendor reported a jump in quarterly earnings that met but did not beat analysts' expectations.